Epson 3880 Paper Feed Roller

[martin0reg]

My trusty 3880 seem to have some foreign matter under one of the paper feed rollers. Which could be broken, but I don't know this yet (and I won't break it myself)
A week ago there was some nochy sound while printing on a new photo paper, 260g and a bit stiff, but nothing special I think. Next sheet I believe (!) I saw some white plastik part jumping out of the rear paper slot, where the sheet just was pulled in.
Since then, when start printing, the paper moves only some centimeters into the paperfeed and there it touches some kind of resistance, which makes the sheet skew and stops the paper feed, error message like "skewed paper" or "load correct paper" or similar.
While searching for broken parts or foreign bodies in the printer I found one of the "PF rollers" in a shifted or off-centered positition, with small particles underneath. These I can not identify and. more important, I can not remove.
So the shifted roller will not come back in correct position - if it's not broken yet...

Is there a chance to disassemble one single paper feed roller, without the whole paper feed mechanism? It seems to be spring holded, but also with clips in metal bars..

 

[W. Fisher]

Bad luck!

You might be right that the stiff paper jammed one of those presser feet and the head pushed the paper into it and broke a hinge or dowel pin. Plastic bits in the thing ain't a good sign, nor are loose springs. I fed some stiff stuff once before the plastic printer carriage broke (~$85 from China.). The paper got shoved to the left side of the printer and the head kept trying to mash up against it before I unplugged the thing once the racket started. That print head motor is strong, and the ribbed drive belt isn't forgiving. I suspect that incident later cracked my printer carriage and a piece came out which stopped the print head from going side-to-side.

There are dowels that hold the PF presser feet down in their service manual. Suspect you broke one or it fell out. Problem is getting into it. It's around pg. 189 in the manual. I looked at mine and they all are in the same line and not canted like one of yours.

If you don't want to bother with it, the printer might still work with the front paper feed. Only that the paper needs to be maybe 12+mm narrower than the full 17" wide fed via the rear feeds (That narrower paper front feed is sort of annoying too!).

Good luck! It's a messy machine to dig down into, so plan a day or more finding the break. Part may be tough to find too.

W.F.

 

[martin0reg]

Thank you for your detailed explanations of the paper feed, it really helps me to understand what may happen under the roller bar of my 3880. Today I spent hours for trial and error with the rear and front feed, after some gently "poking" with photo paper the blocking of the fronnt feed seemed to be overcome ... but not the rear feed ... and then again also the front feed would be blocked.

Then I reallized the "culprit" which is moving underneath one of these paper feed rollers:

Don't you recognize it? I don't dare to tell you .. but it's a drawing pin from a pin board next to the 3880, "lying on his back", the pin upwards.
You'll find it on the upper right corner of the photo, see the brass color-

And I'm still trying to get the pin out of the machine. With various tools. Hoping not having to carry this 20 kg whopper to the epson service -- just to remove a drawing pin...

 

[W. Fisher]

Interesting.

You might be able to pull it out if you take off the black plastic back cover. Can't recall what was under there as it's been a while, but that part is easy to get off with maybe 5 screws (One in the middle was different as I recall.).

W.F.

 

[martin0reg]

The back cover of which part?

 

[W. Fisher]

The large black plastic one that covers up the rear of the whole printer. Goes around the power cord outlet. All the screws are #2 Phillips.

No guarantee you can get deeper into it once that entire back panel is off, but it's an easy-off type of panel to see what is in there.

W.F.

 

[The Hat]

Try inserting a large screwdriver in here to raise this part up or jam a wedge in might help hold it higher to gain easier access...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

you may get a 3880 service manual here as provided by @PeterBJ
https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...mpliments-of-peterbj.5071/page-25#post-107957
The manual should tell you how to get to the wheels and rollers you have problems with

 

[martin0reg]

Finally I can report successs:

The Hat, I had to open the other gap and it was a risky operation, to bend it but not break it...it took some time and some more tools.
But this way I didn't need to do it as prescribed in the service manual, meaning much more disassembling to get to the rollers
Thank you all for your support!

 

[The Hat]

I once was called by a friend to repair a Lexmark printer that she was having problems feeding paper into, I did all the usual things, suspecting that a foreign object had fallen into the paper path.

After many unsuccessful attempts I eventually discovered a Feckin cigarette had got lodged right in the back of the feed rollers, in the area just before where @martin0reg pin had lodged, fortunately with the help of a screwdriver and a good shake it came out...

It’s amazing how many things that can get caught inside the average printer..
Great job Martin..