Howdy From Houston, Texas

[cooltouch]

Hey Websnail, thanks vey much for your post. I just might be able to get all three of my Epsons back in service using your tips. If the WF600's black head isn't broken, that is, which I suspect it is. I wasn't pushing hard on any of the heads' nozzle openings, but whereas the plunger would move, albeit slightly, on the color heads, it wouldn't move at all with the black head. So I pushed just a bit harder, but still it wouldn't give. So I just backed off and went for a soaking method something like what you describe, but not for as long a time. So anyway, the next time I tried out the printer, the black head wouldn't print a lick, whereas before it would at least give up a few dots of spray. Maybe I just moved a hard clog into a position of maximal effectiveness. I think I'll try doing the long soak you mention.

An update: I was successful in getting the heads unclogged on my Brother MFC-685CW. So I now have a reasonably high-rez color printer available once more. Trying to get it to print high-rez color on photo paper has been a bit of an issue so far. The 8.5x11 photo paper won't feed through the regular paper tray consistently. It has a photo print tray, but only for 3.5x5 and 4x6 sizes. When I first tried feeding it a sheet of 8.5x11 photo paper, it balked and sent an error saying that the paper hadn't been fed. So I pulled out the tray and found that the photo paper had been pulled only part way out of the tray and from that point things must have gotten hung up. A second try caused it to feed two sheets -- the photo sheet and an extra regular sheet. It printed on the regular sheet.So I pulled out all the regular paper sheets and left the single photo sheet in the tray. The third try threw an error message that the paper tray was empty. Grrrr. So I loaded in several sheets of photo paper. A fourth try resulted in another paper jam message. I reloaded and reset the machine again. A fifth try finally -- finally! Finally resulted in a good printout. Whew. Sorry, I don't normally use so many emoticons, but in this case, I think they very accurately expressed my moods. I'll admit it --by the fifth try, I was ready to start throwing things. Like printers.

The problem is the paper path. The page makes an immediate sharp 180 degree roll as soon as it exits the paper try, rolling across a fairly small diameter roller on its way to the heads. Photo paper is stiff enough because of its thickness such that it won't consistently make that 180 degree turn without causing problems. Maybe it's the five tries with the same sheet of paper that does it. Getting it to develop a curl memory after repeated tries and all. There is a plastic piece that fits into the back of the printer, called the "Jam Clear Cover" that, when removed, exposes the paper path. I was thinking that I could feed the photo paper in at that point, but when I tried this, the printer jerked the paper out of my hand and proceeded to feed the page in at an angle. I was able to pull the paper free, but it ended up getting creased and tore at one small location. I haven't given up on the notion of feeding photo paper in this way, but it's obviously gonna need more practice.

I have learned that if I set this printer to the very highest quality printing -- 1200x6000 -- it is extremely slow. So I just tried "photo" quality for the above print attempts. It prints much faster and I can't see a bit of a problem with the simple "photo" setting. In fact, I'd rate the photo print quality of this printer, the Brother MSC-685CW, to be excellent.

 

[ghwellsjr]

@ghwellsjr: Regarding the WF600, its color heads started clogging up within say 6 months of purchase. I didn't have much occasion at the time to do color prints, but my daughter often did, so I repeatedly requested that she run at least a page of color content through the printer once a week. But she didn't. And neither did I, so when I finally needed to print something in color, it wouldn't, even after several cleaning cycles. From that point forward, it became a monochrome printer to me, until I finally got around to buying that cleaning kit -- which ended up up being useless fro the WF600.

Did you (or your daughter) leave the printer plugged in and turned on during those long periods of idleness?

 

[cooltouch]

Yep. I kinda got into that habit because of my HP 1200 series, which doesn't even have an on-off switch. Besides, being on the network, it's kind of a hassle when I'm working in another part of the house and I need to print something, where I have to walk over to the printer, turn it on, walk back to the other part of the house, hit "print," and then have to walk back to the printer again to pick up the printout(s). Besides, I'm pretty sure it goes into some sort of sleep mode once it's been sitting idle for a while.

 

[The Hat]

Two thing struck me about your attempts to feed the photo paper through the Brother printer, one was that if you pre-roll (Curl) the photo paper first that would help to get it around these small rollers and another way would be to use A3 size paper cut in half so that the grain in the photo paper would be in the opposite direction, I think this printer is only designed to use 4x6 photo paper.

