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Author Topic: Anyone take a 3880 apart?  (Read 10258 times)

jrsforums

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Re: Anyone take a 3880 apart?
« Reply #20 on: October 24, 2014, 11:10:50 am »

Next time, I suggest you use the service program and use the initial ink load.  Uses a lot of ink, but should clear all the air from the lines, which is probably your problem.


Well, I got squat from the nozzle check yesterday night once I got it running again.  A few black marks and nothing else color-wise was showing.

Ran a few power cleanings.  Still nothing.  One evidently caused the Maintenance Tank to think it was full so the printer refused to go beyond that "Replace Maintenance Tank" warning on the LCD.  So I found an old one and shoved it in and it accepted that.

Another Power Cleaning and still no nozzle checks.  Now nothing at all, and not even one line showing anywhere.  Like it had no ink at all in it.  >:(

Crap!  Off to sleep...

At 3AM I awoke and went outside where it still sits on the patio with a flashlight to check to see if I had left something covering the carts keeping the ink from flowing. All clean and nothing looks amiss on the carts or their intakes in their wells.  Carts still seemed full and I would have thought all the prior Power Cleanings would have drained them somewhat.  Outside of the printer was really damp with dew and I had to wipe off the LCD to even see it.

Powered it up figuring maybe it would short out and die so I could put it in the trashcan for pickup, but it started as normally even though damp.  The Power switch is on the secondary side of the main power board so the printer is always powered if a line cord is in it.  The power button shuts off the low-voltage secondary side as the ribbon tape to the LCD is sort of small.

Did yet another Power Cleaning (Maybe 5 since I re-started it.) and went back inside. Came out 15 minutes later and put it into the Automatic Nozzle Check mode.  It spit out a decent auto-printout (i.e. The 3 blacks and the cyan checkerboard.) in maybe 30 minutes.  Then I printed the normal nozzle check from the LCD menu and it is working again!  All colors are now showing and no breaks at all!  YAY!!!  :)


Maybe being damp all night, and since the sprinklers missed hitting it by a foot, and it being under plasic tarp got it (the head) moist enough?  Maybe it had way too much ink flushed out since I ran the cleaning solution into the head and the dampners?  Lots of air?  Maybe all tanks out and ink lines broken caused the air pump to not prime the system up as well?  I dunno.  Least the thing responded with a nice nozzle check, although on semi-damp typing paper I had left in it.  

I'll await until daylight and it warms up and dries off to try another run, maybe do an ink alignment line test too.

Aside, the paper - so far - hasn't gotten mangled by the head as prior.  So maybe the stainless steel windshield wiper blade fixed the thing.  I noticed the 0.9mm blade was clear of the head sliding over it (I used a 0.85 feeler gauge along with a piece of double-sided Scotch tape to hold it in the tray as it slides pretty easy as is.).  The 1.0mm was a definite strike so it appears the blade fix for the broken tabs is in the proper position.  The bend marks I put on the wiper blade were at: 0.21" 0.45" 2.35" 0.45" and 0.21" should anyone need to make one if their tabs snap off and the head dragging begins.  Blade cross-section was 0.170"wide x 0.030" thick.  Just bend it up into the dog-eared U-shaped thing like in the above photo with needle-nose pliers and file ends to fit within slide and smooth off the ends.

SG

« Last Edit: October 24, 2014, 11:12:51 am by jrsforums »
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John

Some Guy

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Re: Anyone take a 3880 apart?
« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2014, 11:44:45 am »

Next time, I suggest you use the service program and use the initial ink load.  Uses a lot of ink, but should clear all the air from the lines, which is probably your problem.



I did find an Epson service program off some Russian site.  Had some weird thing about resetting Windows XP too: "Run under Windows XP.  Change PC date to October 20, 2008 before run the program. www.2manuals.com" in the text file within it.  Never used it as I'm on Windows 8.1 so I would have to find an old Windows XP computer to even run it.  Could be for the 3800 too instead of 3880 so I don't know (Year 2008?).  So I just did the Power Flush a lot which probably killed off the Maintenance Tank counter chip sooner too even though no ink ever flowed into it.

Would be nice if Epson would sell their silly service program to set these things up, but seems they'd rather you throw it away or find someone nearby who will fix it (ha ha that!), albeit the parts that may be needed (Like maybe a $994 print head!) would exceed the price of a new printer plus whomever's labor.

I'll note the most dangerous screw in the whole thing for me was the inner carriage screw near the left rear facing the machine.  It's one of three screws that holds down the print head.  If you cannot get it straight into the boss there and angle it off a bit due to the top rollers and cam, it will snap off the plastic boss threads (Doh!).  One can drill it deeper and add a longer small diameter sheet metal screw to hold down that plate if it happens.  Probably best to take off the two small upper springs and the two screws that hold the cam roller on to get a nice angle down into it.  Posted the photo of the busted boss.  A long 3/32" drill (A 3/32" drill super-glued into a crimped piece of brass hobby shop K&S tubing.) into what plastic was left in the hole and a long skinny sheet metal screw took care of that problem too.

SG

Add (10-25-2014):

Printer is again printing.  Looks good.  No head strikes so far.  No need to use the Epson calibration software or whatever they call it since reassembling.  Just took a lot of Power Cleanings, Letting it sit for a few hours. Switched MK and PK inks (Other was missing a few bars on the nozzle check since reassembly and had do do another Power Clean and sit for few hours).  One wasted Maintenance Tank too.

Seems all is well again...  I hope!

SG
« Last Edit: October 25, 2014, 07:43:17 pm by Some Guy »
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dhodson60

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Re: Anyone take a 3880 apart?
« Reply #22 on: October 26, 2014, 05:22:12 pm »

Wow!!  - the only thing missing was duct tape. 

Seriously though - a very impressive effort on your part - congratulations.

Dave
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jferrari

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Re: Anyone take a 3880 apart?
« Reply #23 on: May 02, 2015, 08:20:21 pm »

nice one. the whole thing was depending on a duct tape. I can not even imagine about it.

Your translator isn't working very well. He said: "the only thing missing was duct tape."   My Troll-O-Meter is pegged!
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