Squeegee sharpening poll.

[Frog]

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

Your "vast minority" is leading with a whopping 67%! Though the reasons for "preferring" may vary.

[jsheridan]

Rotary diamond bits. They are expensive.

Yes they are and most people don't know how to sharpen a blade correctly which is just as bad as a dull blade.

I used to be a sharpening pom pom waver.. now with the price of some blades and the time it take to maintain blades.. it's easier to just go the disposable route and swap in new material.

BUT.. if you invest in top dollar blade that is made to be sharpened then yes.. sharpen.

[Homer]

we don't replace ONLY because of the holders we have, the old style M&R. It takes forever to get the damn blade in some of them haha..we'll try sharpening and then I was looking at one of those "maintainers" from nazdar, like a glass hone or something. give'er a quicky before use....

[inkman996]

Rotary diamond bits. They are expensive.

Yes they are and most people don't know how to sharpen a blade correctly which is just as bad as a dull blade.

I used to be a sharpening pom pom waver.. now with the price of some blades and the time it take to maintain blades.. it's easier to just go the disposable route and swap in new material.

BUT.. if you invest in top dollar blade that is made to be sharpened then yes.. sharpen.

A diamond router bit is not overly expensive, I could build a jig that fits the squeegee holder and squeegee together and have it ride in the sled I built for the router table.

[abchung]

There are two types of sharpener.
blade:

Hot Knife Squeegee Sharpener

router:

Serilor Squeegee Sharpening Machines - Diamond Short Cut

The way Serilor/Fimor manufacture their squeegee.

Fimor: screenprinting squeegees manufacturer

Why I prefer over changing?
Labour is cheaper in this region of the world compared to replacing a squeegee.

[inkman996]

Only concern I have with using a straight cutter on a router is chatter, even the slightest chatter would make a squeegee near useless. I would just have to try it to find out.

[Inkworks]

We had the Encore Cutronic at the graphic shop I used to manage. It's great as it has a vacuum attachment to get the shavings out of the way, you can set the number of passes, and it automatically adjusts a few thou. on each subsequent pass. If you go that route go with the larger diameter (4") diamond grit wheel as it stays much cooler while cutting. I would be concerned with using a router due to the high RPM. It'll probably be okay if you don't do too many passes, or try to cut too deep in one pass, or feed too fast.

[ZooCity]

Inkman, I say go for it.  The low end model in that vid is practically a router table. 

abchung those vids were sweet, pretty old school.

I'd say that one that actually cuts the blade would be where it's at but looks pricey.

[Inkworks]

I found and image of the bigger wheel:



From what I could find, most of the diamond wheel sharpeners run at 1430 - 2800 rpm, there is probably some latitude, most basic single speed routers are above 20000rpm. some variable speed routers will get you down below 10000rpm, but you've got to really shop around to find one that gets below 3000rpm.

We had one of those non-rotating blade sharpeners, but it caused deflection in the first and last inches of the squeegee blade as it entered and exited the squeegee and one side would be protruding .030" - .060" longer, and the other end cut shorter.

[inkman996]

Hmmm my best router only goes down to 8000 rpm's. sounds like burning will be an issue, same issue with wood, you need to mold at the lowest speed possible with out losing quality or else blade burn is common.

[kingscreen]

I built a squeegee sharpener for about $35. It works great. Shaves about 1/16" each pass. Found a source for 1/4" shaft diamond bits for dirt cheap and mounted a cheap cut off tool from Harbor Freight. Here's the result: http://youtu.be/VenDec_BIUs (first test drive before it was mounted to a table)

[abchung]

That is excellent.

[Dottonedan]

Great idea. From the sounds of it tho, (where you hear vaaaruuuuuuuummmhm).  The uuuuuu part in the middle of the cut may show (although still very slight)a slight uneven or consistent amount. Something that would not be seen in flat spot colors or maybe even 35-40 line screen halftones, but it could effect a high end print like 65-75 lpi 4 color process where consistency is critical. This is knit picking tho.


I'm not knocking your build at all. Great idea. prob. perfect for most all jobs.

[kingscreen]

Great idea. From the sounds of it tho, (where you hear vaaaruuuuuuuummmhm).  The uuuuuu part in the middle of the cut may show (although still very slight)a slight uneven or consistent amount. Something that would not be seen in flat spot colors or maybe even 35-40 line screen halftones, but it could effect a high end print like 65-75 lpi 4 color process where consistency is critical. This is knit picking tho.

I definitely botched some test manual squeegees testing it out. Cutting Lube helps with the heat but it also took a while for me to get my hand control down to get it really smooth and sharp. It's also part of the reason I built it to take off so little each pass. In our shop we run 40-45 halftone jobs fairly regularly and so far so good. I have a 4CP on this week's production schedule. I'll keep that in mind if I run into problems.

My opinion is the only way to truly get a perfect edge is with a hot blade sharpener. They're crazy nice but also crazy $$$$$$.

[ScreenFoo]

Some neat ideas here.  Kingscreen--that's really cool.  So do you just drip a little fluid on for each squeegee, or pass?

I think a router would be great for the HP, but would probably have to be geared down.
It might be easier just sourcing a reasonable size motor that's already wound to spin the right speed.