colour printers Old Epson Stylus Photo 1270

[Warren Lake]

Years back bought this printer from a friend who was a pro photographer and made a living selling his work. I had this before going to a monster expensive one. When I bought it he had already done a massive amount of printing. With paper sort of 1.00 a sheet stuff it did amazing quality. In time no more catridges for it. I buzzed around way back and found there were guys running with tubes to bottles. Saved some info never go to it. As it is its of no use. Its a heavy older well made beast. How do these old school things compared to say the current model which likely has more colours of ink and maybe in the 500.00 range, or what is up from that. With faxes you get a new machine and it floats in the air compared to the model before that weighed more like a small car. No question this printer lasted as he produced big from it and other than head cleaning it just kept working. Ive never done a head cleaning and since no more cartridges. have seen people that refil old ones not sure how well that works. Can you get quality ink and use a syringe or is that mickey mouse. Got by on lots of mickey mouse then appreciate better stuff more when it arrives

thanks for any thoughts on these beasts. Ive had enough epson stuff and its always worked well, pro scanner beside me never any issues.

[Curt Harms]

Hi Warren

If you can get the cartridge number you could check with these guys:

https://www.inkowl.com/inkjet/refill...on/C10_S25_B3/

They also sell compatible cartridges. I bought a set of refillable cartridges for my Brother probably 8 years ago or more. These cartridges are not chipped but they work great. Cheaper to run than a color laser, just got to use it weekly or clean the heads. They have refillable cartridges for printers that use chipped cartridges, I have no idea if/how those work.

[Warren Lake]

thanks on that. Im not printer smart enough to know if my old one was lacking but to me it did stunning work. If I skip trying to work with this and go to a newer one with more ink colours can expect better results? I cant see the cartridge thing when bottles and tubes exist. The old one did all I needed till li could not get cartridges and now for sure the heads have to be cleaned from being ignored. I left my shop for a bit to be caregiver and most of the machines are mad at me but with a bit if time are fine again.

Will save your info and I always check if there is a canada place. Ordered batteries for the Sata digital guns from Texas which alwaym works out great not so this time but know they had callanges.

thanks

w

[Leo Butler]

Warren, I don't recall that Epson model specifically but there were many of their printers that suffered from nozzle clogging that was difficult to clear. I did a quick search for this printer and clogging does appear to be a common complaint. It's a printer first introduced in 1999 and the color ink tanks aren't individual, which is very non-ideal. There are possibly no printer drivers for it for any modern operating systems. Newest ones on the Epson site are for Windows XP. Honestly, this printer is probably not a good candidate to press back into service.

But beyond that, I don't think you'll find the color ink tanks for it. Looks to me like they're discontinued, almost certainly due to lack of sales. You might be able to get the empty one you've got refilled using some ink from InkOwl if you can find the right stuff, but you may need a chip resetter as well so the printer doesn't think they're empty.

I'm a "must fix old equipment" guy and it pains me to not tackle projects like this but I think you'll end up spending some money and in the end just have to give it to the recycler in the end.

[Warren Lake]

its old and heavy and from a different era. Friend was a pro photographer made huge on it and I used it fine never cleaned it never clogged plus bad enviro, The story only ended when I could not find the cartridges

For guys in this that print as pros I think my qustion was if the newer light weight stuff as it always is will last and more so if it is so much better. Unless I saw another one side by side that was better by comparison I dont see how this could have printed any better. I likely should go t a web site for that. It runs on XP perfect like most stuff did till they forced changes. Im old school some machines 60 years old, id take them over some of the new stuff so its easy to be that way. Old cars as well. I like a lot of old stuff. I remember I did watch some you tubes on how to clean the heads and it didnt seem to bad. I didnt use it tons and it never clogged on me likely now it would be.

Thanks on the thoughts, im not in a rush but would like to give it some time then decide in the next bit.

thanks


w

[Leo Butler]

its old and heavy and from a different era. Friend was a pro photographer made huge on it and I used it fine never cleaned it never clogged plus bad enviro, The story only ended when I could not find the cartridges

For guys in this that print as pros I think my qustion was if the newer light weight stuff as it always is will last and more so if it is so much better. Unless I saw another one side by side that was better by comparison I dont see how this could have printed any better. I likely should go t a web site for that. It runs on XP perfect like most stuff did till they forced changes. Im old school some machines 60 years old, id take them over some of the new stuff so its easy to be that way. Old cars as well. I like a lot of old stuff. I remember I did watch some you tubes on how to clean the heads and it didnt seem to bad. I didnt use it tons and it never clogged on me likely now it would be.

Thanks on the thoughts, im not in a rush but would like to give it some time then decide in the next bit.

Warren, I will say that I've had much better luck with Canon printers over the years. I have a Canon PRO-100 from about five years ago that has much better quality ink than anything in the consumer or prosumer space from the 2000s would have had. I bought mine on a crazy rebate deal so I paid about $100 for it. There are two models higher-end than this, the PRO-10 and one other. Of course newer similar models released since then. If you could find one used on Craigslist for a good price, it would be a better option methinks. The ink tanks are individual, the printhead can be easily replaced should anything go wrong unlike most Epsons. Just something to consider, especially if you can get a good deal on one.

Note that printers end up going into either the Computers or Electronics sections of Craigslist, so if you start poking around for one, look in both.

Cheers!

[Warren Lake]

im an epson guy. This thing did years with a guy making a living with it, it printed massive then I bought it used with all that time and it performed flawless. It wasnt cheap when I bought it. I used it for years lightly only to be stopped cause the cartridges ended. Looking used makes sense but still not sure how how newer models compare, they have more ink colours so should be better based on that if the ink quality is the same and how it holds its colour. I better do some homework on used stuff and new as well to see if there are advances and what they are.