Modified Tri-loc FPU

[Rustytraintrack]

We have been taking advantage of some slower weeks around the shop to make some upgrades to help with our efficiency. We got some less detailed stuff out of the way (drying racks for wet and dry screens, expanded dark room, film storage) before I decided to jump into turning our tri-loc and carrier sheet system into an FPU type system. The process of making this thing almost got the best of me. I'm not kidding, at 1 point I thought M&R had plotted against me to make my tri-loc unable to be turned into an FPU without carrier sheets. I was close to just packing up my crap and throwing away my last 10 years of printing to become a plumber and never look back. In the end, I made some adjustments and got through it. 

I couldn't be happier with how this turned out. I've spent the last few months really honing in on improving our production and have been thinking about this FPU pretty much non stopped the whole time. I can't wait until we pick up a little and can really start reaping the rewards from tightening out ship a bit. 

I think I looked through just about every post that mentioned FPU on here and took a little bit of advice from everyone who had anything to say. I couldn't have made this thing without people like Alan, Frog, Stinkhorn, Inkworks, Atownsend, Doug S, Mr Tees!! There are a ton more that have contributed on here that I stole from and I want to make sure you guys all know that the advice and experiences you have offered up on these boards has been invaluable to me. I have been looking at all this stuff for a couple of months now planning it in my head, and you all really helped me bring it to life. 


Thanks!

Dave O



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[Frog]

 

[Rustytraintrack]

haha. In the end yea, it all came together. For a minute there it was almost Alpha Mike Foxtrot though.

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[Doug S]

Nice work Rusty! 

[Rustytraintrack]

Nice work Rusty!

Thanks Doug. I was kind of stuck on how I was going to get the 3 points to be at the same height on the screen and the picture you posted a while back showing the aluminum square you added to the stops on the pallet jig was huge for me.

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[Atownsend]

Very nice!! Great job! I dig the add on to the tri loc pallet. Let us know how your accuracy is once you've been running it for a bit.

[Gilligan]

Maybe my neurons aren't firing... but aren't you supposed to flip the exposure jig upside down to make it match the press jig?

[Rustytraintrack]

Maybe my neurons aren't firing... but aren't you supposed to flip the exposure jig upside down to make it match the press jig?

And that is where I was stuck and convinced that M&R changed their tri-loc just so I personally couldn't make this thing. There is a metal lip that sticks out by the 2 stops on top that makes it impossible to get the screen in there when it was flipped over. So what I did is flipped the jig around so I'm lining my films up upside down at what used to be the bottom of the exposure jig. Then I added a new stop to the bottom(my new top) of the exposure jig to match the 3 points on press. If you look at the press jig in the original post you can see that the pieces I added to the stops are the same size and placement as the stops on FPU. Not sure if I did a good job explaining that, but that's what I've got.

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[Gilligan]

Just cut that piece off and then you can put the frame in from the bottom.

That's how Alan did his.

Adding your own stop makes me nervous... I'd rather just cut and flip... that's my plans.

[Rustytraintrack]

I thought about cutting it, but THAT made me nervous. This was just drilling 3 holes, seems to work perfectly so far. Only issues I've had have been from older screens and a couple that my screen guy didn't push down all the way. I still need to add a spring pin to the top to help avoid that.

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