auto flood bar

[tpitman]

One more question regarding flood bars. On the press I work on (an older Gauntlet), aside from the angle built into the edge of the floodbar itself, the flood bars are canted toward the squeegee in such a way that when the floodbar lifts and the squeegee comes down, there is very little space between the edge of the squeegee and the edge of the flood bar, pushing ink up behind the squeegee. Depending on the viscosity of the ink, especially whites and high opacity colors, there's upwards of a half pint of ink up there, making a mess at cleanup, and what seems like having to constantly add ink to the screen. I've seen pictures of M&R presses and they all seem to have the flood bar tilted toward the squeegee like that, but some other makes seem to have the flood bar more perpendicular to the screen and parallel to the squeegee. Is there any reason I can't rotate the angle of the flood bar back within the travel allowance on the angle adjustment to open up that space a bit? Thinning some of the inks isn't an option as the loss of opacity is unacceptable. What effect will changing the floodbar angle have, if any? As currently set up, we're not doing a hard flood anyway.

[Homer]

on our older gauntlet, we have nothing but winged floods, we flood just hard enough to fill the well.  we found too much pressure causes serious dot gain if the angle isn't right. we have them angled so the wings run flat on the screen. I think it maxes out the angle adjustment if I remember correctly. sometimes we have to lay them back a bit to gain an extra inch of the design is a little bigger. we have been playing with the squeegeis and floods a ton in the past two months and it's amazing what happens when you change the angles

Tp - I can't say we have that issue. we use as little ink as possible for the job and slowly add as needed. clean up is rather easy. . I wonder what the deal is on yours?

[Nick Bane]

One more question regarding flood bars. On the press I work on (an older Gauntlet), aside from the angle built into the edge of the floodbar itself, the flood bars are canted toward the squeegee in such a way that when the floodbar lifts and the squeegee comes down, there is very little space between the edge of the squeegee and the edge of the flood bar, pushing ink up behind the squeegee. Depending on the viscosity of the ink, especially whites and high opacity colors, there's upwards of a half pint of ink up there, making a mess at cleanup, and what seems like having to constantly add ink to the screen. I've seen pictures of M&R presses and they all seem to have the flood bar tilted toward the squeegee like that, but some other makes seem to have the flood bar more perpendicular to the screen and parallel to the squeegee. Is there any reason I can't rotate the angle of the flood bar back within the travel allowance on the angle adjustment to open up that space a bit? Thinning some of the inks isn't an option as the loss of opacity is unacceptable. What effect will changing the floodbar angle have, if any? As currently set up, we're not doing a hard flood anyway.

change the angle of your floodbar to give you more space in the inkwell.  changes the same as squeegee angle and leaves a much bigger inkwell, should take care of that issue.

[Binkspot]

If I might add because the traps are spring loaded we can use a light flood and they will remain in contact with the screen and not have any leaking out the side.

[Get Shirts]

We have both, but prefer the ink traps that M&R offers.  The winged flood bars eventually create a pool of ink (a mess) above the image/behind the squeegee. 

[dirkdiggler]

We have both, but prefer the ink traps that M&R offers.  The winged flood bars eventually create a pool of ink (a mess) above the image/behind the squeegee.

agreed.  But if you dont keep the ink traps clean YOU WILL RIP MESH.  Guys were lazy at my old shop and they ripped screens everyday.  Also, if you have a Diamondback or another brand with side clamps, ink traps arent worth the trouble IMO, unless its a large run.

[Get Shirts]

Haha, nice handle.  That's true, they will rip the hell out of a screen.  However, they are super easy to clean and we don't keep anyone on staff who constantly breaks our gear. 

[jasonl]

right on!

[Croft]

does this work with White,  If I do anything like this with white I get a double image, My white flood id always 3-4mil above the mesh.

Hey Gabe,

we actually do a "hard flood". That's when you push the ink into the mesh with the floodbar. In order to do it, we have the floodbar set up just PAST the point of touching.

pierre

[ScreenFoo]

Another question, when looking at flood bars and squeegee holders I see single notch or double notched.  I assume that this is just to make it easier to mount the clamps?  My American has single notch that appear to look like the m&r styling.

On the Gauntlet here we use the double notch--it's because of clearance for the pneumatic squeegee/flood locks once a screen is clamped in.

On presses with no pneumatic clamps, I'm not sure what the use would be.

[tonypep]

The notches were designed for the pneumatics but may old school manual clamp machines can take advantage of them as many vet printers just use one clamp for each. Depends on the model though.

[blue moon]

does this work with White,  If I do anything like this with white I get a double image, My white flood id always 3-4mil above the mesh.

Hey Gabe,

we actually do a "hard flood". That's when you push the ink into the mesh with the floodbar. In order to do it, we have the floodbar set up just PAST the point of touching.

pierre

It works for us. We actually don't push as hard on the colors.

pierre

[tonypep]

Depending on the graphic, ink rheology, mesh, etc hard floods can cause increased dot gain when used incorrectly. Pierre obviously has it dialed in. Conversely when printing with most water based inks the highest possible flood is generally desired to keep the stencil "wet"

[blue moon]

as Tony mentioned, it depends on your circumstances. We are running an unusually high EOM (20% on 300's and 50% on 110's) and are printing on metal plattens without rubber. We also use a winged floodbar which does not allow changing the angle (the wings would dig into the mesh and rip it up). If we could lay it down we might be able to get away with not pushing as hard, but with what we have, it works well.

pierre

[Inkworks]

Do you flood with the platens up?