Sheller Girls

Printer Problems and Mat Cutting

My Hp LaserJet is still not working but I bought a rebuilt fuser last week. If that doesn’t work then I will have a monster large printer to get rid of.

Last week the only printer I have left stopped printing color. It is my old Epson 1520. It is the printer I will be using to print the large family pictures. Last week the color out light came on steady and despite putting in new ink the light wouldn’t turn off. After paying for retail priced ink and it still didn’t work I finally had to search online for the solution. After wasting my time looking at what Epson had to say, I searched on Google until I found my problem at a forum I’ve used for my other printers in the past. It was a quirky fix, turn the printer on and unplug it then turn it on again then like magic the ALT button works to be able to start the ink replacement so the printer recognizes it. Even though there was good ink in the printer, it couldn’t use it. I was seriously thinking I was going to have to buy a new printer soon and I don’t have the money to buy one I would like. Now that can wait. 🙂

I received the mat cutter a few days ago but I didn’t do a good enough job on the mat that came with the frame. Today I got some mats that were cut to an 11 x 14 inside opening but the outside measure is 16 x 20. That was the only size available. I can cut the outside down or we can just use 16 x 20 fames. I like that size especially since I will be cutting the top and bottom and a mat for a 16 x 20 starts thicker than the mat for the smaller frame I had. I didn’t find uncut mats there. I might need to buy that online.

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Debbie

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7 responses to “Printer Problems and Mat Cutting”

  1. Maisy Avatar
    Maisy

    I had problems with Epson Printers before, something about “wasted ink” pooling inside and it wouldn’t let you print at all after it reached a certain point … so I was into fixing it, and it would have required a tube coming out of the printer into a jar to hold the waste ink … which is NOT what I would do with a printer, this house isn’t a print shop! Anyhow that’s the last regular size color inkjet I had. My scanner wouldn’t work either, when it refused to print. I was done with it, it was burnt toast.

    All in all at that time I also had a cheap little resetter tool I bought on eBay that resets the Epson cartridges to “new” status, that helps to get all the ink you can out of a cartridge. (I was having problems with Epson printer wasting a lot of ink and leaving cartridges with too much in them when they said “it’s empty” so this extended my use of the printer.

    Also I had a software utility that you can work with the Epson Printer with, monitor levels and reset things … I can’t recall what all that was, but it made me friends with my Epson printers for a time.

    I still have the Picture Mate little Epson Printer, and if I use it attached to the computer I have to remember it needs adjusted, a white line shows up on top, so I don’t usually use it like that. But that software utility used with the Picture Mate really made my Picture Mate cartridges worth more to me, so I guess I should find if it’s still out there & if it’ll run on Win 7 64.

    I still am not sure what I’ll do about getting a large size printer or a regular size printer even … which one … aggggg!

  2. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    If I buy a new color inkjet it will be either a new Epson r2880-649 on Amazon right now or the older version Epson r2400 only for sale on eBay. Both will print up to 13 x 19 and use the same ink. They also print on the specialty papers. It cost 130.00 to buy a whole new set of ink (9 colors) but they are individual so it isn’t such a great cost if you print frequently so the ink doesn’t dry up. Never will I use a color inkjet for normal printing. I love my LaserJet and hope to get it working this week. If I can’t I will buy a cheap HP LaserJet until I can buy a more modern monster sized laser that can print color and 11 x 17. I will keep this Epson 1520 until I can afford another pro inkjet capable of printing 17 x 22. I can’t tell you what kind of printer to buy. If I didn’t have the need for a 13 inch wide printer or higher I find the world is littered with printers that are good. HP sells printers that use less ink but what is the quality of the pictures you print? My thought is pictures can always be reprinted, so keeping the original image or digital image is the most important thing. Look on Amazon and read what people have to say about different printers. The cost of a printer is usually the ink. Models that use archival inks cost more but you get better results. I am going to print the larger pictures for all of you. When I get a better printer I will redo them.

    Recently I had to get rid of my canon color inkjet because of the ink waist receptacle or print head. I bought a kit to clean it but it still didn’t work. It was not worth spending money on that printer.

  3. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    I just received my fuser replacement and my laserjet big baby works! Now my 2 essential printers work and I am happy. 🙂

  4. Becky Avatar
    Becky

    Debbie,
    I didnt see this before. I am glad your printers work. I have a surplus of old printers, but none are the quality or size you would use. we have three printers that used to work but may have dried up ink in them. i finally got sick of the printer hooked to the print server which hardly ever worked. i bought a new printer with a wireless chip in it, and it works like a charm. i suppose I will find a place to donate the old printers since you just can’t sell them for anything anymore.

  5. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    It is not worth storing old comuputers, parts and accesories. I finally threw out some old motherboards and related stuff that was probably 10 years old–that is really old in the computer world. Printers don’t last either and I threw out my canon printer too. If you have good printers that still work then donate them.

  6. Maisy Avatar
    Maisy

    Yes that’s right Debbie, unless you want to set up your own personal technology historical museum.

    I like saving things, plus I see anything as having a future life, art can take on any form. Never know what I might want to do down the road …

    That said, printers are things that I DO throw away, they are nasty things once they don’t print nicely. I’ve had too many of them. I love our little HP LaserJet 1020. It only does black but it does it so well … so much better & longer than any inkjet has worked for me. Which is why I’m hesitant to push Frank to really let me get a new color printer for regular things, and then a wide-format for my scrapbooking and other projects.

    (I have lots of parts in boxes, I do try to get rid of things that are more archaic than not, which is what my still working Win XP desktop really is, archaic. I want to build a new one, but that’s even worse to convince Frank of than printers, especially when I want to build a new one for the family, THEN build a Super machine for me to work with video & pictures and graphics.) As Frank says, it’s always something, then when I get you that, it’s something else …

  7. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    I aleady have a huge personal library. It seems that books are what hook me because they contain information.

    If I make a list of things I think I need I would have a hard time coming up with money to fullfill that list. But I only own few clothes and 3 pairs of shoes. If I have to go away on vaction, I need to buy clothes.

    Now I am going through boxes of papers. We have a high bed and can fit full sized boxes underneath I have lots of book in my collection and to sell. I don’t have enough bookcases for my books. My antique paper books and magazines are in secure boxes on warehouse shelves. Becky has another room completely filled with shelves of boxes with vintage sewing patterns. I am going to start selling them and we will split the profit. She is busy with her graphic desiging and church jobs so she isn’t selling on eBay right now. I have to get rid of things I don’t need so I have room for what I want to keep.

    I am not an orgainzed type of person though I could be if I didn’t own much. We have such a small house with hardly any storage.

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