Unclogging stubborn Epson CX5200 printhead

Thanks for the notes. I finally got a B&W laser and was thinking about a color unit. I've never actually had clogging problems with inkjets yet, at least nothing I couldn't fix easily, but the cost was eating me out of house and home.

I was off line a few days. It went out as soon as I returned. If you still haven't received it, please email again.

Art

Doc wrote:

Well, that depends. When I say waterbased, I indeed mean the inks are waterbased. That doesn't mean they aren't waterproof when they dry, or get locked into certain paper formulations.

The pigment inks used by Epson, for instance (Durabrite and Ultrachrome) are waterproof once they dry. They use non-water soluble pigments suspended in a water based liquid which uses water soluble acrylic resins. Once dry, the pigment is held to the paper surface via the resin, which becomes waterproof when dry.

The alcohol and ammonia dissolve the resin again even after drying.

Some dye inks also can become water proof upon drying or at least water resistant, so again other solvent or wetting agents help.

Art

clifto wrote:

Do keep in mind the actual costs of consumables with color laser printers is doing photo-coverage prints. Unless you can refill the toner cartridges, they can become more costly than inkjet prints, now that the business model in use for laser printers is similar to that of inkjet models, where the consumables are more costly than the printer, and the cartridges coming with the printer are "starter" type, often containing 25-33% of a full cartridge.

Art

James Sweet wrote: