The End

Well, its not quite like that for us yet at any rate, but it certainly is for the tulips which first put in an appearance on 24th March and made a brief appearance again on the 29th, playing a supporting role to a daffodil. I think they are unlikely to feature again!

Good news regarding my printer which is an Epson Stylus Photo 1800, A3 machine which gave out the dreaded "There are parts in your printer which are about to give out" message, or at least words to that effect. I understand that once this message comes up on screen, there are about 20 printings left before the whole thing packs up forever with all lights flashing but nothing responding. Whether the 20 prints thing is true or not I didn't wait to find out. I went on the hunt for a replacement printer but couldn't get one "off the shelf" any place so did a little googling and lo I found the answer.

It turns out that the message is a devious one to induce panic and get suckers to purchase new printers. Nothing has worn out. Just the wee foam pads which collect the excess ink get filled up and the ink has nowhere to go. Onto ebay where for the princely sum of ?19.50 including postage, I purchased one Ink potty (yes, that's what it's called!) and access to the software which resets the pint counter. This afternoon I took the end plate off the machine, located the two waste ink pipes and cut a hole in the end plate through which I passed the new waste pipes which terminate in the potty (a glorified plastic tub). These pipes are connected into the ones in the machine, end plate back on and now the waste ink drains off to an exterior tank which can be repeatedly emptied as required. The software made short work of the annoying message . I reckon that for ?20and a couple of hours work, I have saved a minimum of ?600 and the printer is working perfectly.
The tank etc is made by OctoInkjet. Look them up if you ever hit these problems.