Lead and edge banding - will Piezo Flush save it?

Open Discussion
1

Please see the attached image. Printed on cheaper Canson 8.5x11 (cut-sheet) paper.

So I bought a 7890 off a guy for $100. He said the black channel was clogged, but hadn’t tried any fixes other than cleans/power cleans. I knew piezo inks were a thing, and I like getting my hands dirty - I decided to take on the project…

IF I can save this thing, I would love to use it as a full color printer. If not, though, as a wet-process photographer the ability to print my own negatives is very interesting.

Here is what I have done so far:

  • Put in new black ink so that I can do cleanings etc. (was out of Photo Black when I got it)
  • Did 3 normal cleanings
  • 1 Power clean
  • 1 SS clean.

As I progressed through these cleanings, all channels except black have gone perfect. Black improved greatly over the course of the cleanings but still has some clogs. I think there may be a couple deflecting nozzles as well, but given the pattern it is hard for me to say for sure.

Despite all of this, the print comes out as pictured below.

I’ve also done a bunch of googling, and tried adjustments regarding platen gaps, feed adjustments turning off high speed, etc. The only thing that seems to make a difference is decrease the feed adjustment setting. When I get down to -0.70, -0.50, -0.40, it does remove the banding, but the picture sharpness drops through the floor - not acceptable! My theory is that this adjustment is just “blurring” the lines so you don’t notice them - just causing the ink to be spread out differently.

What has me stumped is that the image looks great at the beginning and end of the picture, all the banding is in the middle. Could it be that there are enough nozzles working to print fine, but that the feed mechanism is messed up?

So here is my question - nozzle checks tell me there is a clog, but is this banding directly related to that clog, or is there something else happening? I am trying to mitigate expenditures while I work my way toward a “cheap printer”, and if a round of piezo flush isn’t going to address the issue, or if there is some other issue I should be addressing first, it would be great to know!

Essentially, should I jump straight to Piezo inks, or is there any hope that piezo flush will fix this printer?
Also worth noting that the print was done on cut-sheet paper, and I haven’t tried printing from a roll.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be given!

Banding

2

Can you upload a picture of the nozzle check(s)? This tells me a lot of info.

Most likely a slowly failing K channel (delimitation of head) but need to confirm w/ nozzle check image.

best,
Walker

3

Here is the most recent three I could find.

Very sorry about this shotty image - left my laptop charge cable at the office, so can’t scan anything at the moment. If this doesn’t work for you, I can send something better tomorrow.

Thanks for the speedy reply!Nozzel

4

Yes. This is a degraded and delaminating LK channel. This is not going to be able to be repaired sadly.

best regards,
Walker

7

Darn! So will this eventually kill the other channels as well? Do you think it would be worth while moving to piezo inks with this printer, or should I stop spending money on it - hah!

Second - if I were to go to Piezo - what inkset would I use? I seem to recall a form that asked what your good channels are so it could make a recommendation. Can’t find it now…

Thanks again!

8

I suggest K6 ink for this printer if you do want to go piezo. It requires only 6 channels for printing.

Piezo doesn’t burn heads like color ink but most likely the other channels in the channel pay of LK will go. I think this is actually the K channel.

best,
Walker

9

Sorry - one last question, ha!

Will K6 Be suitable for printing digital negatives as well?
I believe I’ve read/seen that Piezno DN is suitable for negatives and prints… should I be doing DN instead?

Thanks again, sorry again. Thanks for make a wicked cool product!

10

Yeah, PiezoDN only actually uses K6 (6 shades) so no worries there.

best,
Walker