My brand new wide format printer just ate a $200 roll of photo paper

I was running a test print on my HP DesignJet last Tuesday (in a rush, as always) and it just chewed up the whole roll. The paper jammed so bad I had to take the whole front panel off to pull out the shredded bits. Turns out I forgot to switch the media thickness setting after loading a different paper type. Has anyone else had a printer just destroy a full roll like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.dakota22h ago

I had a similar thing happen with a roll of canvas last year and it made me want to throw the whole machine out the window. I found out later the paper roll was warped from being stored near a window, which made it feed wrong from the start. Now I keep all my rolls in a dark closet and always check the media settings twice before hitting print.

river_wright7h ago

Man, that's frustrating! I actually read somewhere that temperature swings can mess up paper rolls worse than direct sunlight. Like, if your closet gets hot or cold, the moisture in the paper changes and it warps just as bad. I heard a printer tech say that a stable temp around 65-70 degrees is the sweet spot for storage, no matter where you keep it. Makes sense to me, since paper is basically just compressed wood fibers that react to everything. Your dark closet idea is smart, but maybe throw a thermometer in there just to be safe.