Changing inksets....

[berserk]

....on 3880/P800.

Sometimes i change ink sets. Normally I use Cone inks however doing fine art prints for a museum that want replicas of painting (that is not so easy as it sounds) I feel that I should use OEM-inks.

Using the purging method in Epson adjustment program is brutal however works and plenty of inks (costs) are lost.

Do You think two or the head cleanings are enough and then printing two three A4 papers with YMCK-bars are enough to be sure that the second set of inks is just that ink?

Doing that sometimes the nozzle checks are not complete - so I let the printer rest and then printing more YMCK bars.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I would try to approximate the volume to be swapped out by some calculation, you have most likely some small amount of ink the dampers in the printhead carriage - 1 to 2 ml would be my guess, and you have the ink in the tubing, I don't know the inner diameter but assume something like 1mm across the length of the tubing which gets me to less than a ml for a length of 500 mm (but you should take the actual numbers) , and assume that you need 1 ml of ink for an A4 sheet fully covered, and use a safety multiplier for your calculations -e.g. 1.5 - 2x, and you know how much ink you have to print away. I further assume that you use dedicated cartridges for your inksets. And if you print that ink away it won't go into the waste ink reservoir.

 

[berserk]

OK - we do not really know. As I anyway shall put my 3880 to rest I'll fill a set of carts with conservation fluid and tint it a bit with magenta so I hopefully can read the nozzle checks. It might be interesting for others as well - so I will be back with the result.
As I think it's important to get that fluid through the capping station as well I will not print purging pages until I see a nozzle check that is starting to really fade.

 

[pharmacist]

My emperical way is to execute 2 normal cleaning cycles, wait 10 minutes, repeat procedure again (2X cleaning + 10 minutes waiting) and finally 1 cleaning. It works perfectly. After every 2 cleaning cycles I remove the paper towel in my waste ink tank folded into a ball and pushed into the central hole of the tank and replace it with a fresh paper towel ball.

Same procedure for similar ciss like printer as the R3000 and Pro 38xx.

This way not too much pressure is put on the print head and tubing system and the ink is completely replaced with the new ink. I did this in the past several times to test new ink types.

 

[berserk]

Interesting this.... Ich brauche Octupus konsavierungslösung...strong smell of isoprophanol. (Sorry @pharmacist I want to use it up and continue with your excellent mixtures.)

Two cleaning cycles showed nothing changing - third started to fade a bit. Then waited an hour and made a cleaning cycle again. The nozzle check was "stronger" than the last one.(!)

I think that fluid is slowly loosen up ink layers inside the tube walls and loosen up old ink in the dampers. Then printed 7 pages of YMCK purge pattern and it seems as they fade very very slowly. Lesson learnt - let the cleaning fluid work during the night to loosen up all ink residues before continue with cleaning cycles.
This is cleaning the printer heavily and polishing printers inside!

If I just want change to another brand of ink set with compatible tone scale I think its enough with three cleaning cycles. Other inks do not act as this cleaning and conserving fluid.

For sure - the 3880 is now loaded with that "strong" fluid and will continue loosen up all old inks. I let it work by itself until tomorrow and then I'm sure it's totally clean after two cleaning cycles and some purging pages.

 

[berserk]

@pharmacist. Comment on your say above.

I totally agree! However this turned over to be as described above to totally clean the printer from all old ink residues and old "shit" sitting there!
It's telling me that even if Your printer works - it's full of "ink shit" if it have been used over a longer time. I think if You are doing this once a year You will never have problems not even with the ink switch mechanics, dampers and print head will be as new.

And thank you @pharmacist - we agree when it comes to change ink sets.
Using adj. program initial ink priming is I think 25 ml of ink - each cart.
Using that here - old ink residue would still be there. It needs to be chemically solved!

He he ....inkjet plumbing!

And hey - as my P800 is chip-less I can throw those cleaning carts in there when going to vacation for more than a month. Coming back and priming the ink carts in a totally clean Printer. No worries and when away the P800 is laundered.

