Epson 1400/1430

[pennsylvaniakate]

For the last few years, I have been helping out friends with wedding and party invitations. I would like to start doing this on a bit bigger scale now that I am a stay-at-home mom with our new baby. I currently have a run of the mill HP inkjet printer. I have a problem with drying time and smearing when it comes to printing on smooth paper like shimmer paper or vellum. I'm getting a in a bit over my head with all my research. I have seen some things about dye inks versus pigment inks. Would pigment ink have a faster drying time and not smear like the ink from a typical inkjet? Some of the info I saw said you could convert the Epson 1400 to use pigment ink.

"If you want CISS, then the Epson 1400 is way better and will function much more reliable than a CISS with the Canon Pro 9000 cartridge and you can even convert to pigment ink to achieve archival prints. I made a printing video at youtube.com with my new Epson 1400 converted to pigment ink CISS and also important: with a external waste ink bottle to redirect the waste ink from the internals (which will stay clean much longer) to this particular waste ink bottle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKgp3lQ2Rcc

Please look at the comment about this CISS and usage. It might give you some clues, about some practival tips for using pigment inks using this printer.

Dye inks can be used in a CISS where the ink tubing is at the bottom of the external tanks without any problems, because dye ink is a true solution, whether pigment is a dispersed micro-suspension of particles. So no risk of flow problems when particles settle down at the bottom over time."

If this conversion would solve my problems with drying and smearing, I can buy a used 1400 on Ebay. However, there is a newer version, the 1430. Would this conversion work with that version as well?

Sorry for so many questions!

Thanks!

 

[The Hat]

pennsylvaniakate
Have ever considered using Canon printers because they will happily do all the little jobs that you want to do easily.
There would be no need for pigment inks just for wedding and party invitations as dye would do work just as well.

You could get a Pro 9000 ll which has dye inks and the cartridges are easy to reset and refill
and if using I.S. inks you could keep your costs down to a minimum.

If you want to go pigment then the bigger brother of the 9000 is the Pro 9500 again I would recommend using I.S. inks
in it as well and the cartridges on this printer are extremely easy to refill also. (Zero clogs with this machine)

A CISS properly installed on any printer works great most of the time not all, whereas refilling is even better and much
more controllable, reliable and far less demanding than any CISS can be.

Its a matter of swings and roundabouts; you can stay on or get off but once bitten by the refill bug you want wont to stop..

 

[websnail]

The deal with the 1400 and pigment ink is that you will invariably hit more and more clogging as the printer isn't really designed to handle pigment ink. Lots of folks report success with that model but similarly they discuss the amount of waste due to routine head cleans, etc... It can get expensive.

Might be more cost effective to look into second hand R1800 or R2400's and using those instead as they have a long shelf life... If you can, get a reconditioned one, fit a waste tank ASAP and look at something like an Ink Republic CIS (much more suited to pigment inks than any bottom feed CIS).

The Pro9500 is out of my direct experience but The Hat, Jtoolman and others are experienced in those areas so worth listening to them on that score.

Hope that's of some additional use.

Martin

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I still wonder about the clogging problems with the 1400. On the t-shirt forum hundreds, if not thousands of people use a 1400 with a pigment CIS for heat transfers and I have seen very few complaints about print quality or clogging at all. There is a run on the 1400 and 1100 now that they've been discontinued, especially the 1100 since the WF-7010 looks like complete junk (I hate bottom feed trays).

 

[Remo Nonaz]

I have been using an Epson 1400 for about a year. I have no issues with drying or smearing, so I don't know why you would have these issues using dye inks. I do not use pigment inks, so I can't comment on the possible clogging with them. The dye inks have very little clogging issues, nothing that can't be fixed with a head cleaning cycle. Also, you can use third party inks (inksupply.com or others) that will cut your ink costs to 1/30th the cost of Epson inks. What you lose in color tone and fading is very minor compared to the huge cost savings.

As for the 1430, it is the same printer as the 1400 but with wireless and wired connectivity. The 1400 had only wired (USB) connectivity. You may be able to find a good deal on a used 1400, but for $229, new from Epson with free shipping and a full set of cartridges, I can't imagine why you would not want to just get a new one.

It's a very good printer.

 

[pharmacist]

For the last few years, I have been helping out friends with wedding and party invitations. I would like to start doing this on a bit bigger scale now that I am a stay-at-home mom with our new baby. I currently have a run of the mill HP inkjet printer. I have a problem with drying time and smearing when it comes to printing on smooth paper like shimmer paper or vellum. I'm getting a in a bit over my head with all my research. I have seen some things about dye inks versus pigment inks. Would pigment ink have a faster drying time and not smear like the ink from a typical inkjet? Some of the info I saw said you could convert the Epson 1400 to use pigment ink.

"If you want CISS, then the Epson 1400 is way better and will function much more reliable than a CISS with the Canon Pro 9000 cartridge and you can even convert to pigment ink to achieve archival prints. I made a printing video at youtube.com with my new Epson 1400 converted to pigment ink CISS and also important: with a external waste ink bottle to redirect the waste ink from the internals (which will stay clean much longer) to this particular waste ink bottle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKgp3lQ2Rcc

Please look at the comment about this CISS and usage. It might give you some clues, about some practival tips for using pigment inks using this printer.

Dye inks can be used in a CISS where the ink tubing is at the bottom of the external tanks without any problems, because dye ink is a true solution, whether pigment is a dispersed micro-suspension of particles. So no risk of flow problems when particles settle down at the bottom over time."

If this conversion would solve my problems with drying and smearing, I can buy a used 1400 on Ebay. However, there is a newer version, the 1430. Would this conversion work with that version as well?

Sorry for so many questions!

Thanks!

Well, well, well.....sure it can be yours, but that video is mine....How do you call it taking pictures/video's that do not belong to you...and even worse: saying "..... I made a printing video at youtube.com with my new Epson 1400 converted to pigment ink CISS and also important: with a external waste ink bottle to redirect the waste ink from the internals (which will stay clean much longer) to this particular waste ink bottle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKgp3lQ2Rcc ......."

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I think the OP was quoting off someone else's website, look at the quotation marks "If you... ...over time". Which means someone else is passing off your video as your own, which I have been seeing a lot on cheapie refill companies who I bet are simply buying crappy ink off some import website or off of ebay.

Not that some of the larger companies haven't been giving out profiles and priming charts other companies made.

 

[websnail]

I think the OP was quoting off someone else's website, look at the quotation marks "If you... ...over time". Which means someone else is passing off your video as your own, which I have been seeing a lot on cheapie refill companies who I bet are simply buying crappy ink off some import website or off of ebay.

Reading the post properly I'm with FE on this... I think the OP wasn't claiming credit but just unfamiliar with bbcode and/or with convention on quoting the excerpts they'd found... Don't think this is a pass-off job at all... There's no link to "Buy my inks.." etc... as the punchline for a start.

Perhaps a re-read is in order?

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

I love the 1400, for me it just does an outstanding job. I stay with the Claria (type) inks and have always been pleased with the photographs I get.
Back a couple of years Epson was selling the 1400 refurbished by them for $149.00 so I bought two!
The first one is still printing away after surviving the Epson ( printer shut down notice). So I have 1400 number two still in the box in my closet.
I've thought about trying something like the Epson 3880 and may do that one day, especially if I can get an Epson factory refurbished version for that model after all the new printer hype is history! New is nice but the refurbished units seem very good in my limited experience. One friend told me that he thinks they are better than new as the factory goes through them with care! I just know they have worked for me!