Squeegee Sharpeners...?

[Inkworks]

Feed speed and rotation speed will be key, both have to be slow enough to not build up heat and start melting the squeegee, but fast enough to leave a good surface behind, that's where a bigger wheel is great, but boy are they expensive.

[ScreenFoo]

IIRC, the small wheels were around two hundred and the big ones were close to six.  I did a bit of research down the road some of you guys are, and found that 1200 didn't sound that expensive once I figured in a diamond wheel, motor, good linear bearing and carriage, micrometer, some custom machining, and a good cabinet... not to mention design and labor time. 

All that being said, I'd still love to see someone build something cheap that works.   

[tonypep]

Which is why I am in the camp of simply replacing the blade.

[mk162]

I had a shop come by and use our sharpener, he said his blades hadn't been sharpened in 15 years...how scary is that?

[Inkworks]

Scary, but not unusual, the first t-shirt shop I worked in it looked like someone had radiused the edges of the squeegee blades they were so dull. I had a buddy send me a used chunk of 70 durometer blade and stuck it in and showed the owner the difference it made. We tried to have the old blades sharpened, but they just disintegrated.

[nobrainsd]

I purchased a DIY kit from Encore Engineering years ago at a show (at a discount). Just changing the blades seemed like a waste to me. I have both rough and a fine diamond wheels. They leave a very nice surface. The diamond wheels have lasted forever. If you treat your squeegees well and never have a nick or waver then it might not be a big deal. But I printed with solvent inks for years and sharpening the blade made a huge difference. The edge definitely deteriorated faster with solvent exposure. The diamond ground edges were much less susceptible to attack by solvents than a sanded blade in my experience. Plastisol and waterbase aren't such a pain. However, I REALLY like a nice clean edge and a true flat blade. So the investment was worth it for me and I give the squeegees a pass on the table after a long run.

The whole trick to a manual sharpening set up is to go slow and only take a little off at a time.

The Encore kit was a good deal when I figured in the diamond wheels and the slower drive motor. A lot of other devices like routers and such will need a speed controller added into the mix.

[GaryG]

Long ago at another company we used to use an Encore "blade" sharpener.
Not sure if they still make them.
It actually had a -heated razor blade- that sliced a new "factory edge" on them.
It took off more than a diamond wheel, but was as smooth as when extruded at factory.

[Gilligan]

New would have been a no-go, Used at a good price was what made me buy. Later this week we have $200 worth of sharpening to do for a local shop. I might actually achieve ROI after all in a few years.

The real question is how much tape are you using?   Damnit!  Sorry, couldn't help it!

[nobrainsd]

Those squeegee blade slicers were well known among flat stock and solvent ink printers. Really nice "sealed" surface on the cut blade. Supposedly much more solvent resistant. But those edges didn't last that much longer than a diamond grind IMO. Flat stock printing made me more aware of how much the blade edge mattered.

If I stop using so much tape packaging other non screenprinting things I wouldn't be spending much at all! 

[ZooCity]

Has anyone used the older belt style and can compare to the diamond wheel?

The hot knife sounds ideal.

[Inkworks]

We had the non-heated blade style, but it had deflection issues on both ends where the knife entered and exited the squeegee blade. The knives were only good for 1-2 uses too as they had to be stupid sharp to work at all, we upgraded to the diamond wheel there and found it to be better. Good squeegee blade should not have serious issues with solvent ink even if they have been abraded, just be sure to rest the squeegee for 24 hours before sharpening to allow any swelling to go dissipate. We worked with everything from Epoxy, UV, and Vinyl solvent inks to silver-filled conductive, dielectric and eletro-luminescent and photo-luminescent inks, even catalyzed silicone inks without issue.

[Croft]

Has anyone used the older belt style and can compare to the diamond wheel?

The hot knife sounds ideal.

I sold my belt style when I found a Diamond cut used , I prefer it over the belt we were using.   Only con is with the diamond cut you have to have a nice fluid pull across the blade without any stops or stalls because it will create a dent, that you will need to then remove more material to sharpen.

[tonypep]

Exactly and this can be extremely time consuming as in theory, you start with coarse, move to medium, then to fine. I'd rather have employees printing.

[ZooCity]

I'm kinda thinking belt would be ok for what I'm envisioning.  We wouldn't change grits, just polish blades each morning before carting, only those that are going to be used that day.  This way the blade never has a chance to actually get dull and need genuine sharpening, it would just take a quick pass or two with a high grit in the morning, after the rubber had a night to rest up. 

And you get a bonus belt sander for those woodworking projects, as one craigslister in my area thought his was for.

[GaryG]

We worked with everything from Epoxy, UV, and Vinyl solvent inks to silver-filled conductive, dielectric and eletro-luminescent and photo-luminescent inks, even catalyzed silicone inks without issue.

Inkworks~
Man talk about hard core to the hilt!!!