4880 banding, clogged etc... overflowing

[shellyky]

so im getting fine spray/spatter on my printouts....just made it thru tomorrows jobs and now its banding like crazy.  opened the maint. tank and ink is running down the left wall....internet suggests i put a cleaning solution in my capping station? clean the ink pan to the left and some tubes that carry it down (as per a youtube video...)

heres a pic.  i guess im dead in the water.  i hate this thing...other than the waste tank i have no idea what im supposed to be doing for maintenance when running all blacks.

[3Deep]

Toss it and buy a new one or buy a new and get that one fix for a back up....

[shellyky]

they seriously have a 3 year life span?

[dirkdiggler]

I know someone who has 100 brand new 4880s if you need one, there are ZERO left to purchase in the US.  PM me if you want his info.

[3Deep]

Shelly, don't pay me no mine, I was just jokin, but seems like they should last a long time unless your doing a ton of film everyday, but having a backup wouldn't hurt.

Darryl

[screenprintguy]

this will sound odd, but I have learned this from a few different guys using Epson large format printers for their full color die sub, or auto wrap printing. Windex, and a lint free soft rag or towel. Turn the printer on to get the head to start moving, then unplug it. At this point you can freely move the head back and forth. Wet the towel, or rag with windex, it has to be the actual old school windex with ammonia in it. move the print head back and forth over the towel, make sure you have gloves on, you will get dirty, but this will break lose all the crap that has built up. I've been doing this with my epson printers for 7 years now, and the last couple of years having the CTS with the EPSON printer on it, same thing. Channels get clogged and you can waste a ton of ink trying to run cleaning cycles that never loosen the issue. Even spraying some of the windex into the capping station, when the head rests over the station, the windex evaporating will help keep drying ink lose and easy for the cleaning setting to actually clean the guck out. Epson won't recommend this, but lots of people do it and haven't had print head issues as long as you do everything gently. A place around the corner from me has a 12 year old EPson large format printer that he still uses for Bus Wraps and cleans his this way every month. Original print head.

[mk162]

you might want to skip the all black thing and maybe go 4 black and leave the others full of cleaning solution as a backup.

it sounds like a capping station problem, windex should help a ton.  leave it in the station overnight.

[shellyky]

Thanks...i had a ton of clogged areas that ive cleaned out...running a power cleaning right now...that usually helps the problem but its so wasteful on ink.

Can you guys be more specific on the cleaning fluid used in the other heads?  You just turn those print heads off iin your rip software and print with only the black?  then when you power clean etc, it just shoots the fluid thru?

[shellyky]

Eh....its solid printing now but i have trailing like crazy. 

[3Deep]

That's coming off the print head itself, if you can take a paper towel and fold it and clean under your print head and remove the old ink or print some plain paper a few times, it will go away the more you print.

[shellyky]

ok ill try that... thank you!!

[screenprintguy]

That's coming off the print head itself, if you can take a paper towel and fold it and clean under your print head and remove the old ink or print some plain paper a few times, it will go away the more you print.

Yep D, ya know, I wish there was a like button for these posts lol. I've seen lint actually causing that, lil piece of towel moistened with windex does the trick!

[shellyky]

oh you guys are awesome... I feel like a doctor now....LOL

[screenprintguy]

NICE, back up and runnin!!!!!

[Full-SpectrumSeparator]

I've worked with the 4880 quite a lot, and another thing to keep in mind is yeah the power-cleaning helps to clear up the streaking and lines, etc when its been sitting for a while perhaps between jobs... but that is what fills up the waste-tank (those felt stacks/filters that soak up the waste ink) quite a bit actually.    The overflow from the waste-tank can cause the backup and mist/spray into the rest of the machine.     One thing if you really want to get crazy is you can get some gloves and actually press out the soaked-in ink from the absorption pads, they come out of the waste tank easily to get replaced and you can usually squeeze enough ink out to put them back in, and the sensor is based on weight I think so it let's it still go some more before you really have to replace with new tank inserts... but its definitely a job for the washout booth area, lol.    I've had to do things like this in "put out the fires" situations both with film printing and also large-format full color.     The power-cleaning helps but yeah it fills up that waste-tank like it is just an oil-pipeline that burst and gushing dollar signs out.