Manny Blade for WB printing?

[ZooCity]

I'm taking eb's advice and getting some softer squeegee in for using a pull stroke with WB inks for increased penetration, less effort.  My first thought was either straight 60duro or 55/90/55 or something to that end but I saw the "Manny" blade that is like the smilin' jack but a straight groove rather than the smile.  It's 75 duro but has a beveled edge on the "heavy deposit" side.  Sounds like a reasonable idea. 

Anyone use these and do you think it would be efficient for manual pull stroking wb and discharge?

[ebscreen]

(just get the regular 60)

[Gilligan]

Not completely related but, does the act of driving the discharge or WB product into the shirt not "bleed" out and cause a loss of detail?

I've never done any of this myself so I'm just asking as I'd like to get into this soon.

[ebscreen]

Good question Gilligan, and yes, it can be an issue. Typically only if you are way overboard with the pressure
or too low on the mesh though. SOP here is to crank it down and then back off gradually until the penetration
looks good.

[alan802]

I find the manny blade to be a much better all around blade than any regular edged blade of any durometer.  I am using the manny on the auto right now as well as the manual press and they are awesome. They won't work in those shops that like to print with tons of pressure though.  I'm also testing out some Dr. J's and so far, I think they are the perfect blade for textile printing.  I have a lot more testing to do on it but so far, it performs exactly how I want with a great ink shear, and holy crap can you print fast.  We were printing process magenta through a 305 today at 20"/sec and there was not a single spec of ink left in the mesh.  For discharge lately, I've been using the beveled edge of a manny through a 150S or 180S, one stroke and done. 

I know these blades are a little pricey, but you get two different blades in one.  There is a big difference in ink deposit from one side to the next.  I'm thinking of getting more of the manny and Dr. J and getting rid of all of my single, double and triple duro blades.  I think I'll keep the two double beveled blades but the rest of them will be CPR blades.

[ZooCity]

I was attracted to the manny because it lets you get that low angle but still use a blade that's not buttery soft.  The soft blades wear quickly, exacerbating the loss of detail issues I would imagine.  I think the angle would be more consistent for manual printing with the grooved blade as well.  With the floppy 60 duro you might have a lot of variance between printers and with fatigue on long runs, which we are doing more and more of these days. At least the grooved Manny gives you something of a visual on the backside of the squeegee of what angle you're at, it's damn near impossible to monitor this visually while printing with a normal blade. You're trouble bound if things aren't super consistent with the discharge stroke as you won't see the color shift until the back end of the slow running dryer belt. 

My goal is to try and get better penetration but get it in a way that is nearly as consistent as our push stroke is currently.

[Admiral]

are the only differences between the manny and smilin' jack, 75 vs 85 duro and the jack has a smile to even the pressure across the whole blade?

I'm ordering a few squeegee holders and blades soon