Whats better than Hotronix?

[spencer_L&KC]

we have a slew of presses, the only one I want to use as a boat anchor is the 360 IQ hat press. Biggest POS on the market. Don't buy into the heated bottom platen, no crease on your hats nonsense.


Anyone want to buy a 360 IQ hat press ? it works GREAT.... 

Man am I glad I saw this. I was seriously considering getting one of these, almost specifically for the bottom heated platen. Basically I will be pressing a lot of screen printed patches, and the top heat can smash/distort plastisol prints a bit, so I was thinking the lower heat option would be ideal to heat the glue from below and not heat up the ink too much on top.

I was originally considering a Geo Knight hat press and getting the lower heated platen add on for it. Do you have any experience with GK lower heat cap presses? Do you think the lower heat stuff is just a gimmick in general or it just sucks on the IQ360?

I just got my heated lower unit in.  I'll let you know what I think of it when the patch job I have comes in.  The platen is smaller than I expected, but it'll work.

did you get the Hotronix or the GeoKnight?

[mk162]

I have the GeoKnight.

If you want the experience of a hottronix press, take about $3500, and place it smack in front of space heater until it lights on fire, and then hope it doesn't burn your whole shop down.

Same end result.

[spencer_L&KC]

I have the GeoKnight.

If you want the experience of a hottronix press, take about $3500, and place it smack in front of space heater until it lights on fire, and then hope it doesn't burn your whole shop down.

Same end result.

Gotcha. Someone local has a GK DK7T, the dual clamp hat press, for sale and its a damn good price. Hoping to check it out soon to make sure everything works as it seems to have been put to work pretty good. If it works then I will probably buy it and then buy the bottom heat kit to put on one of the bases. 

What has me curious is how the heat evenly gets through the inside center taping of a hat, where the front two panels come together. Seems since that part of the material is thicker, less heat will get to the patches glue there, possibly not adhering very well there.
 
I need the bottom heat to work so I am not putting so much heat onto the ink of the screen printed patches we make in-house. Looking forward to what you find with it.

[Rockers]

Which is why I strongly support the units with a dead man switch.

These MEM / East West units can get stuck down it’s extremely sketchy. We do not use the auto function because of this. Clamping your hand would suck but having it wedged/stuck together like ours has been would be brutal. Jaws of Life type thing.

We run MEM presses for almost 3 years now. Never had any issues at all.

[Homer]

Our POS IQ360 hat press temps are off by about 100 degrees or more. bottom platen doesn't get hot enough to melt the glue... we have the temps maxed out, thing is straight trash. I had better luck with a janky ebay press.

[CBCB]

Which is why I strongly support the units with a dead man switch.

These MEM / East West units can get stuck down it’s extremely sketchy. We do not use the auto function because of this. Clamping your hand would suck but having it wedged/stuck together like ours has been would be brutal. Jaws of Life type thing.

We run MEM presses for almost 3 years now. Never had any issues at all.

I could get one stuck down in two seconds.

It’s called Murphy’s Law. What can go wrong will go wrong.

Don’t dismiss a safety issue. It’s definitely something to watch for.

[ebscreen]

I could get one stuck down in two seconds.

It’s called Murphy’s Law. What can go wrong will go wrong.

Don’t dismiss a safety issue. It’s definitely something to watch for.

In the name of safety, what is the failure mode? There's a good chance the mfgr doesn't know about it.

[spencer_L&KC]

I have the GeoKnight.

If you want the experience of a hottronix press, take about $3500, and place it smack in front of space heater until it lights on fire, and then hope it doesn't burn your whole shop down.

Same end result.

so I found an open box/almost new DK7 for $300 and scooped it up. next order of business is to order the bottom heat device from GK. i am still very curious as to your thoughts on the bottom heat pallet though.

[mk162]

I'll let you know.  The one thing I noticed is the platen does seem kinda small.  I hope that's not a problem.  I should be using it next week.

[ericheartsu]

I have the GeoKnight.

If you want the experience of a hottronix press, take about $3500, and place it smack in front of space heater until it lights on fire, and then hope it doesn't burn your whole shop down.

Same end result.

so I found an open box/almost new DK7 for $300 and scooped it up. next order of business is to order the bottom heat device from GK. i am still very curious as to your thoughts on the bottom heat pallet though.

If you want a bottom heat pallet, i have one from geo knight i can sell you.

[spencer_L&KC]

If you want a bottom heat pallet, i have one from geo knight i can sell you.

oh yeah? what condition is it in and how much? also, what do you think of it? i follow night owls on IG, enjoy your feed and would love to know your feedback on how well it works.

also, why are selling it? did you find a better solution?

[CBCB]

In the name of safety, what is the failure mode? There's a good chance the mfgr doesn't know about it.

The manufacturer knows. In fact, their bigtime North America rep is right here in this thread already!

If it comes down crooked like this it gets wedged down and takes a LOT of force to open back up.

My main concern is that if your hand is in there it’s gunna come down crooked and get wedged because of your hand, ON your hand.

No, the e-stop doesn’t release it.

Also if you release the e-stop and it’s on auto it’ll snap down without you expecting it.

[ericheartsu]

If you want a bottom heat pallet, i have one from geo knight i can sell you.

oh yeah? what condition is it in and how much? also, what do you think of it? i follow night owls on IG, enjoy your feed and would love to know your feedback on how well it works.

also, why are selling it? did you find a better solution?

PM Sent.

and yes we did. we started building machines and our build with the bottom heat and a shuttle press was what helped kick off us building.

[spencer_L&KC]

I'll let you know.  The one thing I noticed is the platen does seem kinda small.  I hope that's not a problem.  I should be using it next week.

looking forward to it. thanks!

[spencer_L&KC]

If you want a bottom heat pallet, i have one from geo knight i can sell you.

oh yeah? what condition is it in and how much? also, what do you think of it? i follow night owls on IG, enjoy your feed and would love to know your feedback on how well it works.

also, why are selling it? did you find a better solution?

PM Sent.

and yes we did. we started building machines and our build with the bottom heat and a shuttle press was what helped kick off us building.

reply sent!