Epson 3880 PK Clogged

[Elriel]

Hello,

Some weeks ago I bougt an Epson 3880 for less than a cartridge costs. In average the inkset was at 50%. I m happy finding this great Deal. After cleaning the printhead, all nozzles except blacks are fine. I checked the PK cartidge, it was empty despite the printer says it is at 50%. After filling the PK Cartridge with cleaning fluid, black ink is leaking when PK is selected. So i cleaned the ink selection valve, reassambled the Printer and switched to MK. After flushing, the nozzle Check was Perfect.

After refilling the PK cartridge and switching to PK the Printhead and ink selector valve becommed clogged aggain. I think i have to flush the PK ink line. Does anybody knows how to do this the best Way? Can i Push cleaning fluid with a syringe into to line starting at the cartridge holder? Or do you think it is better to pull it out of a cartidge from the printheads side of the ink line? Or is there an easier way than this?

It would be nice to repair this printer.


greetings,
Michael

I read the earlier Threads about cleaning the ink valve. Thanks to all for describing this.

 

[The Hat]

@Elriel, If I had that printer, I’d leave it on Matte black and not use the Photo black again, replacing the ink switch is a big undertaking and costly, but if your preference is to use only PK black then empty and refill the MK cart with PK ink, problem sorted..

 

[Elriel]

Yesterday i tried again fixing the black ink switch. Disassambled the whole Printer, cleaned it but without success. Same as before...

So i will use the Printer like @The Hat said. Thanks for your advise.

If i fill PK in a MK cart for printing on glossy papers, how many ink is needed to fill lines and dampers. Does anybody has experience?

Based on which mate paper setting should i do the profiles for glossy papers? Doesnt Glossy and Mate papers have totally different ink Limits?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Doesnt Glossy and Mate papers have totally different ink Limits?

Not necessarily - it depends more on the type of paper itself and the coating. I don't know how you profile your papers, are you running some software which allows you to compare gamuts of different profiles like Gamutvision ? You can run a test - use one or the other matte paper setting in the driver and as well different quality settings for the glossy paper of your choice , print the patch sheets, create the profiles and compare them - whether one has a larger volume than another profile and compare as well the black levels, the darkest black you can reach with these settings, paper and ink. You'll quickly find the settings which give you the largest gamut.

 

[mazy_pishi]

There are some videos related to clogged nozzles and how to unclog or flush the printer head. Google that and you will find.
If you want to do it yourself you need to be careful not to make the electronics of the head wet due to the solvent you may use. Cause if it happens the main board will be going to fatal damage.
Based on my experience it is strongly recommend to remove the head unit and then start to follow the cleaning procedure; then dry it and leave it for at least 48 hours to become completely dry then install it to the device, if the problem exist There are still some ways to fix it...


Edit:

 

[W. Fisher]

This sounds like what I went through here: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/how-to-go-about-flushing-all-ink-out-of-a-3880.12502/

Mine is working fine since then (Whew!).

I think it took about 3 power cleanings to flush the line along with the nozzle checks, and I let it sit for a few hours between them to loosen up the sludge.

What was unusual was the two "ink worms" that came out of the maintenance cart in one photo in the link above. Any head cleaning solution should drain out of the two well where the printhead parks, but mine wasn't draining well and just sitting as a pool indicating the lines were plugged in the head parking area. I used a lot of 91% alcohol to flush that area out as well as some picking at the underside of the capping area around the pump motor. I was opposed to using any ammonia solutions in it being that stuff is corrosive and if the head has any copper/brass in it ( Isuspect id does.) then that could be damaged or etched. I found that dried ink is very tough to remove, and probably what has occurred higher up ahead of the printhead in yours.

You could remove the dampner block where all the lines feed into the top of the printhead and force the solution from the ink cart down through the lines in and through the dampner (which ma be plugged.). That whole affair was around $150 that gets you from the carts to the printhead. Lots of dismantling though.

I'm not sure, but I think the PK/MK ink switch is just a valve and any ink from it uses the same black nozzles in the printhead. So if you are seeing printed MK black ink, the head may be good so the actual PK ink plug is higher up than being inside the head. I doubt if the air pressure line to the PK ink cart would be leaking as the pump on the left side would run a lot. It could be the ink cart contacts are faulty too as I have run into that and needed to put a piece of felt under a couple of ink carts to lift them for better electrical contact.

