What grease/lubricant for Epson 1280?

I wanted to re-grease the shaft on my 1280 along which the printhead

slides. I applied some Pennzoil general purpose grease available at

the auto section of Wal*Mart, but apparently had over greased it and

the head would slide all the way to the ends - I suppose the motor

driving the head couldn't put out enough braking power to stop the

head when it reached the edge of the paper.

<p>

I wiped out the lubricant and this time I want to use one with the

right/recommended viscosity. Anyone has any idea what specification

to use ? Thanks much.

I just liberally spray WD40 all over everything inside the lid. Gears, print head, shaft... the whole thing. That way I'm sure to get lubricant on something that needs it.

 

I've noticed that some of my prints come out a bit oily after this treatment, but I figure it's a small price to pay for a thoroughtly lubed machine.

Probably time for a new printer. They don't make those things to be fixed as evidenced by the "fussyness" of a simple thing like lubrication. They want you to buy a new one. If you ever do find the right grease it will probably cost almost as much as the printer in the quantities you would have to purchase it in.

You might also want to check that you didn't pop the optical tracking strip, as this would give you similar symptoms.

Well first of all, grease of any kind is a dirt magnet, and is NOT a good lubricant for a printing head that has to move back and forth rapidly. WD40 is NOT a lubricant, but a water displacing agent. I would try and clean out all of this stuff using medical alcohol swabs which you can buy by the box at your local Walgreens or whatever, and if the grease has really splattered around (might even be on the paper rollers) clean that out as well. Try and get some feedback from Epson as to what to put on that shaft. If you can't get any help my recommendation would be an absolute minute quantity of sewing machine oil (with a Q-tip)

I like to use barium ion grease, like for a tractor.

 

Stuff never comes off. You could paint-on tattoos with it.

A couple of old printers I've owned, that were apparently expected to run for long enough to need a little maintenance before they were thrown away, had instructions that suggested that you lubricate the shaft with a couple of drops of oil. I use light sewing-machine oil. It really only takes a couple of drops.

 

WD-40 is a lubricant despite what some people claim. It just isn't a very GOOD lubricant. It's a very light lubricant with solvent properties, but it does lubricate, at least for a while. It does not all evaporate. Of course you could say the same of diesel fuel. It doesn't make it the correct lubricant for the job. If you doubt that it's a lubricant, though, spray something with it. Is it slippery? Does it stay slippery for a reasonable time? If the answer is yes, it's a lubricant.

OMFG never use WD40 on a printer or anything else that you don't keep in your garage. As others have said, it's not a lubricant. But what hasn't been said is that it turns sticky after a time, and is just awful. Plus, you inevitably get that stuff on things you never intended.

 

Ok, your printer rail. MG Electronics makes a clear silicone grease that is just excellent. I use it to lubricate the slide pots in the audio consoles at the radio station I work at. A little dab only, and it should work nicely. You could also try Lubriplate, which is labeled as being for garage door openers but it is white, clean and nice & light. I use it for lubricating VCR guides and DAT machine guides.

 

Or, you could just wipe it down with a dry paper towel and leave it dry. These rails are so highly polished they really don't need much lubrication.

Off topic, but interesting:<p><a href="http://wd40.com/Brands/wd40_faqs.html">From the WD40.com website:</a><br>"WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953."<p>Other pages on the website also makes various references to the product being a light lubricant, plus reference its ability to lift grease in a cleansing fashion. Hmmm... a lubricant that <i>removes</i> grease... one of the mysteries of the universe...

"Hmmm... a lubricant that removes grease... one of the mysteries of the universe..."

 

Not really. Lubricants vary. Many things that aren't meant primarily as lubricants have some lubricity - e.g diesel fuel. WD 40 has some lubricating properties along with its solvent and water displacement properties. You could lubricate your printer rails with diesel fuel and they would stay wet with it for some time (longer if it's summer blend). It would be a bad idea, as would WD40, but to say "WD40 isn't a lubricant" is contrary to experience. It is. Detergent motor oil will remove grease too, by the way. Grease is just oil mixed with a saponifier to keep it from flowing too fast.

I had a problem with my Epson 1200 with a dry rail.I called the repair facility and they recommended me using 3 in 1 oil(light machine oil).I was told to put a drop or two on a cloth and rub it on the rail.Wipe off the excess.You don't need much to lubricate this part.It's been working for me for the last 18 months with out any problems.I didn't have to relube yet.

Thanks for all your reponses. How about motor oil (Mobil 1, 10w-40 fully synth.) ?

Sorry guys, I do lots of mechanical stuff. Don't use WD-40 as a lubricant. "Some properties" "despite what people say" just doesn't cut it. BTW it can also be quite volatile under the right conditions. There are also many different kinds of grease. (Some of which are made from animal leftovers) When you have high precision parts, you don't want to lubricate with something that gums up the works after a while.

I can't do this... my earlier post about the WD40... that was a joke.

Im a authorized Epson printer technician. The appropriate grease is G-26 grease manufactured by Epson. You can purchase some from TSAworld, inc. telephone: 800-635-5388. the part # is E-B70260001 and comes in a jar for around $17.

 

You want to use a very small ammount approximately 1/2 the size as the eraser of a #2 pencil. apply it to the top side of the rail and spread. you should just barely see the grease. Too much grease and the bushings that the carriage assembly rides on will come off and you'll end up needing a new carriage assembly and that will require a technician. Never use petroleum based oils in an epson printer. You can do more damage than good.

<p>I'm a retired Epson service agent, though they still get me in to service the difficult printers from time to time, I have a few containers of the G-26 lubricant on hand, it's marvelous for those sliders on CD-Players as well.<br>

Just a scary story about using the wrong lubricant or namely WD-40 (which we call "<strong>Jam in a can</strong> "), since once it evaporates it leaves a sticky, tacky gunk that jams up almost any movement it is applied to.<br>

I was servicing cash registers for TEC and a client thought he would save money by lubricating the fine hammers on the printer himself. As to call us in cost him around $80 (Australian) for the anual visit and $10 per drop of lubricant. As these hammers were fine and needed a very expensive Molykote watchmakers lubricant. Which we used very sparingly, like about 4 drops would keep his hammers lubricated for the year.<br>

This lubricant also doesn't collect dust like most of the others, which is very important when working with paper.<br>

So the anual service would likely cost him $120.<br>

He called us in a frantic state about 5 days later saying his cash-register will not print. On first look, I noticed that none of the hammers were moving and there was a thick yellowish glue between them, a bit like the consistency of half dried honey. So I asked him what it was and he confessed and showed me the can of WD-40.<br>

I then told him that the only thing we could do in the short term was to completely wash the hammers down (first we used alcohol and if that fails, white spirit) and then reapply the watchmakers lubricant, and usually it requires more than just the usual top-up. Costing him around $300.<br>

Failing this we would have to order him a complete printer unit of $560 plus $80 install fee.<br>

The cleanup worked fine and he never, ever complained about our annual fee again.<br>

Cheers,</p>