Squeegee building

[larryk]

So my help has convinced me that we can build our own squeeges with the parts we have laying around.  Just some short 5 or 6 inchers for the manuals. I have the handle material and the blade material but I'm just not smart enough to get the wooden slot open to get the blade installed..... what is the trick to getting this job done?

[T Shirt Farmer]

Hammer.. Big One



It has been so long since I had wooden handled squeegee I forgot.. wounder if freezing the blade would shrink enough to make sliding into channel easier.

[Frog]

Just how tight are we talking here?
The blade should start in as they compress a little. Then the fine adjustment tool to get 'em down in all the way. (pounding on the handle, not the blades)
Are your channels clean?

[mooseman]

get some door shims at the lumber yard about $2.00 / pack they are wedges use them to open the handle slot let set for a few days pull and throw in the squeegee blade.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_3969-57404-PSH8-12-36-20_1z0x516__?productId=50051789&pl=1


or you can make you own handles form standard 2 x4 stock, guess what we do it all the time. You will need a table saw and afew dry wall screws. the pic below shows how we do it, we push stroke exclusively should work with a pull but we have no experience that way.
moosegoldberg

[Homer]

holy hell moosenuts, you have too much time on your hands to come up with these fancy diagrams...

we had to make a few custom handles for odd reasons too but I think you are way farther ahead buying them...but that's me. I've wasted more time making chit than I want to think about. like a squeegie sharpener...I finally said eff it and bought a real one.

[larryk]

Thanks to all for the suggestions..... I will be locating my BFH and get to pounding.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I don't want to talk you out of your idea, BUT I'd have a REEEEEAL hard time giving these up.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/291466239409?lpid=82&chn=ps

I'm so completely spoiled with these, I recently called Ed Long to see if he'd also planned make them for my M&R auto. (Answer was yes, soon...but they won't have the deflection extension, which I thoroughly love.)

I tape my Ergo Force manual handles with screen tape and you can't make me stop. I used to try to tape wooden squeegees but it is hard. No so these.... I tape right up to 1/4" of the print edge all the way around with a folded under "grab tab" for easy removal

Untape them, and use and a squirt of *lacquer thinner* on half a paper towel and they are 100% clean. You only need a few squeegees if you don't leave them dirty. I have less than 30 of these in different sizes. You'll have to pry them out of my cold, dead fingers.

I'm a pusher on my manual. The deflection extension and gripping the handles as shown in the link, keeps the blade from rolling over so far as to pop the tape loose.

Larry, if you wanted them, you probably could have ALL my wooden handles...since you've helped me so much.


* I know, I know. Lacquer thinner destroys brain cells, and makes the spotted owl lay square eggs. But I sniff it in the morning so I can get DOWN to the intellectual level of the shop help.   

[larryk]

Those look pretty neat and I am sure they work great........... maybe I will reward the help with some in the future. But for now... hell yes I'll take some of those old woodies off your hands. If you can ship them on Metro that would be great.... just have them collect on my end for the costs. Thanks, LarryK

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I'll call you. And I'll include a 16" wide Ergo Force for you to try. I rarely use them. Pretty wide for manual screens, but if you have statics, you can turn them sideways on some presses.

[mimosatexas]

I have a few of the ergo squeegees.  They print very nicely, but you have to dedicate them to specific colors or take them apart when cleaning because ink will get trapped under the metal and streak out later regardless of how you clean them.  I scrub and pressure wash my squeegees and while the wooden ones come out pristine after that process, the metal ones always hold ink unless you literally remove the rubber, pull it apart, scrub the grooves that hold the rubber in, let dry, then re-put them together. 

I have tried the taping method and it failed miserably.  I also push stroke so there was very little flex in the squeegee, but enough that the tape would unadhere here and there, ink would get under it, react with the adhesive and cause a giant mess.  Reapplying the tape every time is a pain as well.  I tried 3 or 4 different types of tape all with the same results.  I'd love to know how you are getting that to work.

I have a dedicated white and dedicated black one though and they rule.  I also use them almost exclusively for waterbased printing since that cleans off just fine.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I have a few of the ergo squeegees.  They print very nicely, but you have to dedicate them to specific colors or take them apart when cleaning because ink will get trapped under the metal and streak out later regardless of how you clean them.  I scrub and pressure wash my squeegees and while the wooden ones come out pristine after that process, the metal ones always hold ink unless you literally remove the rubber, pull it apart, scrub the grooves that hold the rubber in, let dry, then re-put them together. 

