Update - Id din't pick up a R3000, but found an epson 7800 that was all clogged up (not used for the last 2 years), but came with about $600 in paper. After a week, it's now unclogged and running color for me.
Now, to convert or not convert, that is the question.
FT,
Congrates on securing a working 7800. Way back when I paid $100.00 for mine because the owner was moving back to Japan and wasn't going to ship the printer.
It was a 10 year old printer that only made 1805 prints over its lifespan, but was utilized just enough not to develop any permanent clogs.
A few months ago my 3880 died. I was doing some maintenance cleaning the capping station and something sprung loose. Pretty much I had an exploded diagram like Humpty Dumpty could not be made whole again.
I recycled the carts, chip resetters, and spare maintenance carts to a friend who has a working 3880. No complaints because I used the 3880 very heavily, and I'm surprised it lasted 5 years the way I printed with it.
You should know that the 78XX and 98XX printers are the last of the Epsons that are user servicable. I found the service manual online as a free download. Of course I used the printer at work to print out the about 600 pages.
Earlier this year in the spring I loaded ink and began printing, but I had some problems with intermittent clogs and banding. Previously I put the printer into storage mode with Piezoflush, and in the past this cured the problems, but this time I only got a few good prints before intermittent clogging returned.
So now this printer is about 13-14 years old and even though it was not used so much in its prior life, I kinda used it heavily. Understand that in one year I spent over $10K in paper and ink taking advantage of sales/discounts.
At this point my 7800 sits loaded with Piezoflush, I have on hand a full set of Epson OEM "Dampers," and I'm waiting for cooler weather when I will print again to install them.
Dampers are these filters that accumulate deposits that are right before the print head. Jon Cone recommends changing them every 2 years on a heavily used printer: mine are the original factory OEM's.
You have a maintenance menue that will give you the status of the carraige, capping station, print head, ink pumps... Pretty much you have the information to show how much life is left in each system.
On my 7800 I have either **** or ***** where ***** is new or still fresh. Basically at worse I only have utilized 20% of the life one system, and all the others remain fresh.
The Jon Cone carts for the 7800 are oversized. Pretty much I removed the cart doors because you no longer can close the doors. To fill a cart is about 350 ml, so you litterally pour from 700ml bottle into a funnel.
About every two weeks I topped up my carts. If you print glossy the Gloss Overcoat or Gloss Optimizer depending on if you print K7-HD or Piezography Pro gets drained the most.
Also know that rolled paper has cost savings. The paper transport is so much better than any desktop printer that you will soon be spoiled.
If you have to replace the printhead it is $1k for the part, but also know that the 7800, 7880, 9800, and 9880 are all known to have long print head life. My print head is **** meaning I have 80% left.
Cal
