NOTE: There is a new page for Black-Only printing using an Epson R200.

Black-Only printing with the Epson 1280

First, I have to say thanks to all of those who have helped to get me to this point, especially Bob Michaels who was kind enough to send me sample prints of his work, along with his time and enthusiasm, and Nick Nugent, who has given freely of his time in my quest to make clog-free printing a reality.

There are a lot of smart and helpful folks at the Yahoo Digital Black and White Print group. If you are at all interested in digital B&W printing you need to be there.

You should also spend a lot of time at Clayton Jones' Black-Only printing page. He dives into the nitty gritty details of BO printing and is one of the pioneers. Clayton has done a lot of work and shows you how to configure your printer for output. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Clayton's page on the R200/R220 is here.

I've become a big fan of BO printing for several reasons:

I've participated in several B&W print exchanges via the Yahoo group. To my eyes the Black-Only prints look just as good as the prints made with multiple inks. Here is what one person wrote about an exchange:

"I am astounded at how BO printing has taken off (thanks to Clayton's proselytizing), and in Friedman's case, to such great effect. Other BO prints in this batch, Charles' twilight shot (great mood), Davajon's cactus (way over sharpened), and Jim's shot of the young couple all make mockery of the need for full spectrum grayscale inks, especially when viewed at normal distance. I am convinced that unless handled nose-to-paper, BO prints easily out-shine grayscale ink sets in their vibrancy. Jim's print is one of my favorites."

You have to go into inkjet printing knowing that your prints are going to look different than those produced in a traditional darkroom. DT inkjet printing is just a different animal.

When I started DT printing with my 1280 I had no idea how any of this technology worked, aside from the basic premise. I soon learned that the cartridges have a sponge in them that hold the ink in suspension and allow just enough to reach the print head where it can be sprayed onto the paper. The problem with the sponge is that eventually foam can build up in the sponge blocking the flow of ink. That leads to clogging and missing nozzles.

MIS Associates have finally come out with spongeless cartridges that promise to make sponge-related clogs a thing of the past.

Clog from Hell

Eventually my 1280 got to the point where I was battling clogs constantly. Like most Black-Only printers I am not using Epson dye ink, but rather a carbon pigment ink from MIS call Eboni. I tried a few hacks to my old continuous feed cartridge and had middling success. I put off the task of trying to rid my old cartidge of foam and by chance ran across the new spongeless carts from MIS. I had previously tried the spongeless dampers from InkRepublic but could not get them to work.

When I got a clog with the MIS cart I could put back in an Epson original dye cart and get perfect nozzle checks every time.

When the new cart arrived from MIS I installed it and could not get good nozzle checks with it either. I was really puzzled as I assumed the problem was with the sponge in the old cart. I tried cleaning my printer with Windex, Klean-Strip paint brush cleaner and ammonia. Nothing worked. The pigment ink would clog but a dye cart would be perfect. I took one of the Ink Republic dampers and filled it with Windex, Ammonia and later Klean-Strip, making it into a CFS with each of this chemicals (I did not combine them). I would then print black purge images until I got completely blank pages. Then I would try the new spongeless MIS cart and STILL be unable to get good nozzle checks. By this time I was ready to throw in the towel. After all, a new 1280 was under $300 shipped. How many hours had I wasted so far? Too many. I know, it was a rhetorical question...

After a call to MIS I bought a bottle of their cleaning fluid as part of the direct inject cleaning kit. Scroll about 1/2 way down that page to see it. You can order it directly here. Whatever is in this magic fluid brought my printer back from the abyss.

With the MIS cleaning fluid I took my time and did it over a few days. I would soak the dump sponge with the fluid and also direct inject the fluid into the print post. I did this several times a day for a few days. I was not trying to force the fluid through the post with the tube attached. Rather, I was trying to inject it as slowly as possible, thinking that I could ruin the print head with too much force of fluid.

After three days of this I finally was getting pretty decent nozzle checks, but eventually I would got dropped nozzles. But I was making progress. Another call to MIS and I found out that if I was getting random missing nozzles it might be air bubbles bouncing around. I re-read the directions with the direct injection kit and noticed it said to "slowly and forcefully inject about 2 cc of solution into the print head." So I did. No more wussing around. Make certain that there are no air bubbles in the tube of the cleaning kit.

