Squeegee sharpening poll.

[Dottonedan]

I've talked to a good many shops over the years both high end shops and low end shops. Super mega shops to very small shops and find a wide range of answers to this questions and the answers never are the same for each "group" of shop be it size or newb. I recently heard a shop owner say he sharpened his squeegees about every production run or even mid run... but he was very large runs of say  20 thousand to 70 thousand.


It would be interested to hear how often the masses do it.

[Admiral]

Used a squeegee sharpener on about 4 of our old 75 duro squeegees, bought about 7 or so new ones over the last several months. 

Definitely have 3-4 dull ones I try not to use at all, and 5+ that could use sharpening for sure.

Just paid for a 15 year old 36" wide encore engineering sharpener from a local guy going out of business and will have it in a month.  Then I will make sure I can feel the ridges on my fingers on our squeegees else they will be sharpened asap.

[Dottonedan]

Have you ever noticed what a warrior does before every battle? He sharpens his blade.

[mk162]

you sharpen it more than 3 times and you're playing with it.  Wait, oh, SHAKE it more than three times...totally different.

[Dottonedan]

For those of us that have no sharpener, what business around town might have something that can be used?

[ZooCity]

For those of us that have no sharpener, what business around town might have something that can be used?

The right kind of router setup maybe?

This reminded me for the umpteenth time to build a simple "polishing" setup.  I think if you focus on keeping the very edge honed with some high grit paper you'll do ok.  Sharpener would be nice for sure but if you are into bevels...?

I currently flip the blade up to four times using all four edges of the piece.

You are you noticing warriors battling?  With blades?  Florida is crazy man.

[Spreading Ink]

We just purchased a Theime that will do up to a 60 inch blade (we use 44's for all over) - I need to get the final payment over tomorrow and hope to have it installed in about a week!

[abchung]

I use to have the sand paper set up. But it won't get it as sharp as a sharpener.

I am still playing around with mine. I think I sharpen it after 400 to 600 prints. I will try to extend that over 1000 to keep the cost down. If it still maintain the easy of printing, I will try to extend that even further.

BEFORE YOU BUY A SHARPENER.
Make sure it will cut your squeegee dimension.
I am currently changing all my squeegees rubber to a bigger one so I can sharpen it.

[Homer]

Im working on a sharpening system now, waiting for parts to arrive next week. There is nothing like a brand new blade, but a newly sharpened one is a close second....

I told my local supply shop to buy a sharpener, a donut probe, newton meter, that do-hickey that reads the density of film - all the goodies a screen shop could use - but not want to buy and charge for a service, I'll pay a few bucks to map out my dryer....they all said great idea, but never did. So now we have something in the works with the supplier.

[tonypep]

I'm in the vast minority but we prefer to replace with new blade. The reasons are on an old thread.

[inkman996]

Same as Zoo, we rotate them all four edges.

Does anyone know exactly what is used in a commercial sharpener? I have a decent router table and never thought of sharpening blades with it.

[tonypep]

Rotary diamond bits. They are expensive.

[Frog]

I have a glass grinder that I always meant to modify but never got around to it.

I also thought that were some sharpeners that actually slice with a blade which would produce an edge more like the original (though they are usually extruded)

[Ryan]

I used to do sandpaper and 2 blocks and would just run it on that a few times but that was for my manual squeegees. For my auto I can only print with 1 edge so when I feel that gets dull, I will just run it around and keep doing that until all the sides are used up and then probaly move those to manual holders and do the sand paper trick again. There was an article a year or maybe a couple where Rick Roth said to never sharpen as it changes the way the blade is meant to be used.

[mk162]

HAHAH, it is so funny this topic came up.  the shop from down the street came in and asked if they could use my sharpener.  Fine, we borrow stuff back and forth, I borrowed platens last week.

he said the squeegees hadn't been sharpened in about 15 years.  HAHA, they were almost bull-nosed, no joke, totally rounded on the edges.