spb
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My VS-300i (CMYK Lc Lm Wh Mt, cleaning carts in the Wh and Mt slots for now) wasn't printing Lm or Lc at all. I did a head soak and it seemed to loosen up quite a bit of buildup (it spewed Lc everywhere). Lm wasn't a problem at this time. I replaced the Lc and Lm cartridges. Then the printhead started "leaking" Lm (it would bead up on the printhead surface, even when the machine was off, then spit ink onto the edges of the substrate). Also occasionally the Lm would 'bleed' into the Lc on the print test and would occasionally show up as "red mist" on actual prints, so I figured: damper issue. Then one night, the printer somehow drained an entire 440mL Lm cartridge into the waste bottle (and some onto the floor). No other carts were affected, just the Lm. So I closed the choke and ordered some dampers.
Earlier this week I replaced all four dampers, replaced the Lm cart and cleaned out the wiper assembly (which had a massive buildup by the spit pad of what looked like Lc ink). The wiper scraper also had a comical amount of buildup on it so I replaced that as well. Also new: wiper, felt, captop, captop spring...Anyway, I did a few strong cleans, and it had completely stopped printing Lm and was only printing about 25% Lc. (CMYK have been pretty much fine this whole time.) After pulling some cleaning fluid from the cleaning cartridge through the Lm and Lc dampers with a syringe, it's was printing all six colors on the horizontal band test BUT there were stripes on the Lc and Lm bands. Did a print test, Lc and Lm was only printing about 80%.
This afternoon I did a cycle of power clean/print tests and the Lc and Lm was worse with each test (attached).
I'm using Jetbest Max2 Ink with the bulk cartridges. The previous owner was using other ink, I forget their name, but they have some bad feedback online.
Is it time for a new printhead? Is there anything else I can try? Should I soak the head again, should I pull cleaning fluid through the lines again..is there anything else I can try to get the Lc and Lm to flow, or is it just a bad printhead at this point? Thanks for reading this.
Earlier this week I replaced all four dampers, replaced the Lm cart and cleaned out the wiper assembly (which had a massive buildup by the spit pad of what looked like Lc ink). The wiper scraper also had a comical amount of buildup on it so I replaced that as well. Also new: wiper, felt, captop, captop spring...Anyway, I did a few strong cleans, and it had completely stopped printing Lm and was only printing about 25% Lc. (CMYK have been pretty much fine this whole time.) After pulling some cleaning fluid from the cleaning cartridge through the Lm and Lc dampers with a syringe, it's was printing all six colors on the horizontal band test BUT there were stripes on the Lc and Lm bands. Did a print test, Lc and Lm was only printing about 80%.
This afternoon I did a cycle of power clean/print tests and the Lc and Lm was worse with each test (attached).
I'm using Jetbest Max2 Ink with the bulk cartridges. The previous owner was using other ink, I forget their name, but they have some bad feedback online.
Is it time for a new printhead? Is there anything else I can try? Should I soak the head again, should I pull cleaning fluid through the lines again..is there anything else I can try to get the Lc and Lm to flow, or is it just a bad printhead at this point? Thanks for reading this.