After doing this I tried another cleaning technique I picked up from Paul Roark in a post to the Yahoo group. I like to think of it as flossing my printer. Here is what Paul wrote:

"What I've occasionally had is a black line that is caused by "junk" (dried pigs, I assume) on the head deflecting one or more jets off to the side. I have always been able to cure this by cleaning the head with Windex that is on a folded paper towel or, best, a 1/2 inch strip of bias tape (available in the sewing sections of many stores, including Wal-Mart). (I'm looking at a package of Wrights Single Fold 1/2" bias tape.) Before I had the bias tape, I'd cut and fold a paper towel to about 1/2 inch.

I soak the tape with Windex, turn off the printer, release the head by rotating the white gear at the left toward me, raise the head (for thick paper), lay the soaked tape in the channel over which the head travels, move the head over the tape, lower the head, grab ends of the tape, and pull it back and forth across the head. Then, of course, put the head back in its place the move the gear back to lock the head.

This should knock and pigment build-up off the surface of the head."

That did the trick for me. I was now getting perfect nozzle checks.

I found out that the MIS base stock/flushing fluid is the same item as the cleaning fluid, only the cleaning fluid is more diluted. To make the cleaning fluid mix the base stock 50/50 with distilled water. I now run the base stock in my T009 spongeless color cart full time since I don't print color on this printer. I'm hoping that the base stock helps to keep the printer clean as it will dump the fluid on the waste pad when the printer runs cleaning cycles. Bob Zeiss at MIS gave this idea a thumbs up and thought it was a good idea. Don't run the base stock diluted in the cart because it's too thin and may leak out of your cartridge.

So far things look really promising with the new spongeless cart. Take a look here for more detailed information about them.

While I'm surprised I didn't destroy my printer along the way, it must be more robust than I would have thought. Having said that, doing any crazy stunts like I did on my 1280 is at your own risk.

Here's what I would order/pick up for your BO printing:

I can't believe that MIS is only selling carts for $4 and $6 each. At that price pick up a spare or two.

Battle of the Epsons: 1280 versus 2200

Clayton Jones and I did a test where I sent him prints and TIFF scans of images from my printer and scanner. We both printed them at 2880 DPI -- he on his Epson 2200 and I on my 1280. I could not see any difference between these two printers. I also could not see any difference between prints made at 1440 DPI or 2880 DPI from these images. Don't waste your time printing at 2880 over 1440. It's not worth it. If you don't care about printing color I can't see any reason to get a 2200 over a 1280. Clayton thought he could see a small difference under a loupe. But to my eye the prints were identical. Clayton also said that he believes not all printers are created equal. He didn't have much faith in the 1280's based on some prints from another photographer. The prints from my 1280 changed his mind.

More on the Ink Republic damper system

I would not try and steer anyone away from the Ink Republic system. I think its failure on my printer was due to the "Clog from Hell" since even the MIS spongeless cart failed the first time I used it. Once I had the MIS spongeless cart working on my 1280 I didn't have time, energy or curiousity to see if the IR damper would work. Ink Republic was great to deal with so I have no hesitation in recommending them. I did receive this email from someone who read this report:

"Jim, thanks for emailing me back. Well, my first experience did not go so well with the IR system, but it turned out to be a bad damper and today I got the new dampers and installed and everything is working great. I'm using a pigment ink with the 1280. I just rebuilt three 1280's for a business and on one of them I installed the MIS spongeless cartridges and dedicate that machine to putting on a clear topcoat finish. It works great. You would think it would get plugged but so far so good. I'm going to be putting MIS UT2 set on another one with the IR system and the third machine is for dye sub. Really, you couldn't ask for two nicer companies to deal with between MIS and IR. Thanks again for your input and happy printing."

If you have any questions or comments you can email me.

If for some reason you want to see the old 1280 page when I was still using the sponge carts, click here. Good luck and happy printing.

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