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Ilford Gold Fibre Silk won't feed straight!

turtle

New member
Hi,

All my papers feed perfectly through my Epson 3880 and only ONE paper will not do so. It prints beautifully, but the image is slightly canted on the page. The printed area is perfectly square, but not perfectly parallel to the edge of the page.

All of my Baryta papers feed perfectly, except this one. Is there anything I can do? Anyone know what the problem is? This paper is no thicker than some of my others but perhaps more rigid and the surface is unique.
 

Jeffg53

Member
I use it on a 3800 and always feed from the rear. I have had it skew occasionally but so do other papers.Could it be a cleaning issue?
 

turtle

New member
I will try rear feeding. Its not a cleaning issue as the printer is fairly new. I think it has something to do with the surface texture and hardness of the paper. I think it slips somehow during the alignment process when top feeding. All other papers OK, but this one I like most!

Thanks Jeff. Rear feeding for the next try!
 

Lisa

New member
I've had this problem for years with my 3800 and 3880, with GFS (even with a brand-new printer). Every so often I ask for suggestions in online fora, and noone ever has any useful answers. The skew is quite consistent. I've just learned to trim the edges with a paper cutter afterwards. A pain....

What vaguely similar papers have you been using that *don't* do this? I might be willing to give them a try....
 

turtle

New member
I've used super A3 Fotospeed Platinum Gloss and Epson Pro Luster, with no problem. I have used smaller sheets of Harman Glossy Baryta and many others without issue, but think it is a product of the size as much as anything. I have not had A2 available to try, but who knows, maybe its only the A3-A3+ that is affected?!?

Lisa, does it go askew even using the rear feed? If I cannot solve it this way, I will simply try other papers until the problem goes away and short list from there. Its too much of a pain in the *** for me to trim prints down to irregular sizes.

I even tried a light pressure on the trailing edge of the paper as it fed to try to ensure a parallel feed, but that failed entirely. It seems to happen after the printer has bitten and as it adjusts the paper, which bodes badly for rear feed....

I will try A3 Monochrome Silk next, but have to say the GFS is the prettiest colour paper too, but happens to produce lovely B&W so a killer all rounder. I prefer the surface to the Mono Silk, which has a slightly odd dull gloss to it.
 

Lisa

New member
Thanks for your comments, turtle.

The bad skew only happens for 13"x19" paper (A3+), not for letter-size (about A4) paper. Those are the only two sizes I use.

I found that the rear feed produces minimal skew, but it misfeeds much more often. That's what I've taken to doing, however, and I press gently on the top of the paper when it starts feeding in order to reduce misfeeds. It's awkward and annoying to have to do that, however, and you can't put in multiple sheets with the rear feeder.

I used to use Epson papers some years ago (mostly Premium Luster), but I found that they outgassed considerably worse than similar papers from other manufacturers. I most often use "clip frames", with the glass directly against the print, and the underside of the glass would fog up badly from the outgassing. After trying several non-Epson papers, I ended up liking Ilford's the best.

I may try paper of a different thickness sometime and see if that's the problem...

Lisa
 

archiM44

Member
I just saw this thread today so here goes
After adjusting the platen width on the printer to the widest setting the problem disappeared on my 3880. I use the rear feed, since my printer is too close to the wall for the front manual feed.
 
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