I have an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 printer that I basically love. Having a high quality printer like the Epson really unleashed my creative potential by giving me the ability to fine tune my photographs. Sending proofs off to labs and even waiting only a couple of days to get them back (like some of the better labs do) just wasn’t working out. Realistically, I could only do a couple of proofs. But with my own printer I can run scores of proofs if I need to.
There is one thing about the Epson that’s been bugging me though. I have nozzle clogging problems. It’s from two things – the relatively dry atmosphere here in Southern California and the fact that I don’t print every day. It gets so bad that I would sometimes have to spend an hour repeating the nozzle check and head clean before I could start printing. It wasn’t fun.
But last weekend I heard a tip from two people. Musical instruments, especially the kind made from wood, suffer from the wood drying out in low humidity conditions. And that affects the quality of the sound. So musicians purchase a humidifier device to put in their instrument cases. It maintains the humidity inside the case at an optimum level which keeps their instrument sounding its best.
The suggestion was to purchase one of these and place it inside the 4800. Well, the advice made total sense but I took a different tack. We had a Starbuck’s shot glass sitting around. I took a kitchen sponge and cut it into four strips. Two of these fit perfectly in the shot glass. Moisten the sponges, insert them in the glass, add a little extra water (not too much), set it inside the printer way out of the way where the print head wont hit it, and cross fingers. After one day I ran a nozzle check. Wow, it was almost perfect, good enough to try a print. I printed a proof and it was just great.
Since then I’ve printed more and it’s working perfectly. I check the water level every other day or so and am amazed at how quickly it goes down.
So, while time will tell, it seems the nozzle clogging problem may be solved. And I don’t have go to through the onerous chore of unclogging nozzles before I can print. I’m cranking out proofs and feeling productive and creative again. I’m a happy camper.
Join me on an upcoming workshop.
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