I had to share with you all my excitement that this evening, after precisely 1 month of trying, and a mere 77.9ml of ink later, my Epson 4880 finally produced a perfect nozzle check pattern once again.
I can recommend rubbing alcohol, Simple Green and plenty of patience!
These suckers sure do produce awesome prints, but sure can be a hassle. (I own the 7880.)
Posted by Russ Shugart on March 6, 2012 at 11:29 PM
Stephen, I'm currenly going through a 2 out of 3 falls, loser leaves town cage match with my 4880. Can you share any advice? I'd love to hear your rubbing alcohol and Simple Green technique.
That certainly helped, but didn't do the trick all by itself. I also tried 70% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol + distilled water) in the capping station overnight (a few times) per a tip late on in this thread: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/heat-press-heat-transfers/t60918-4.html (although it could be that the ink used in the sublimation process is more soluble in isopropanol than standard Epson inks - not sure on that, just seemed worth a shot given where things were at).
One tip, which appears to be true from my experience so far, is to avoid allowing the printer to do repeated head cleaning cycles (as it will if needed with the AUTO NZL CHK option that sometimes appears at power on, and also via the printer utility). One is OK, but beyond that, it appears to make things worse rather than better.
My basic routine was, if it doesn't print a perfect test pattern, do one head cleaning. If it's still not working, then try a capping station clean (once a week tops), or some rubbing alcohol on the capping station pad, then leave it overnight (or longer).
Disclaimer: ask me in a month or two if my printer is still working before trying this at home!
Hope that helps...
Stephen
Posted by Russ Shugart on March 7, 2012 at 10:38 PM
Stephen, thanks so much for the info. I took my 4880 to the Epson warranty center because I didn't know what to try after repeated cleanings using a bunch of ink. I'm supposed to pick it up this weekend. If the service didn't fix it I have something else to try now. Thanks!!!
Discussion
4 repliesI can recommend rubbing alcohol, Simple Green and plenty of patience!
Russ
http://www.AlpineGalleria.com
I cleaned the capping station and flushing box per the instructions in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNlYR1SKONI.
That certainly helped, but didn't do the trick all by itself. I also tried 70% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol + distilled water) in the capping station overnight (a few times) per a tip late on in this thread: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/heat-press-heat-transfers/t60918-4.html (although it could be that the ink used in the sublimation process is more soluble in isopropanol than standard Epson inks - not sure on that, just seemed worth a shot given where things were at).
One tip, which appears to be true from my experience so far, is to avoid allowing the printer to do repeated head cleaning cycles (as it will if needed with the AUTO NZL CHK option that sometimes appears at power on, and also via the printer utility). One is OK, but beyond that, it appears to make things worse rather than better.
My basic routine was, if it doesn't print a perfect test pattern, do one head cleaning. If it's still not working, then try a capping station clean (once a week tops), or some rubbing alcohol on the capping station pad, then leave it overnight (or longer).
Disclaimer: ask me in a month or two if my printer is still working before trying this at home!
Hope that helps...
Stephen
Russ
http://www.Alpinegalleria.com