Depending on the image, print resolution and paper you’re using, a single missing nozzle may not be noticeable in your print output, but being black it may be, and we always recommend having a perfect nozzle check for the best print quality. If it’s the exact same nozzle that’s missing, that means something is blocking that one nozzle. Each nozzle is maybe the diameter of a strand of hair, so can be blocked from above or can also get a piece of dust or paper fiber from the underside.
There’s a few things you can do (I will list all possible solutions, including things you may have already done): 1. Clean the capping station, wiper blade and bottom of the print head with PiezoFlush by following our instructions, 2. Do a few regular cleaning cycles, or a Power Clean cycle, 3. Print pure black ink using the QTR Calibration Mode (instructions for doing this can be found in the Articles> Product Manuals and Instructions section of this forum), 4. Install a cart filled with PiezoFlush into the black channel and printing thru QTR calibration Mode to purge ink and fill the line with PiezoFlush, until the black position prints pink on the nozzle check, then let PiezoFlush sit in the printer for like 24 hours) to have time to work it’s magic, do another cleaning cycle or two, and print a nozzle check to see if the nozzle is printing. 4. Not something we support or provide instructions for doing, but I would personally do to our own printer, and some technically skilled customers could do: disconnect the dampers from the print head and use our print head cleaning kit to flush out the print head channel.
Well golly Dana I’d repeated steps 1 & 2 above several times to no effect. Had mulled over whether to tackle 3, 4, and maybe 5 (you repeated “4” above) so I guess my hunches aren’t so far out of line. I need a break – have printed a LOT, regardless – so will jump to the PiezoFlush cart and QTR Calibration mode tonight and print in palladium tomorrow while the printer stews. This is all helpful, thank you.
I started out with a large order of Cone Studio 3 (mangling the name here) which is lovely, especially for color and for some of my Piezo grayscale work. But I really like the Canson Photographique Rag Duo which you suggested. The 17 x 22 sheets just arrived and there is in a series I’m printing now – branding, lots of dirt and dust in these scenes, also bright sun – there is a brilliance that the Canson seems to bring up very well.
It hurts not a bit that it feeds nicely where the heavier papers call for handwork to start nearly every sheet.
Woops, apparently I didn’t re-read what I speed-typed before posting
Yes, we LOVE Canson papers, especially the Rag Photographique- I am glad to hear you like it as well!
Have you cleaned the rear paper feeder in the printer? Printers can have a hard time feeding heavyweight papers on their own, so need a little help to take the sheet in right. What I do is 1. always keep the printer clean, including the paper feed track and rubber feeder 1/2 circle, then 2. when I send a print job, stand at the printer and listen for the paper feed sound, at which time I gently push the sheet into the printer by gently holding onto the sides. This makes the sheet go in correctly, and avoids paper feeder marks that can happen when the printer tries and fails to load a sheet (the paper feeder spins out on the sheet, leaving a mark).
Keep me posted and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
I did run the Calibration print routine to clear PiezoFlush into the black ink position. After sitting 24 hours the missing segment was cured. Woo-hoo! So that sure helps build my faith in all of this.
Yes, I very much like both Canson papers – Rag Photographique and Baryta Photographique – for Piezo K7. I think I’m holding aside the Cone Studio for doing more color, and if you need testimony to having things work and well, here it is:
I have tried working with more than one printer but the mental overhead drives me nuts. When this 3880 arrived after Christmas I set it up to use the OEM color, of course. And enjoyed the results. Now that I can see how to switch cleanly to K7 and I hope back again, I think I see a way that will work for me to print for a time in one regime, then in the other.
It’s not a switch I’d want to make weekly let alone daily but I see how it is doable. Probably be looking at the Waste Ink Pad Chip Resetter too, although another way I look at it is that these elements are all just part of doing a good job, and of benefitting from some pretty amazing tech.
I’ve produced a pretty fair body of work here at Deep Springs. It’s time, sadly, to pack up, but first to mothball the printer (lots of PiezoFlush here) and sort through the prints to see what will go to the college for its collection and what I schlep back to Turin, maybe for an exhibition there at the Museo di Storia Naturale della Regione Piemonte.
I might add that I prefer the 220 gsm Canson. More portable!
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