screen printing > Equipment

Roller Fames and more.

<< < (3/3)

ZooCity:
Manual printing here.  We went from static alum 20x24 to 25x30 M3s all at once with a roller master.  I don't like having multiple frame sizes/types one bit so I got rid of the statics straight away.  I would've gone 25x36 from the get go but that's a long reach and extra weight for a manual printer to wrangle on press. We also don't need the extra space at the top and bottom for the squeegee/flood carriage to complete its cycle either.  

Bought the first set used with the roller master for a song, I think it was about $900 for the roller master and $15 a frame.  Used roller masters are a great deal, used roller frames not so much in my opinion.  Even with the very best condition used rollers I've picked up, and the last set of 30 we got were in cherry condition from the start, there's still far too much labor involved in getting them clean and smooth and into production.  I'm buying new or very, very lightly used only from here on out.  

I built our dry cab originally to accommodate 25x36ers and made sure to buy racks and tanks that could hold 25" wide screens so the transition was no big thing.  We have a large franmar/blackline tank for stripping and an upright, blue Easiway tank for plain water soaking.  Both do the job just fine.

For high tension screens w. newman roller mesh I like to use bolt mesh so I can load it just how I want it for the tension.  A screen at 55n has much different requirements for corner softening (and even reverse curve technique to prevent bowing) than a middle tension screen at 30n or under.  Bolt mesh gives you freedom to see what works for each mesh/tension which is it's upside.  Having discovered the middle-tension "S" mesh I'm now all about the shur-locs for speed of loading with those.  They've been a real luxury to use and the folks at shur-loc are excellent to work with so far.  I need to whittle down my mesh choices and pull the trigger on a whole mess of them, built custom for our obscure frame size, later today.  They are indeed spendier than mesh by the yard but at least you don't need buy locking strips and you can save 15-20 minutes per screen using them.  Loading bolt mesh isn't such a hard thing to do once you learn it well, but it is definitely an acquired skill and I wouldn't expect just anyone to learn that side of it in less than a few days of getting to know it.   Hence the panels for us where we can use them- it lets anyone in the shop re-load and tension mesh.  And, though I haven't tried it yet, you can pop out the panels and swap 'em for different meshes as needed which means you can squeak by with less screens in the production cycle.

If switching up to the larger format will speed production then go for it.  That tri-loc will sell easily, ditto for the smaller dip tanks and, not sure what light unit you have, but big ass vac frames seem to be easy to find used for a good price right now.  We picked one up and I'm stoked to be able to shoot 2 screens at once soon as well as accommodate large format screens.  As far as the drying cab goes, why not just build a drying room and you can roll the racks right in there?  

Evo:

--- Quote from: ftembroidery on April 27, 2011, 05:00:39 PM ---You can use carburetor cleaner to get off almost anything like tape and other gunk from the roller frames.

--- End quote ---


Posted this in another thread about cleaning a press:

http://www.realmilkpaint.com/citrus.html


Will make most roller frames spotless.

Pure limonene. Smells like orange oil. Will even remove the chemical resistant adhesive from the white Polyken screen tape.

Evo:
One more advantage to the limonene - it does the work. Put it on and let it sit, the adhesives will come off very easily. Scrub a little bit, then clean off with some simple green and a pressure washer.

The trick with used frames is don't spend much time prepping them for use, this defeats buying used in the first place. If it takes longer to clean up a frame than to assemble a new one, then you are eliminating the savings.

john52:
We changed over to 25x36 M3s years ago.  We bought a new roller master and 100 frames to start.  Later we bought another 200 frames from a guy who was downsizing for $25 each.  I was amazed to hear him say that before he started his liquidation he had 1800 25x36 M3s.  We actually didn't need 300 and sold some of them for $30 each.  A couple of years later my partner and I split and my frame inventory was cut in half.  I have since bought some M3s used that were like new.   I believe our inventory is around 175 frames now.

It does seem like big money when you are starting, but once you have a good supply of quality frames you are set for life. 

Binkspot:
We have been running static and roller frames since we started. I prefer the rollers but we don't have a table so if I am not around to stretch screens they don't get done.
I recently went to send a bunch of statics out to be stretched and found it cheaper to buy a few sets of the Panel Frames. We picked up four to try but not convinced they are the answer but they are easy to put together. The same people make the roller panel. I have not used or seen one up close but is supposed to be about the same price new as other roller frames used. They will be coming out with the 25"x36" later this year and looking forward to trying them. They also have a nice stretching table again half the price of others.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page