Epson 1160 Pizza Wheel Removal

[ASMITHPHOT@aol.com]

The pizza wheels on the ESP 1160 are a combination of single and double 
wheels that are spring mounted in three plastic holders that are held on to 
the mounting plate by tiny hooked pins at the back of each holder and plastic 
clips at the front.  ( I recommend removing the pizza wheels before 
installing a CIS system.  I had already installed the CIS, and it made 
removing the pizza wheels much more difficult since removing the top cover on 
the printer was impossible without removing the CIS cartridges, and I was 
afraid that to do so might cause ink spillage.)  Without the CIS system 
installed, it may be possible to remove the wheel mounting plate entirely, 
which would make the following procedure much easier. There are, I believe, 
three screws that attach the mounting plate to the printer.  The following 
procedure is what I had to use, since I could not entirely remove the printer 
cover and mounting plate.

1)  Remove the screw on the left side of the pizza wheel mounting plate and 
the screw that is located beneath the print head when it is in parked 
position. To remove the screw under the parked printer head, follow the 
procedure for replacing cartridges. After the print head has moved to the far 
left, unplug the printer.  Remove the right screw.  You may then slide the 
head back to the parked position by hand.

2) Lift the mounting plate slightly, release the clips at the front of the 
plastic assemblies with a little sideways and downwards pressure, and each 
assembly should drop out.  The clip and wheel configurations are different 
for each assembly, so it should be nearly impossible to replace them 
incorrectly.  However, just in case, the left assembly has 7 wheel groups and 
4 clips. The center assembly has 7 wheel groups and 3 clips, and the right 
assembly has 6 wheel groups and 3 clips.

3) The pizza wheels are held in place by springs that go through the center 
of the wheels and are held into the assembly by the design of the assembly 
and the tension on the springs. Each spring has an enlarged section on one 
side. Lift the enlarged end of the spring that goes through the wheels that 
you wish to remove with a penknife, needle, toothpick, whatever, grab it with 
a pair of tweezers (or your fingers if you are more dextrous than I am), and 
slide it out. The wheels will then fall out.  All wheels are the same size, 
so you don't need to keep track of which ones go where.

Remove all of the sets of wheels except those that line up with the edges of 
the paper that you are going to use. I believe that it is necessary to leave 
the wheels that grip the edges in order to insure proper tracking and to 
prevent the image portion of the paper from contacting any part of the 
printer while the ink is wet. I have not yet tried printing with all the 
wheels removed.  I did find that the wheel configuration had to be the same 
on each side (double, or single), or the paper would turn as it came out of 
the printer.  Single wheels are easy to replace, since they just snap back 
in.  The double wheels are trickier because you have to thread the spring 
back through both wheels while they are in place in the assembly.

4) Replace the plastic mounts.  Make sure that the tiny hooked pins at the 
back of the mounts are seated properly or you will not be able to reseat the 
clips at the front.  Even when the assembly is properly aligned, it may still 
be difficult to reseat, but it can be done.  If the assemblies are not 
reseated properly, they will press down on the paper and cause damage. 

5) Replace the mounting plate screws.

6) Plug the printer back in. The print head should recycle back to the start 
position.

6) There are two additional pizza wheels mounted beyond the main banks of 
wheels which may also cause problems if the paper comes in contact with them. 
 This should not be a problem unless there is excessive curvature in the 
paper ( I have run into this problem with Ilford Photo Gloss paper near the 
end of the roll).  These wheels have two pins at the back which, when 
depressed, allow the assembly to be slid off towards the front.  If these 
wheels are removed, care has to be taken to remove the paper as soon as the 
print is done, otherwise the wet ink may cause the print to stick to the 
printer assembly at any point of contact.

I hope that I have covered everything. If not, feel free to contact me 
personally by email if you have any questions, or I can give you a phone 
number to contact me to walk you through the process.

Alan R. Smith
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