[OT?] Taking inkjet on-location? Ok or bad idea?

[l_d_allan]

I'd appreciate guidance on the appropriateness of taking a Canon PIXMA Pro 9000-2 on-location to make a large number of quick-turnaround letter size 8.5x11" prints. I don't have an awareness of how tough or fragile the printer is, especially the print-head, electronics, moving parts, etc. I am concerned that this device could get out of alignment, or other causes of poor print performance.

This summer, I'll be the volunteer photographer at three separate 4-day "Kids Camp". I've done this the prior two years, and the "end product" was a CD with several hundred pictures mailed to the parent after the event. This year, we want to "raise the bar" by doing on-location, quick-turnaound printing to give to the parents at the end of the camp.

It would amount to 300 to 1000+ prints. We'll be using Costco Kirkland letter sized paper and OCP ink cartridge refilling, so our cost per letter sized print will be much less than having prints done at Sam's or Costco. Our budget won't allow commercial printing at Sam's or Costco.

IIRC, when the printer arrived, there was some prep to get it ready to print, including removal of shipping supports. I would plan to carefully pack the printer and put padding under the box, but I wouldn't be re-installing those packing supports. It's a bumpy, rural gravel road to the camp, and I'd have it set up in a cabin room.

Well, does this seem ok, or a bad idea? Is the printer capable of realigning itself, or does the alignment check just tell you there is a problem? My concern is that I could have a perception that I was "getting away" with one on-location event, but over time the print quality would deteriorate gradually.

The Pro 9000-2 is a relatively large, bulky printer capable of making 13x19" prints. We won't make pictures that large. I think it is meant to "stay put" once setup. An alternative is taking a smaller, letter sized inkjet printer like the Canon iP6000d that may be available. However, it may be too slow.

If I take it on-location, are there things to do to minimize the potential for damage and/or excess wear and tear?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I never ship or transport a printer with the ink cartridges and print head installed, especially over a bouncing road. There is too much risk for ink to migrate into parts of the print head that will cause it to burn out when you turn it on. If you transport your Pro 9000-2, I would recommend that you make a set of "empty" cartridges that have been reset so the printer thinks they are full of ink but in fact have no ink at all in them. Then put them in the printer and do a couple of deep head cleanings followed by a nozzle check to make sure nothing prints. Then remove the cartridges and print head for safe transport.

The older printers with chipless cartridges, like the iP6000D, allow you to remove the cartridges and do head cleanings which makes it a little more convenient.

I believe your Pro 2000-2 can probably do a letter size print in one minute. At best, you could print 60 photos per hour and it will take five hours to do 300 prints or 17 hours to do your 1000+ prints, not counting any time to transfer pictures from your camera to your laptop. You just might be spending your entire 4 days printing all the pictures and that doesn't count time for swapping ink cartridges and waiting on head cleanings, etc. At least with the iP6000D printers, you won't need to be concerned with laptops since it can print directly from memory cards.

 

[l_d_allan]

I never ship or transport a printer with the ink cartridges and print head installed, especially over a bouncing road. There is too much risk for ink to migrate into parts of the print head that will cause it to burn out when you turn it on. If you transport your Pro 9000-2, I would recommend that you make a set of "empty" cartridges that have been reset so the printer thinks they are full of ink but in fact have no ink at all in them. Then put them in the printer and do a couple of deep head cleanings followed by a nozzle check to make sure nothing prints. Then remove the cartridges and print head for safe transport.

Thanks for the advice. If I have a complete set of 8 CLI-8 empty cartridges for the Pro 9000-2, would it be just as well to have a small amout of cleaning solution in them (like Windex or pharmacist's formula), and do preventive deep cleans before transport?

I'm rethinking the appropriateness of taking the Pro 9000-2 on-location. The Kids Camp faciity is about 30 minutes away from my home, so I can go back and forth one or two nights. I may have an assistant who would be back in Colorado Springs, in which case I may be able to upload a .zip file with groups of jpegs to print, but that will take some coordination.

I believe your Pro 9000-2 can probably do a letter size print in one minute. At best, you could print 60 photos per hour ...