Be very careful removing any paper jams not to damage the paper sensors that stick up in the paper feed area, bending or breaking these will render the printer almost useless.

 

[cooltouch]

I guess I will reluctantly agree with you that this printer is designed to print a maximum size of photo paper at 4x6 inches. I'm also thinking I might be able to jury rig that top paper tray/photo paper feeder to get it to permit the larger paper to fit. It will probably require minor surgery to do this, but since I will likely never use it for these smaller sizes, if I mess things up, it's no big loss. I consider 8x12 to be the standard small photo size. I'm using 8.5x11 because I picked up a bunch of it for dirt cheap.

I had a bit of brain fade earlier, referring to my Brother printer as an Epson. I've corrected the text to reflect this.

 

[Support]

Welcome to PK @cooltouch

 

[The Hat]

What will help you then is to get bigger photo paper and cut it in half, that way the curl will favour the sharp turns in the paper path, if you can’t do that then cut the 8.5 x 11 in half and feed that size instead, the grain in most photo papers runs the length of the longest edge !.

 

[cooltouch]

Thanks, Support. Glad to be here.

Well, The Hat, thanks for your response, but just to reiterate what I stated in my previous post. I consider 8" x 12" photo paper to be my Standard Size. I have absolutely NO interest in printing out anything smaller. Except 8.5x11, which I end up cropping lengthwise very slightly to preserve my 35mm and APS-C sensor-sized 2:3 proportions.

So I won't be trimming my paper.

I have a rather large pile of 8.5x11 photo paper, so it's gonna be quite a while before I buy any paper of another size.

I would really like to own a large format printer -- one with at least an 11" wide carriage. But it seems that as soon as you get away from an 8.5" wide carriage, prices take off.

 

[stratman]

I would really like to own a large format printer -- one with at least an 11" wide carriage. But it seems that as soon as you get away from an 8.5" wide carriage, prices take off.

How does paper up to 13" x 19" sound?

Check out the Canon Pro-100. You can get them for ~$100 after rebate. Maybe on Craigslist in your community as well for around that price. There is a resetter and after market inks available. Awesome deal for a high quality large format, wide carriage, dye-ink printer.

There is a BIG caveat about the OEM Yellow ink and reusing that cartridge for refills that you need to be aware of on the forum. Not a big deal as long as you follow the suggested rules the one time and definitely NOT a reason to avoid the marvelous printer.

Two things my esteemed uncle The Hat from Ireland may not know about Texas:

1) Everything is bigger in Texas.
2) Don't mess with Texas.

 

[cooltouch]

Hey Stratman -- you don't by any chance drop in at Strat-talk.com every now and then, do you? I thought I recognized that ID, but maybe it's another Strat fan? Mine is a '96 American Standard (50th year anniversary) and I love her dearly. My handle over there is the same as here.

But anyway, you got my attention with that Canon Pro-100. I've never had the occasion to use 13x19 paper, but that's almost an exact 2:3 ratio (exact would be 13"x19.5" or 12-2/3"x19"). According to Canon's website, that printer lists for $500. Usually when I see Canon deep discount their cameras like this it's cuz they're just about to discontinue that model and release its replacement. That can be a big deal with digital cameras, but less so I think with printers. So yeah, I'm interested. Thinking really seriously about ordering one like NOW. Hrm . . . Another thing occurs to me. Because that printer has a rather high list price, this means that it most likely isn't a POS like all the cheap printers are. Another good reason to get one.

The resetter you're referring to is a device that resets the chip on the cartridges, right? Is there also a software resetter, do you know? I'm not really sure also what the context is surrounding the quote about the yellow ink. What, it won't take regular yellow ink?

So I'm at Adorama and I'm just about to pull the trigger and I notice the rebate is for $300, and that it's a mail-in rebate. Arrrrggh! I hate mail-in rebates. In this case it's a deal killer. I can't afford to have MY $300 tied up for 60 days. That money has already been earmarked for a purchase that takes precedence over a printer that I want but don't need.

Ah, yes, well if The Hat ever happens to make it down Texas way, I'll be happy to stand him a round or two at another Texas tradition -- the ice house. And yes, everything does tend to be bigger in Texas, except for residential streets for some odd reason. And #2 is definitely true. It should be made part of the Texas Constitution.