Running a 3880 without LLK? Fixing a LLK leak?

[edmundronald]

Hi,
- I switched my 3880 on after 10 years inactivity and it leaked black ink over the paper.
- Then the leak stopped, but bad nozzle checks.
- I tried to print some tests, and the printer switched from MK to PK, but no leaks.
- After a few days, all the nozzles came back except sporadic pieces of LLK only and no yellow.
- I realized my LLK cartridge was empty, yellow full, all other cartridges half full.
- I used window cleaner (Paris version) and yellow came back. NOW I HAD ALL CHANNELS APART FROM LLK where it was printing a tiny random piece here and there of LLK from time to time.
- I got a new LLK, put it in, IT LEAKED ALL OVER THE PAPER.

- At this point I've put the empty LLK cartridge back. My belief is I have an LLK leak, probably the printhead seal.

Question1: Is it worth fixing the leak?
Question2: What software would you use too print without LLK? I guess I can use Gutenprint to do it, and I have enough spectros and experience to fix the ink curves, but maybe there exists something more user friendly?

Edmund

 

[drfihl]

Hi,
- I switched my 3880 on after 10 years inactivity and it leaked black ink over the paper.
- Then the leak stopped, but bad nozzle checks.
- I tried to print some tests, and the printer switched from MK to PK, but no leaks.
- After a few days, all the nozzles came back except sporadic pieces of LLK only and no yellow.
- I realized my LLK cartridge was empty, yellow full, all other cartridges half full.
- I used window cleaner (Paris version) and yellow came back. NOW I HAD ALL CHANNELS APART FROM LLK where it was printing a tiny random piece here and there of LLK from time to time.
- I got a new LLK, put it in, IT LEAKED ALL OVER THE PAPER.

- At this point I've put the empty LLK cartridge back. My belief is I have an LLK leak, probably the printhead seal.

Question1: Is it worth fixing the leak?
Question2: What software would you use too print without LLK? I guess I can use Gutenprint to do it, and I have enough spectros and experience to fix the ink curves, but maybe there exists something more user friendly?

Edmund

I have just ditched a 3800 and a 3880. I had both for free with a history like yours. Mine printed reasonably well if I stayed with the MK and never switched to PK. If you want to print B&W. Read on. Use QTR and it will print beautifully. It takes som effort to get there but it is cheap and great quality. You will need third party cartridges or you will have to empy and clean your cartridges and use a chip resetter. Why I ditched my 2 printer. I bought a new SC p900 and the printers are now living a new life printing B&W. The gutenprintway seems quite difficult.

 

[W. Fisher]

Sounds like that pesky Photo Black/Matte Black ink switch has failed. A cheap $19 part (I bought two of them given a friend's needs one after I spent a day trying to run down the black ink leak issues with it.), but it has an enormous labor charge - which is the cost of the printer - just to install it. I have two 3880s still running fine: One dye ink for metallic papers which makes a huge difference in the print's sheen, and the other a pigment ink (Not so great for metallics, imho.).

Problem is getting into the printer to replace it is an all day job. My first tear down took two days. Seems like they built the thing up around the first installed ink head part. My repair was due to a curled paper print head strike which cracked the plastic print head carrier (A $76 part.). Epson specifies a curl of no more than 3mm when the paper is laid flat and mine was from a cut roll, hence the accident. Although the tear down took a long time it was successful even though I did not use some Epson calibration software and just used vernier calipers on anything I thought could be transferred onto the new carrier from the old one. Never had a need for the software.

After my first major dig into the thing and a friend's 3800, I decided to NOT EVER SWITCH FROM PHOTO (PK) BLACK TO MATTE BLACK! I just print everything with photo black now to avoid the valve failure and ink smearing. You might clean the head once and think it is fixed, but the damn leak always comes back.

A lot of Epson printer parts, ink carts, pirate chips, and resetters are on Aliexpress. The ink switch valve is here: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807922975941.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.37.29d2n8RXn8RXvk&algo_pvid=bc402ee4-dc08-44ff-91d4-3e88578554b1&algo_exp_id=bc402ee4-dc08-44ff-91d4-3e88578554b1-34&pdp_ext_f={"order":"5","eval":"1","fromPage":"search"}&pdp_npi=6@dis!USD!22.16!18.17!!!156.94!128.69!@2101d9ef17629629662726469e88a5!12000043807358092!sea!US!0!ABX!1!0!n_tag:-29910;d:21f28595;m03_new_user:-29895&curPageLogUid=MMqOajaACyQu&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:|x_object_id:1005008109290693|_p_origin_prod:

Good luck!

 

[edmundronald]

W Fisher

Thank you for your very informative post.

I seem to have an LLK leak, not an MK/PK valve issue

The obvious thing with the valve issue if you have it would be to simply disassemble partially and lock it physically in one position …


Edmund