Might be the printer can be salvaged with a lot of cleaning work. I think I suffered with mine for a couple of weeks trying to clean it along with a couple of dismantlings, and often forcibly forcing ink through it via a syringe since it was already heading to the scrape heap if not, but it is working good as new again.

Good luck!

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

I would not advise simply flushing the PK line since there is a clog in the switching valve and you do not want that to free up and end up stuck somewhere else... like the printhead.

I had the exact same problem and managed to fix it. If I were in your situation again I would buy this:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/253684228314

I was told that I needed to buy the whole ink supply/delivery system to replace the valve, so I ended up buying more than you see in that link and using less. What I bought was about $70 more expensive and included the cage the ink cartridges mount into. Obviously none of that was needed. Even the hoses on this one aren’t needed. Using them would require you to buy an adjustment program and waste a ton of expensive ink by disposing of your charged ink lines. Not good!

I would take that part and disconnect the hoses then transfer the old, mostly full, hoses to the new damper and switch assembly. There is potential to make a mess, obviously, but it’s avoidable by being careful. I was WAY out of my element and somehow managed to do it without making a mess so you can too.

Of course, the new dampers and ink switch valve will be dry, as well as your PK line. People told me I would need to flush the other 7 lines to prime/charge/initialize the PK line and that I would have to pay for the privelige of wasting hundreds of dollars of ink by buying an adjustment program to do it. No thanks!

Rather than pay/waste, I went into the menus and started an automatic nozzle check. This tests half the colors at a time and will purge ink when the optical sensor sees a problem in the print out. The empty PK line and the dry dampers will obviously not print properly, so it will keep repeating the pattern and attempting to clean the head until it runs out of room on the test sheet. Each time it tries to clean the head by flushing ink, it’s actually drawing out the air and filling the dampers.

It errored out and I restarted a few times before 7 of my dampers were full and PK was the only one showing a problem. Of course, this was expected since it had a lot more to fill than just an empty damper. I then started switching from PK to MK to and back again, drawing a damper-full of ink into the PK line with each MK->PK ink switch. Of course, this wastes a lot of MK but it saves a lot of everything else.

We’ve only filled half the dampers since the nozzle check never got past the first half of the checks, so you’ll want to go back to that after you get PK flowing, which is what I did. If you don’t have any clogged heads it should now pass the first set of colors and move on to the second set, automatically flushing and repeating until the it passes or the pattern gets too long for the page (errors out). It only took a few of these before mine was printing just fine and passing the nozzle check for all colors.

Now, it’s risky and guaranteed-messy, but you might be able do this cheaper with this part:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/263749332301

Now that I have a spare ink supply system I’m probably going to slap that in there to have a hot-spare I can swap to, even though I managed to unclog my original:
https://youtu.be/97XomNjdLHA

 

[martin0reg]

@Elriel, If I had that printer, I’d leave it on Matte black and not use the Photo black again, replacing the ink switch is a big undertaking and costly, but if your preference is to use only PK black then empty and refill the MK cart with PK ink, problem sorted..

Many people use to recommend this .. but I think quite the contrary:
the valve switch is made for many thousends switchings and should be activated once a week or month. even if you prefer only one or the other sort of paper.
I can't prove it, but I think iit's the idle time especially of the matte black tubes (users who "switched" completely to PK), which makes the switch get "rusty" - and one switch back to MK (intentionally or not) will block the switcher.
It's like clogging of printheads: printing keeps the ink flow, and switching keeps the switch working.
Anybody supporting this explanation?

 

[The Hat]

@martin0reg, I can go along with that and completely agree with your comments and can recommended them, but if the switched is already bunged up and won’t work anymore, how can that help the OP with his situation..

 

[W. Fisher]

Has anyone replaced just the PK/MK damper valve? This thing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/263749332301?ul_noapp=true

The Epson Service Manual shows some shuttle valve pin that pushes back and forth against on the sides of it to switch the inks. Since it is common to both inks, it might be the MK ink, being thicker due to carbon, gets over to the PK side, clogs it, and makes it so it will not seal so the leaks of PK ink appear. Changing to the MK seems to correct the matter for the MK to flow correctly, but not the PK and why some do the MK/PK ink cart switch.

Seems someone could design the valve so it only uses PK or MK ink by choice, and get rid of the second inlet port. Might see more life out of the printer and get rid of the PK/MK valve matters.

W.F.