I have tried the taping method and it failed miserably.  I also push stroke so there was very little flex in the squeegee, but enough that the tape would unadhere here and there, ink would get under it, react with the adhesive and cause a giant mess.  Reapplying the tape every time is a pain as well.  I tried 3 or 4 different types of tape all with the same results.  I'd love to know how you are getting that to work.

I have a dedicated white and dedicated black one though and they rule.  I also use them almost exclusively for waterbased printing since that cleans off just fine.

Truly Bewildering.

I dunno. I use rubber backed plastic tape from Jeremy @ North County Tapes in Encinitas, Ca 760-753-8273 but it is my opinion that its just Intertape 500 series. Nothing special. It is his 3" white.

Hey, there is one thing.  The purple blade that shipped with some of my Ergo Force handles...what...64 durometer or something like that??...didn't allow the tape to stick very well at first. I always clean my manual blades with Lacquer Thinner on a paper towel from a mustard bottle, so there is very little if any ink or solvent residue.

The lacquer thinner flashes off so fast, that I just can't see any damage to the blades, in about 4 years of using them daily. But at first with the purple blade, it was like there was some "parting" compound ON ONE SIDE from the manufacturing process that needed removal. The tape NEVER EVER fails now, but it did for a few times, with Ed's blades ONLY. Now I remember even calling him about it. But I didn't at first.

I also use 60/90/60 I bought from Sonny, and even some no-name blade from who knows where, and the tape ALWAYS sticks, 100% of the time.

I have no difficulty re-applying tape. Zip Zap Zoop, Done. I've done it hundreds and hundreds of times. These handles are da bomb. Now if you were to print BACKWARDS, the tape will fail, just like with taping wooden handles, unless you allow for deflection. Now THAT....would be a pain.

I've got a girl (well, 27 is still a "girl" to this olde pharte) working with me back in the dungeon, and she has a little trouble taping squeegees the way I do them. So I s'pose there is a skill to it. But the tape never fails when she does it either. The "deflection extension" as Ed Long calls it, keeps the blade from rolling under enough to pop the tape loose. If that's how you use them, then yeah. The tape will pop loose.

The picture I added shows how I do it. Fold under a tab at each end, and go. Pinch the ends closed and you're golden. I always start on my right hand side of the "back" of the handles, and I like a little angle on the back side...so I can overlap the first few inches as shown with the last few inches. The front side--the THUMB side--shows the tape as being parallel to the "working edge" of the blade. About a 1/4" of blade shows.

[mimosatexas]

I'm using triple duro in all of mine but a 4" sample I was sent that has the purple.  I believe I tried that exact tape too.  Mine have the extension and with a push stroke they flex very little, but it is enough to have the tape unadhere on the bottom side, which is the messier side due to flooding.  Not sure why it is just not usable in my shop...

I'll try again sometime since I do really like them otherwise.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

A serious befuddlement as to why your tape pops off the blade and mine doesn't.

It pops off the back (thumb) side, never the flat side? Right?

Could your blades be greasy, or contaminated?   (I mentioned I use Lacquer Thinner....)  Still, if you had some contaminants, it seems it would occasionally work. I used to do long runs on my manual and the tape never failed. Long runs go on the auto now. The only use I have for the white tape is squeegees, and I'm approaching the end of my second full case of 24 rolls.

(Head scratching) 


I wish I had an M&R style squeegee with the Ergo Force Deflection Extension...Just to see how it'd work on my Gauntlet.

You better believe I'd tape those suckers. Not White or Black probably...

[mimosatexas]

Yes, thumb side only.  Blades should be perfectly clean, though I am using a traditional ink degradent rather than lacquer thinner.

[mooseman]

holy hell moosenuts, you have too much time on your hands to come up with these fancy diagrams...

we had to make a few custom handles for odd reasons too but I think you are way farther ahead buying them...but that's me. I've wasted more time making chit than I want to think about. like a squeegie sharpener...I finally said eff it and bought a real one.

Hey Homer where the hell have you been missed ya.
When it comes to wood I can handle it , I have been handling it for better than 40 years and have all the tools sadly sitting waiting for my return. Those handles start out as 16 feet of choice 2 x 4  and in less than 1 hour are magically transformed into blade ready handles.
Besides I just love the feel of wood in my hands.

I have several metal handle squeegees and use them as a last resort.

moosenuts, now I am twins and it is all your fault.