That speed rating is about right in "Standard Quality" ... "High Quality" is quite a bit slower. Once the print queue is filled, and kept filled, it prints along pretty steadily without as many pauses and delays.

I'm used to print speeds of a laser printer, and haven't really come to terms mentally of just how much slower an ink jet is.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If I have a complete set of 8 CLI-8 empty cartridges for the Pro 9000-2, would it be just as well to have a small amout of cleaning solution in them (like Windex or pharmacist's formula), and do preventive deep cleans before transport?

My thought is to have no liquid in the print head while you transport it. I think cleaning solution can be just as bad for the electronics as ink could be or any other liquid so I would use dry cartridges.

 

[l_d_allan]

ghwellsjr:

My thinking was to just put a small amount of cleaning solution in the transport/cleaning carts ... like one milliliter or so, maybe less ... just enough to do several deep cleanings. Then I would blow out the residual amount of cleaning solution so it was just barely damp. Another step might be putting in distilled water after the deep cleanings as if purging, and then blow the distilled water out so there was very little residual cleaning solution in the carts. These nearly empty, barely damp transport/cleaning carts would be in the 9000-2 for transport to the Kids Camp.

Or is that flawed? Or getting to be too much of a production?

 

[ghwellsjr]

The printer sucks on the bottom of the print head during a cleaning which is a safe way of "blowing" into the print head from the top. The problem with blowing into the print head is that it disperses the liquid to places you don't want it to be and then you have to wait a long time for it to dry out. It's better not to put that liquid there in the first place.

Doing deep cleanings followed by nozzle checks until nothing prints quarantees that the nozzles are free of ink or any other liquid.

Then I would remove the print head from the printer during transport.

 

[l_d_allan]

George,

I wasn't thinking of blowing into the opened inlet port of the cart while the cart was in the printer. But I am ignorant about print-heads ... I've never had the 9000-2's printhead out and looked at it. My understanding is that they are rather easy to remove from the chasis, but I haven't done that yet.

For my budget, it does become expensive to have a "dedicated set" of transport CLI-8 cartridges. Or a dedicated set of cleaning carts. I accumulate them by using up the ink from a Canon oem cart. The lowest price I've seen for a full set of eight is about $90.

But I suppose for "transport cartridge purposes", an empty BCI-6 cart of any color would work. Since I'm not using them to make prints, I can buy empties and not have to be concerned about whether it has the correct chip. I might want to clean them first so there wasn't residual ink to get into the tubes (or equivalent) that go from the outlet port to the print-head.

If I understand how CLI-8 carts work, I would have to have a complete set of actual CLI-8 carts of the correct color to function as "cleaning carts". They would have to have the appropriate chip for the printer to do a cleaning cycle and nozzle check using those carts.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you do a search on eBay for "empty cli-8" you can find carts for about a dollar each which you can use to make cleaning carts, empty carts, or you can refill them.

I was not suggesting that you make any "transport" carts. I guess you're thinking that it would be good to have some "almost" dry cartridges installed in your printer when you transport it. But this is a bad idea for several reasons. First, you never want to leave your print head in a state where ink can dry out inside it. That is why I suggest doing cleanings with completely dry cartridges installed to flush the ink out of the print head. And second, I think it is best to remove the print head from the printer while transporting a printer especially over a bumpy road just so that the printer doesn't have to support the print head and cartridges. One of the printers that was shipped to me with the print head and cartridges installed had the print head locking mechanism broken. The package was probably dropped but the point is that without the print head and cartridges, the carriage will have much less weight to support.

Of course, with a printer that uses BCI-6 carts, it is much easier to flush the print head because all you have to do is remove the cartridges and do cleanings. You cannot do this with printers that use CLI-8 carts and you cannot put BCI-6 carts in a printer designed for CLI-8 carts--they won't fit.

 

[RMM]

I think that you guys are over-thinking this whole thing.

Just remove the printhead & cartridges and store them in ziplock bag or similar. Be careful with the vibration on the bumpy road, and you'll be good to go.