How to get a free large format printer for Piezography

Open Discussion
1

Piezography requires a printer model that is in very good condition with one exception. And this exception is a stellar exception. Piezography does NOT require that all of the ink channels in a printer are working. And today it’s easier than ever to find free printers with one missing ink channel!

Epson 4900, 7900 and 9900 printers are notorious for operating poorly on Epson inks. The internet is filled with horror stories and even a video explaining how to repair one by destroying it with a sledge hammer!

When these printers develop one single missing color channel, they are often turned off and shoved into a corner. It is not worth their value to repair, and in many communities the owner will find it impossible to discard it. The thing is, these printers perform really well with Piezography inks. They alway have. The 4900, 7900 and 9900 printers have 11 inks and 10 ink channels. Our Community Edition Piezography manual explains how to map out bad ink channels, and you can purchase Piezography ink systems for printers like these.

  • With only 6 working channels you can use these for a PiezoDN system or Piezography K6.
  • With only 7 working channels you can use these to print either matte only K7, or K6 glossy & piezoDN digital negative.
  • With as few as 8 working channels we can provide a matte/glossy print and digital negative K7 system, or a matte only or glossy only Piezography Pro system.
  • With 9 working channels we can provide a Piezography Pro system.

It has been our experience (because we have received several free printers) that the previous owner was happy to have it hauled away for free.

Finally - I want to mention that although the printers we received for free were missing one or two channels we were able to recover the missing channels with PIEZOFLUSH! A newly discarded printer less than three months out of operation is best. Shy away from one left to sit with inks drying out.

2
3

I’ll let you know in a few days if I have a piezographable 7880.

4

But please keep in mind with the 7900/9900, if you lost one channel it usually spreads to the other positions as the head fails. Its a warning to heed.

5

I agree with you Mark about channel failure spreading - but that is usually when you continue to print with a dead channel or one in which air is present. If you can get the printer cadaver into PiezoFlush quickly its head can have a long life ahead of it with Piezography inks. If a paired channel ends up dying from the problem caused by its adjacent - there are still 8 or 9 inks remaining (depending upon if the black channel was affected.) Can do a lot with 9 inks.

Yesterday, we picked up a free P7000 with one clogged channel which we plan to use for development. 18 months old and it croaked on OEM inks. It uses the 9900 print head - and there will be lots of P7000s and P9000s out there soon with one permanently clogged channel. So, we hope to find a breakthrough in countering Epson’s internal hardware lock that prevents use of non-Epson carts in these SureColors. Crazy that they didn’t put a new head in this model - instead opting for auto purge cycles with the old head. Probably, the safest thing to do with a P series is run the purges at the most frequent intervals. Epson designed it that way - and its risky to put too much time between them or turn them off. Don’t let me say “I told you so!” if you dialed yours back!!! :wink:

6

I have a 7600 with a clogged magenta line. Will this work with Peizography K6 inks?

7

Theoretically yes, but

We don’t have K6 profiles built out for the 7600 but I can look at the underlying curve structure of the K7s and see if a limiting/modification of existing K6s would work. You would need to request a custom calibration or purchase the Piezography Professional Edition tool (if you have your own spectro). Matte only of course.

best,
Walker