SP300V factory test print not 100% black?

[geckophoto]

So I have done a head soak to keep my heads from drying up while fixing my machine, SP300V, I noticed in the K/C cap it seemed to have a lot of C ink in it. I got my machine running again and the first nozzle check it seemed like the K nozzle was printing more like C, not a solid black color, running a few cleanings and more test prints it seems like it coming back to a solid black color.

I now just printed the test print with the color swatches thru Versaworks and the 100%K looks a bit cyan/faded light? On the gradation scale it looks fine until it gets to 100%K and there it has a cyan tint? How can this physically happen when only black ink line goes to the print head? Could have some cyan ink soaked up into the black print head and I am getting a color shift till it is printed/drained out?. I'm not talking color calibration when printing a file, this is the factor color test print I will post pics of it next, the nozzle check also shows the black head printing but it doesn't seem to be a solid black color?

I did take out the ribbon cables when replacing my encoder sensor and just put the ribbons back in the proper slots. Nozzle check looks fine. Any ideas?

 

[geckophoto]

Here are test file prints.

 

[Glennora]

That's happen to me. (same printer) Some cyan has back flowed into the head/damper/ink supply tube (depending on the amount of migration). Mine was Magenta in the yellow after a head soak. (Easier to see in test print) Cleaning cycles and printing all day didn't clear it up. I end up unhooking the exit hose below the cap at the Y before it goes into the pump and using a syringe to manually pull/prime the tainted ink through. "Wasted" 5-10 ml of ink, but was back to printing fine immediately. Hope this helps.

 

[Jim Hill]

Because the cleaning solution attacks the hoses and the rubber in a syringe I started used a brake bleeder that is normally used for bleeding brakes on a car.

I found this to work much better then using a syringe. The cleaning solution also attacks the hoses on the brake bleeder.

Jim

 

[geckophoto]

Thanks I'll try it and draw some black ink thru to manually flush it from the damper. But any idea why in my test print you can see the 100% K swatch going cyan when all the other K swatches are nice and gray/black? You can also see it at the end of the white to black gradation strip...

 

[Glennora]

The printer also "makes" black by using M,C & Y. (no need to use the B) This is similar to a RGB Black and mixing paint. You can get a nice black with paint by mixing all the primary colors together. I haven't actually mastered creating a print file where I can "force" the printer to use only the black cartridge. Hope this helps