This is a teardown of the Epson Stylus 820 Photo color printer.
Caution: Along with being the most epic, this is also the messiest teardown on iFixit. If you decide to do this, make sure you do it on a surface that you will not care if it gets covered in ink.
While this padding at the bottom looks harmless, do not treat it that way. Skip the next step if you do not want to know what might be hiding inside your printer.
The object at the bottom of the last photo was 5 layers of absorbent padding to contain all the ink that the printer has wasted while cleaning its nozzles, in this case almost 8 years of ink.
The assembly is spring loaded so the nozzles can be pushed into a pad to collect ink, which is then somehow transferred into the large absorbent ink pad.
The main stepper motor, the part most likely to fail, is easy to remove.
The ink cartridges are easily replaceable.
Many parts inside the printer have ink on them, making repairs messy.
The other stepper motor is very hard to access and requires disassembling most of the printer.
The midframe, which contains the gearbox and secondary stepper motor, is attached to the case with blobs of melted plastic that must be cut off to remove.
The case is very hard and tedious to open without breaking tabs.
Time to see what is underneath the 'Do not remove' sticker located on the ink cartridge.
What is this network of labyrinthine passageways?
The answer is a capillary tunnel to reduce ink pressure. The lower row of holes leads into the cartridge itself, while the top row leads to the ink nozzles.
FOUND STUFF IN PAPER FEED AND THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE S+&T IT WORKS
ALSO YOUR TEARDOWNS ON OLD MAC LAPTOPS HELPED ME years ago when i got a ‘lot’ salvage and canibalised them for profit (not much but some) you folks are GGGRRRRRR8