Originally Posted by
sanking
All of the Epson consumer type printers that use the star wheel to guide media are capable of making star wheel marks, depending on how they are adjusted, amount of ink put down, speed of printing, etc. That includes the 1400, 1430, 1800, 2000, 2400, 2200, 2880, 3800, 3880, 4000, 4800, and 4880. I am pretty sure you can count on the star wheel marks with the newer line of P400, P600 and P800 models because they too use star wheels to guide the media. If you own one of these printers and don't get the marks consider yourself extremely lucky, and don't count on your luck to last forever because the problem gets worse with use.
The only way to avoid the marks is to either remove the star wheels, or somehow disengage them. There are remedies all over the net for doing this depending on the printer. It is real easy to do with the 4800/4880 because all you have to do is manually lift the ejection bar and doing so prevents the star wheels from touching the media. The other remedy is to get one of the 78** or larger printers (7800, 7880, 9800, 9880 etc.) that use suction to hold the media down and guide it. I replaced a 3880 with a 7800 several years ago for printing digital negatives and it was without question one of the best decisions I have ever made. Better build by far, no star wheel marks, and easier to use third part refillable cartridges than with the 3800/3880 series since the chips are easy to reset.
To be fair, pizza wheel marks are normally only seen with glossy media and overhead clear film of the type we use for digital negatives. With matte papers you should not every experiences star marks.
Sandy
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