When we started to use third party pigment inks in our 2100, we noticed for the first time that the 2100 printer has an entirely new mechanism for feeding paper out of the printer. As well as the ‘pizza cutter’ wheels seen on previous models, this printer has large rubber-rimmed wheels that seemed particularly able to pick up wet ink off a glossy sheet of paper or film.

Whilst we are confident that our UL inks are a little bit slower to dry than standard OEM inks (and it could be said that this is not a good thing) we are fairly sure that these problems can effect OEM inks too. Like on non-instant-dry papers that are ‘swellable polymer’ types. So, if we can fix this roller issue, then maybe we could broaden our choice of papers whatever ink we use?

We looked at the possibility of removing the rollers using techniques similar to the How do I remove the pizza wheels? document, but we found that these could not be used on this printer. We investigated if some dissassembly of the printer would mean that we could remove them properly... but the job was too complex for us! Still, after some trial and error we came up with the solutions discussed on this page.

But First This...

But we need to take a moment to rant and rave that this is a problem that Epson already fixed, but not for us, but for CD printing! If you look carefully, when you place the CD print tray on the printer, a small bar is pressed that lifts up some of the rollers so that they will not press down on the CD as it comes out of the printer. How frustrating! It seems to us that they could have made everyone’s life easier if only they had extended that bar right across the printer and made it user-configurable. There are reasons not to do this, as we shall see... but still it is frustrating! The image above shows the action of the rollers, from a viewpoint you will never see unless you disassemble your printer; nevertheless if you look at the output feed of your printer, you should be able to see this work with little trouble.

And Before we get to the Nitty-Gritty

Let’s just take a moment to remind ourselves what those rollers are there for! Well, we’re not 100% sure, but they are almost certainly there to ‘pull’ paper out of the printer. The rollers under the paper are motorised, and by pressing against the rubber rollers above them, they are able to pull paper out of the printer. This is particularly relevent for the function of the paper-cutter accessory, we would imagine... as well as simply ejecting paper from the printer cleanly and evenly.

In other words, messing with these rollers could limit your use of accessories etc...

We will also remind you that playing with the internals of your printer is done at your own risk, and could invalidate elements of your warranty!

Method 1 - Suspend, not Remove the Rollers

Rather than remove the rollers altogether, we are simply aiming to lift them away from the paper a little way. You will need a small flat-blade screwdriver or similar. Please read the whole procedure though before proceeding!

Looking down on the printer with the cover open, you should clearly be able to see the rollers. With the power off, a finger can be used from the front of the printer to push the roller upwards - just like we saw with the Epson bar for the CD-tray. Now, insert the screwdriver - highlighted in red above - (it will need to be quite short and really quite small) under the spring that is the axle for the roller, and lift it up through the gap in the metal sheet. Then, just let it spring back, as shown on the left rollers in the image above. This alone is enough to lift the rollers away form many normal types of glossy paper.

Before carrying out this procedure with more than one roller, we recommend that you try just one, and also try reversing the procedure. This is done by pushing the roller up with your finger, and forcing the spring back down through the hole with the flat blade of the screwdriver. It’s a little fiddly, but once mastered can take just a few seconds.

Note: If the spring axle is entirely removed from the rubber roller, then the roller would drop back down, and you would not be able to fully remove it without printer disassembly. This should not be necessary, if you stick to this method... but we would urge you to take caution in that you do not want the spring to dislodge and get lost. It is possible, but least likely in this configuration, we reckon. We leave a note on the printer reminding us when the roller springs are raised like this!

Margin of Error

To help ensure that the output feeding of the paper is not unduly harmed, we like to leave at least a couple of rollers on the sheet. That means for A4 portrait we leave the rightmost (as we look down on the printer) roller well alone, raise the next six rollers, and then leave the rest alone. This is shown in the picture below, with the suspended and ‘normal’ rollers highlighted with red and green arrows respectively.

We then need to leave a small margin on each sheet; but for us this works just fine for most of our work. In our view, the results are well worthwhile! Similar techniques should be quite possible for printing on larger sheets... and possibly even with more rollers raised if you can handle the impact of that (sheets needing to be manually pulled from the printer, etc).

Method 2 - Quick Cable-tie Lift

An alternative method that has come to our attention is to use small plastic ‘cable ties’ with the ‘tail’ cut to just a few millimetres long. These can then be pushed into the front of the dark-grey roller holders as the roller is being pushed upwards with a finger. It is a little fiddly (we use a pair of pliers to hold the small ties) but it is handy with possibly fewer concerns than the first method suggested.

Hopefully, the image to the right shows the view from the front of the printer well enough to make the procedure fairly clear. The ‘tail’ or ‘tie’ of this size of cable tie is approximately 2mm wide. The tail of the tie is approximately 7mm long.

Summary

We can not guarantee that your thoughts on this procedure will match ours, but our experience has been that this is all worthwhile. Not only have we broadened the range of papers that we can print on, but in so doing we have actually found a way of outputting pigment inks onto glossy-type papers with excellent results that hold a good gamut and with little or no apparent bronzing (though on a limited range of papers). Of course, that makes it worthwhile! These procedures may even be useful to extend the range of papers that some dye inks can be used to print on.

Please note that MWORDS has closed. We aim to retain these support pages in the hope that they may benefit our past customers, but regret that we can no longer offer further comment or support in relation to the information above.