Novajet 750 woes!

[signgal]

Any insight would be welcome. We have been having issues on and off with this printer. It's getting old obviously and it's impossible to find anyone to work on it. We've learned a lot and done everything ourselves so far

But... we have this recurring problem with image shifting. The first time it happened we were told to change the bushings and as we had not done so in the 4 years we owned the thing, that made sense. :ROFLMAO: That seemed to do the trick until it started doing it again. We changed the bushings again and gave it a good cleaning. That worked for a little and then we had an issue with ink. Cleaned out the lines and were cruising along until the original shifting problem came back. Changed the bushings and it hasn't really helped. I while back our print server burned out and we hooked it right to the computer and weren't having any problems with but now we're thinking that might be the problem. Talked to several people over the phone and one of them actually heard the machine running and is sure it's the belt. That's about a $100 leap of faith and I don't know about anybody else but we've taken a big hit here with the economy (tourism's way down

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has encountered this as well. Attaching a picture of the shifting.

Thanks!

 

[OldPaint]

i havew an encad 736.......belt is bad........and ive noticed something like that.....on the last print i did.
clean the encoder strip, clean the contacts on the ink carts and holder.....

 

[signgal]

how 'bout the belt. Think I should replace it too?

 

[J Hill Designs]

better get it fixed before mardi gras

 

[signgal]

better get it fixed before mardi gras

There's always at least one comedian in the group *rolls eyes*

 

[Typestries]

agree with above post, clean the encoder strip

 

[signgal]

Just an update... even though I had already thoroughly cleaned every part of the machine, I cleaned the strip again, along with everything else and got 95% through the job I sent before it acted up again.

I think we're going to replace the belt

 

[signgal]

Ok, so we replaced the belt. Riddle me this, batman... The carriage test, Prime and Print settings function properly but can't perform color calibration test or test print without the carriage halting and giving me the "carriage axis failure" message. Bushings, right? Just put new ones on. AAAAAARGGH! and as I said above, you could eat off the damn thing it's been cleaned so much!

 

[OldPaint]

get a can of silicone. spray a bit on a rag...............wipe down rail with rag..............

 

[signgal]

that slicks it up or something? silicone spray? we tried wd40, didn't turn out well LOL

 

[Techman]

wd 40 is the worst to use. I got a trophy for this one.

The carriage error is nearly always caused by dirty bushings. The busings are sintered brass and will pick up anything and get sticky. The mist of ink wil eventually get on the carraige bar and into the busings and make them sticky.

I used to change the bushings a lot. Too much in fact. Now i use a drop or two of rapid remover on each side of the carriage and wipe down the carriage bar each time i run it and have never changed the bushings since. Its been more than 3 years since I changed a bushing.

A side note. I have the very first set of bushings I ever changed. I also have a brand new set never used. Comparing the two sets. The used set has no wear. But the tech changed them any way because of the axis error. So, I do not believe they go bad. They just get nasty..

 

[signgal]

wow! thanks! makes sense... i cleaned the brand new bushings with a cotton swab as suggested and i keep the bar really clean since our wd40 fiasco (it worked fine after that and before this latest issue). I will give the rapid remover a shot.

I just can't figure out why the carriage test works and it slides the whole length of the bar and all that but stops for the actual printing. I mean for the carriage test it prints black lines ok and for the prime obviously it prints, so why the failure on the actual printing.

I just cleaned the bushings like you said and it's still doing exactly the same thing. Any other suggestions? Yeah, besides get a new printer. I mean the prints off this thing just a week ago are gorgeous! It's so frustrating!

 

[Keith Rae]

Do you oil your bushings before installing them? Place bushing on your thumb pore in good oil to top of bushing, press on the other end of the bushing and oil will come out through the sides I Know a lot of cartridge bushings have a slot down the side so you mite need a friend for extra thumbs to get a seal to force the oil through the bushing. (I Use synthetic air tool oil don't seem to gum up and get sticky). Is the amount of movement over, the distance of one belt clog? Check by measuring the amount of image shift, to the spacing from the start of one clog to the start of the next. If there the same most likely belt slip. What causes belt slip? Carriage sticking -could be on a bad or worn spot on the rails, belt tension not tight enough, the drive sprocket not vertically or aligned horizontally allowing the belt to ride to the next grove. I have also seen it happen when the cartridge goes back into the dock station to clean and wipe the heads in the middle of the print job that carriage sticks and hangs up on the old drying sticky ink and the belt slips when the carriage is coming out of the print head station. Just some thoughts
Keith

 

[signgal]

well, see I can't get past this failure to see if the shift has been fixed and I was told to absolutely not oil the bushings, they are infused with lubricant and I don't think they have a "place" to oil like your description suggests... however, we did replace the belt because of what you suggest there in the middle of your post and the sticky station makes sense to me but like i say... i can only get those couple of tests to run successfully but it does print and run the length of the bar repeatedly for them. I get the failure right out of the gate on the color calibration test and when i send a file from flexi. Thank you so much for your suggestions!

 

[signgal]

keeping this updated to bump it up and hopefully help others too.

The most recent advice I've gotten from the Encad serviceman from way back that I turn to is to replace the servo motor. He says the 750 is the workhorse and powers through, which is what I've been saying in the shop. Long story not so long. We ordered a motor. I'll let you know the results when we get it in place.

 

[signgal]

ok, so we ended up changing the belt, encoder strip, motor and strip sensor out... whew! Got the ole girl running again... for a while *sighs* now I'm getting ink starvation. Is drinking at work frowned upon?!

 

[firesignz]

Novajet 700 Revival

OK, so I am working on bringing a Novajet 700 back to life. It had been sitting for 2+ years in a buddies shop (since he migrated to solvent). From the start I got nothing but carriage axis errors. In the 96 hours I have had it, I have become INTIMATELY familiar with this thing (inside and out) and have so far been able to overcome many of the problems. In addition to running new ink lines (not an easy piece of tubing to find supply of) I have thoroughly cleaned EVERYTHING (even the hidden encoder strip). I get through test prints ok, but am experiencing a very BAD image shift in different parts of the same file. I found on the kodak site where it recommends cleaning the strip with Windex. I have been using isopropyl. Any thoughts as to whether or not this would make that much of a difference, or should I just bite the bullet and buy the $650 worth of parts from kodak. (Encoder Assembly, Encoder Reader, Belt & Trailing Cable)

 

[signgal]

PM sent

 

[hharley]

I have had many a Novajet Encad and know how you feel. Like i said in other post i just picked up 2 more for free but were not running for 6 years ..eve Mice ate the belts right off the machines LOL. I just installed new belts new ink tubes ..cleaned everything real good....... Now i will fill with ink and see what happens

 

[signgal]

eeeep! I hope you got rid of the mice! LOL