 

[pharmacist]

Trust me: the method I mentioned will over time clean all tiny amont of the old ink from the tubing and print head. Meanwhile after this cleaning method 99% of the ink reaching the print head and being pushed on the paper will be new ink and is much safer and much less stressful for your printhead than using the adj program.

Don't think too complicated: over time the tiny amount of old ink residue will be washed out from the tubing system, but the result after the 5x cleaning method will be 99% of the new ink, which is practically indistiguishable to 100% new ink, considering the refill ink is made to approximate the same colour and hue of the original colour.

 

[berserk]

Yes and no!

I talked to a hospital technician (M.Sc. Tech. Phys) that they regularly change rubber/plastic (as ours) tubing as they are "semi permeable". That is very slowly air penetrates and solutions in tubes goes outwards making tube walls getting plagued(?) with "dirt" or residues from the solution in the lines.

I'm doing some of his printing and he is a matter of fact my son - who I started teach photography. He is now far ahead of my skills. Just now having an exhibition on Svalbard museum. You may also look at http://www.wrangborg.se
And that is only his landscape photography. To be remembered he is an amateur photographer. As such he has the "eye". Profession he managing northern half of Norway and Svalbard taking care of MRI etc on their hospitals. Also working as programmer for MRI equipment etc for the manufacturers mostly Siemens.
Now, if I can taking it in, he is teaching me....
Most of his exhibition works goes to professional labs. I'm very impressed of their works putting perfect pics on metallic papers etc that shines. Wow!

However - I might overthink much here - but the "shit" coming out of my printer, mostly dissolved by isoprophanol and cleaning agents etc, tells me that it was not at all clean inside!

Clean enough though for changing ink sets!
And I'll stick to the method we agree on when changing ink sets.
The residues will then not mix with the new ink set.

What I'm getting out is done by solvents/cleaner and not by the ink carrier which I think has the same viscosity and PH etc as the ink I'm is replacing. Then also - Cone says that their ink is in color compatible to the OEM. So You are right - the method above should give 99% new inks. That's good.

 

[berserk]

@pharmacist - According to this the pigment/dye carrier in Epson inks are "just" 10% Diethylene glycol (DEG) and the rest de ionized filtered water. He also mention that glycol under a brand name, D49-1

Listened to this Jose R 5.20 minutes in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ-m-I5zSSE

Expensive as for an ordinary costumer.
You know where to get it cheaper?

Is not that what we want when putting our printers on vacation for a longer time.
Inks without dyes and pigments.

You are the specialist!

EDIT:
After further investigations the above is not fully true - just partly.
Here You can see the contents - telling it themselves in the "Safety Data Sheet in EU" for their K3 inks.
https://neon.epson-europe.com/files/assets/source/c/5/r/0/c13t059740_en_00.pdf

There are more chemicals in the ink!

END EDIT

 

[berserk]

OK - back to the 3880 and it's cleaning.
It ended up with the print head totally mucked and no fluid came of of it.
Print paper totally dry. After trying to load ink as @pharmacist described above nothing happened. The total clog was a fact. As described the Octopus thing totally dissolved old inks and the dampers (strong thing that...) and was obviously mucked toghther in the print head.

My thinking was that the very easily evaporating Octopus thing had been dried out the "spitting holes" under the print head. So I did "the towel under print head trick" and soaked it with that very aggressive agent and let it stay for three hours (now and then slightly moving the print head and adding a bit more fluid). Did that repeatedly and in between printed YMCK-purging prints and looked at the nozzle checks being better and better. 9 hours! To make a long story short - I did it! Perfect nozzle checks.

I presume, that damned Octopus thing is to put totally dried out print heads in! Nothing else!

However - just now I think I have the cleanest 3880 in this forum.
The muck in the waste tank is a proof of that.

Tomorrow I'll do an initial prime with @pharmasicts conserving agent, clean it and put it out in my storage. Why? I don't want to "nanny" two inkjets! One is enough for my nerves! (OK - selling it is another option..." If You have a problem - sell it and get some money".)