R Jennings

[screenxpress]

Thanks for the info I have decided to put the Jennings press up for sale and i bought a 6/4 workhorse mach.

BTW Steve, I have a workhorse 6/4 and I STILL use spacers taped to the front edge of the screen so flexing won't nose it down.  The back generally maintains it's off-contact.

[sweetts]

I think every pretty much covered your original question. But, I"ll also add that the off contact on this press was designed to be set and left alone. I feel this is how all presses are. Some have presses have tool-less off contact adjustments, but ideally you want all your heads to have the same exact off contact and be level. I think the quickest way to adjust off contact is to shim the screen as previously mentioned. It only takes an extra second when loading your screen.

I liked my Jennings a lot. I think the only 2 changes I would make to this press would be M&R style aluminum pallets (Roger is adamantly against aluminum pallets) and Vastex/Anatol/Antec style micros. I think you would then have the perfect manual press. The micros were the only thing I really didn't like when I had one.

The diagonal micros are a pain until you get the hang of it, and by the hang of it I mean get spot on registration on each screen before it touches the press so you don't have to use the micros lol

[steve1coelho]

Valid points from everyone I'm not bashing this press I do own it and also drove 7 hours to buy it. I do believe that the work horse will be a much faster set up. I also tried the paint stick or shim but seems to not work for me.

[chubsetc]

I think every pretty much covered your original question. But, I"ll also add that the off contact on this press was designed to be set and left alone. I feel this is how all presses are. Some have presses have tool-less off contact adjustments, but ideally you want all your heads to have the same exact off contact and be level. I think the quickest way to adjust off contact is to shim the screen as previously mentioned. It only takes an extra second when loading your screen.

I liked my Jennings a lot. I think the only 2 changes I would make to this press would be M&R style aluminum pallets (Roger is adamantly against aluminum pallets) and Vastex/Anatol/Antec style micros. I think you would then have the perfect manual press. The micros were the only thing I really didn't like when I had one.

The diagonal micros are a pain until you get the hang of it, and by the hang of it I mean get spot on registration on each screen before it touches the press so you don't have to use the micros lol

I have been printing on Jennings manuals for almost 15 years, although the micros are not the best once you get practice and realize they are "micro" adjustments and not for big movements (especially left and right) you can get dialed in very quickly.  Not so easy for a beginner but once you get the hang of it they work.

As someone else said the lack of pallet deflection is awesome, there are a lot of reasons I haven't moved to another press.  Roger built his press in a vacuum, he did not take compatibility into account which is great when you continue to print manually, once I added an auto they do not work hand in hand.  I have toyed with switching to a more auto-compatible manual but I like it so much that I don't want to get rid of it for compatibility sake and end up with a host of problems I never had to account for.  (We still run a lot of small/non-traditional jobs on the manual)

[steve1coelho]

Ok so why when I put the paint stick in the chanel does it introduce pitch into the screen again

[Frog]

Ok so why when I put the paint stick in the chanel does it introduce pitch into the screen again

Sounds like something is not paralell

[steve1coelho]

So this machine should be level at all points from back to front of the head right

[Shanarchy]

Edited

[whitewater]

I do not put the stick in the channel, i just tape it under the screen.

[Sbrem]

Ok so why when I put the paint stick in the chanel does it introduce pitch into the screen again

This is a back clamp machine yes? I believe you set the off contact for the back, and the paintstick (or whatever you use for shims) goes on the front end, and has to land on the plate; hence, you get the same off contact front to back, and it won't dip...

Steve

[screenxpress]

Ok so why when I put the paint stick in the chanel does it introduce pitch into the screen again

This is a back clamp machine yes? I believe you set the off contact for the back, and the paintstick (or whatever you use for shims) goes on the front end, and has to land on the plate; hence, you get the same off contact front to back, and it won't dip...

Steve

What he said.

[steve1coelho]

His video sows the shim goes into the clamp under the screen. Yes it is a back clamp

[Frog]

Once the clamp is set up paralell, a shim underneath the screen should not add pitch.
A shim of the same thickness added to the front of the screen merely adds support

[Shanarchy]

Silly question, but what type of screens are you using? I'm assuming you're not clamping the roller end of a Newman, but if so that could present an issue.

I've never personally used a paint stick. Is it warped or thicker on one edge?

Can you post a picture of what is going on ?

[screenxpress]

My thinking -

An auto raises the platform and the squeegee drags across maintaining equal distance between the screen and the platform maintains even off-contact as the swipe occurs.

I believe with any manual 'back clamp' press, there will be flexing in the arm when you pull (or push) a squeegee across the screen due to the only thing holding the screen up is the arm and pressure exerted down will be more than the arm can withstand without flexing.

So if you taped any object (paint stick, cut yard stick, etc.) laterally under the front edge of the screen so it contacts the platen when pulled down, the mesh will maintain the off-contact and roll like an upside down tsunami when printing.  Without a shim, flexing will lay a larger than desired part of the mesh down on the substrate and could compromise the print by picking up an undesirable amount of ink back to the underside of the screen.

IMO