Squeegees

[screenxpress]

I remember some time back on one of the old boards about some new-fangled type squeegee that was superior to the typical (manual) squeegees. 

Was that just a flash in the pan or was there something to them?  And what was the brand/supplier?

[Fresh Baked Printing]

The the V-shaped ones? Wasn't that Printficient?

[Frog]

There have been some ergonomic handles available for the last twenty or so (at least) years.

[screenxpress]

No, not recent like printficient and not "ergo" as I remember.  They were more like they had special powers or abilities.  Been couple years back and some of the old board members bought some.

Was almost like you had to know somebody who knew somebody to buy them.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Sure your not thinking of a Jedi? Ninja maybe?

[screenxpress]

Lol, nope, was squeegees

[jsheridan]

That would be the Smilin Jack Squeegee. It has a cut groove on the backside. Prints better than a normal squeegee as the load on the squeegee material is altered so the blade pressure is consistent across the width of the blade.

Theirs also the really thin curved blade, can't recall the name of that one.

[ZooCity]

Can you push stroke with a smilin jack?  And are those just blades or a whole assembled squeegee?

I think I read about the concept and it makes good horse sense but not sure if it would benefit a manual printer who's push stroking.

Wayne, I've been pretty happy with the "ergoforce" ones from Nazdar.  No supernatural powers but a very solid handle with extra control.  Nice and tall too so you don't have to bunch up your fingers so much.  Put some 70/90/70 blade in there and yer good to go.

[tpitman]

Do you mean the Stretch Devices "Constant Force Squeegee"?

[jsheridan]

Do you mean the Stretch Devices "Constant Force Squeegee"?

ahhh.. such an amazing and overlooked tool. To many people tossed them aside in frustration from improper instruction on their use. If your screen wasn't perfectly flat on a perfectly flat platen, think warped wood boards, and they didn't print right. Add to the mix they cost about $3 an inch and you don't get many buyers nor folks who praise them.

Does anyone have any they don't want?

[Denis Kolar]

Was that a double bevel squeegee?

[screenxpress]

That would be the Smilin Jack Squeegee. It has a cut groove on the backside. Prints better than a normal squeegee as the load on the squeegee material is altered so the blade pressure is consistent across the width of the blade.

Theirs also the really thin curved blade, can't recall the name of that one.

BINGO!  That was it.  Smilin Jack. 

I just surfed a bit and don't find a lot of availability on these.  Worth the cost for the 1 site I did see?

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Tom: I may look into trying a couple of those from SD.  I like the deflection for ink.

Zoo: That also is a possibility

Thanks.

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I have to tell this on me for all to get a chuckle:

I went to the SD site and was reading this -

After 12 years of developing the economical NEWMAN CONSTANT FORCE SQUEEGEE (on average 1/2 the cost of a conventional squeegee) the squeegee is no longer a variable.

After reading it about 4 times thinking "oh, well that's a big help"!  I finally realized it said "no longer a variable" and NOT "no longer available", lol.

[Silbersieb]

Hello,

we have here a squeegee system called RKS-Rakel (Rakel = squeegee). These squeegees are flatstrokers dream.
You get the parts even for manual use. The results are perfect
Here is a link:

RKS-Rakel
http://www.rk-siebdruck.de/rks_systemrakel.html?&L=0

Unfortunately everything is in german.

Good luck

Burkhart

[tpitman]

I bought a constant force squeegee at a show a long time ago. Couldn't get it to work. Cut it down into 2 smaller ones hoping that for appropriate jobs that a shorter one might be easier to control, but nope. I understand the concept, and I've seen demos at shows. I have no doubt that they can perform as advertised, but either I'm too lazy to figure it out, too retarded to figure it out, too drunk to figure it out, or something. My press has steel platens that don't warp, so it's entirely possible that the few times I've tried it my screen was not dead parallel to the platen. The attraction I see is that the blade, such that it is, cannot fold over. It should be a cinch to control the blade edge from end to end. I might try it with waterbased ink where I've started printing on-contact to avoid that runny ink from creeping under the edge of the stencil.
For those that haven't seen a demo at a show, they use an 86 mesh, stretched to about 80 nm, and print a white on black print in one pass with no flash. The only cheat is that the image has no large open areas which make it much easier to do, but it is an image with a pretty good amount of detail.

[screenxpress]

I've always used 70 durometer.  What's the reasoning (or advantages) behind the triple (70/90/70)?