3880 occasionally prints only on right side of canvas

[dbolt]

Thanks, Randy.  Good reason to leave the setting the way it is.  By using a larger paper leader, the printer is correctly confirming the page size.  The thought of cleaning the platen has very little appeal.

[Randy Carone]

I usually watch the first few passes my 3800 head makes on a print to insure that all is well. That way, if something is amiss I can hit pause immediately though I have not had any problems printing to my 3800.

[Ray R]

I had the same problem with my 3800 and using paper paper cut from a roll. I came to the conclusion that I had not cut the paper absolutely square, and that the printer was reading a smaller paper size than was there.

[dbolt]

I had the same problem with my 3800 and using paper paper cut from a roll. I came to the conclusion that I had not cut the paper absolutely square, and that the printer was reading a smaller paper size than was there.

Not being square could explain my first failure because I just measured the paper leader with the Rotatrim and taped the leader to the back of the canvas.  For the subsequent failures, I squared the leader, but the width (not length) of the leader was probably less than 1/2". 

I would like to know how the printer senses the paper width, but my interest in the mechanism is now much reduced since I've been having started using a wider paper leader.

[darlingm]

If you print when no paper is under the head ink will NOT go to the Maintenance Tank. There are pads across the print platen of the printer that are spaced for specific BorderFree sizes. These are engineered to be at the edge of each size to route excess ink to the tank. These pads are visible under the top front cover. The balance of the excess ink will sit on the platen and can be a challenge to clean.

Yes, yes, yes.  Avoid this at all costs.  Can't remember the specific situations that led to this, but twice my 9900 has printed where there wasn't paper and got ink all over the platen.  A small amount of ink goes a long way.  Lots of paper towel and what seems like hours of rubbing... It's like penalties in football that get you half the distance to the goal.  I feel like the platen never gives up all the ink, but eventually there's an acceptable small amount on there.

[hugowolf]

The pads for the overspray on the edges of borderless prints are visible at the supported borderless widths. And this works fine for roll feed printers. But what happens to the ink at the top and bottom of the sheet for borderless printing on sheet feed printers?

It has always struck me as very odd that a printer like the Epson 3880 can print A2 and 17 x 22 inches borderless, but not 17 x 25 inches.

Brian A