Loading Wide cut paper; Ink usuage Epson R3800

[dgillilan]

Dear Fellow Printers,
I have printed my first very wide print on my new Epson R3800 printer, wtih the K3 inks. I am pleased with the quality, printed at 1440 dpi, but operator error(me) resulted in a skewed print, usuable but not perfectly straight.
I see in the manual that I should have flipped out the edge guide on the right side of the auto sheet feeder.
Questions:
1. Do you recommend the auto sheet feeder or the rear manual feed slot(one sheet at a time) for 17x22 papers?
2. If using the auto feeder, does the edge guide really help?
3. If using the auto feeder, should I load more than one sheet, say 10 sheets, to "puff up" the thickness in helping it load straight?

4. Regarding ink usuage, does the printer have to "prime" itself everytime that the printer is turned ON from the OFF position? I was alarmed to see that a 4x6 print used 15(fifteen) ml of ink according to my job history; I may have set it at 2800 dpi, I thought I had printed both 4x6 prints(see job history below) at 1440, but I could be wrong.  I see a difference in each test 4x6 print, and one was definitely ON for high speed,but I think the 2440 dpi could have caused the massive ink use, or it occurred to me that I have not seen the initial ink priming that must have occurred at the first ink installation last week, in my job history until last night(I first installed the ink cartridges last Friday). So my job history shows:
job 0(most recent job): 17x22 (at 1440 dpi) used 1.93ml total ink
job 1(4x6) used 0.13 ml (at 1440 dpi)
job 2(4x6) used 15.55 ml (LORDY, was this at 2400 dpi?)
(printer turned OFF from job 3 to start of job 2)
Last weekend:
job 3(8x10) at 1440 dpi used 1.21 ml total
job 4(8x10) at 1440 dpi used 1.18 ml total
job 5 used 0 ml (I have only printed 5 sheets with this new printer)

Any thoughts?
Thanks, Debra

[madmanchan]

Hi Debra,

Good questions ... I'll try to answer.

1. Either feed should work when loading large sheets, but make sure that the left edge guide (the one that slides left/right) is flush against the left edge of the paper before you print. I have not found the rotating edge guide necessary yet, but it wouldn't hurt to use it.

2. Printing at 2880 dpi uses only 5% to 10% more ink than a corresponding print at 1440 dpi. This doesn't account for the large ink usage you saw on that one 4" x 6" print. In my experience, the 3800 will periodically run a cleaning cycle to get rid of clogs. At least, that is what it sounds like to me. (More specifics: I have run a manual cleaning cycle before and heard what it sounds like. Then, occasionally between prints, I hear the 3800 making the same sound. It's quite distinctive.) It is possible that a cleaning cycle was run before that particular 4 x 6 print was made. But there is no way that a single 4x6 print would by itself use 15 mL of ink!

[dgillilan]

Thanks Eric.
I think I misunderstood another part of the manual that said leave about 1/4 inch at the left side of the paper with that side piece. From now on, I will make it flush and will use the right edge guide clip also.
Don't really understand the ink usuage, but I think the 15ml ink on the 4x6 has something to do with the initial charging of the ink, even though it did not show any usuage for charging in my job lists for last week for two 8x10. I guess I'll never know, but I am now tracking each job and finding out ink usuage per job, per dpi used(1440 vs 2880), and per size paper.
Thanks, Debra