My Epson CX6400 hasn't been printing properly for a while. This weekend I got around to taking it apart to see what was up. The usual story with inkjets is that the waste ink tubes get clogged. I was unable to find a service manual for free online, so I just dived in with screwdriver and needle-nose pliers.
| It took me a while to figure out exactly how to dismantle the whole thing: lacking a manual I had to experiment with looking around, seeing which screws connected which parts, and pulling things. After about half an hour I managed to get it safely stripped down. |
|
| The base of the printer contained the waste ink pipe, leading to a sludge trap. It was sealed off with wedges of felt. |
|
| Believe it or not, this next picture is after cleaning. I wasn't looking to restore it to factory condition, merely to unclog the tube and clean most of the ink residue. |
|
| The next job was to clean the waste ink tube in the chassis section. It seemed to be curled inside a plastic housing, so I was limited to cleaning either end, which I did. |
|
End result: it still doesn't print properly. Oh well. Perhaps a laser? I'm fed up with inkjets.
Yum, yum! Printer innards!
One method of keeping inkjet printers printing is to automation. Schedule a print job every day. You can use the same piece of paper 4 times if the print job covers only half a sheet.
That's what we do at the office since we tend to do big jobs and then the printer is ideal for weeks at a time.
(http://livejournal.com/users/sylvene)