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screen printing => Equipment => DIY - From master engineered marvels to cobbled together jury-rigged or Jerry-built junk! => Topic started by: Rockers on March 21, 2015, 05:41:21 AM
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Stop the presses and have a look at our new screen coating stand. With food paddle to tighten and release the bottom clamp. Finished off in a well known blue color.
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For an to me unknown reason the photos are not facing the right direction. Landscape is surly inferior compared to portrait in this case. Sorry folks.
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For an to me unknown reason the photos are not facing the right direction. Landscape is surly inferior compared to portrait in this case. Sorry folks.
Phone pics right? Frog's got your back ;)
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cool beans...that gets a moosegoldberg 5 ANTLERS UP rating
FYI here is the rating chart
MOOSEGOLDBERG ANTLER RATING CHART
5 ANTLERS UP
HIGH QUALITY , WELL MADE, PROFESSIONAL LOOK, WELL DONE
KICKS ASS AND TAKES NAMES
4 ANTLERS UP
NICE QUALITY , WELL MADE, LOOKS LIKE IT WILL WORK AS PLANNED
EVERYONE SHOULD BE THIS GOOD
3 ANTLERS UP
LOOKS NICE , SHOULD HOLD UP OR WORK WELL YOU SHOULD FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR EFFORT
2 ANTLERS UP
LOOKS OK , NOT BAD FOR SOMETHING THOUGHT UP AND BUILT IN A FLASH.
1 ANTLER UP
NICE TRY LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING THAT MIGHT WORK
1 ANTLER DOWN
NICE TRY LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING THAT MIGHT WORK AFTER A REVISION OR TWO
2 ANTLERS DOWN
NEEDS A LITTLE MORE WORK OR SOMEONE ELSE WORKING ON IT
3 ANTLERS DOWN
TAKE UP STAMP COLLECTING
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yep, almost transcends the DIY label!
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Very nice,
this is commercial grade screen coating stand.
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Wow! This is great quality!
Vastex just came out with stands like this, and also a "semi-automatic" one. Hit the foot pedal and it will lower the screen.
This one looks every bit as quality as professional quality as the Vastex stand. Great work!
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Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback and compliments.
Next up a new screen drying cabinet, first we will make one from wood as a sort of prototype;)
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I may be looking at it wrong, but it looks like the main unit is bolted to the wall and the screen is slanted so that the top is out further than the bottom.
I might be coating wrong, but I have to lean the screen in when coating and then lean it out to terminate and cut the emulsion so it does not drip everywhere.
Does it hinge somehow so it can lean out to cut the emulsion?
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I may be looking at it wrong, but it looks like the main unit is bolted to the wall and the screen is slanted so that the top is out further than the bottom.
I might be coating wrong, but I have to lean the screen in when coating and then lean it out to terminate and cut the emulsion so it does not drip everywhere.
Does it hinge somehow so it can lean out to cut the emulsion?
That might be an optical illusion, lets not forget the photos were taken with a shitty Iphone. The top is actually a little closer to the wall then the bottom.
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Okay, then I take it that it is rigid (except for the spring loading holding the screen).
If the top is slanted closer to the wall how to you manage to terminate the stroke at the top without having emulsion run down when you tip the scoop coater back?
Don't mean to be a wet mooseman blanket here, but I think I'd have a problem using something like that having emulsion running all over the place after the up stroke. You have given me some ideas though as I tend to set the screen on a trash can and the screen has occasionally slid.
Maybe in addition to having the springs hold the screen, a handle at the top allowing movement to lean the top away from the wall when terminating the stroke.
Maybe I'm really missing something.
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When I coat screens they are tilted against a wall with the top being closer to the wall also. No problems with emulsion dripping. I do use two hands on the coater. Maybe an inch or two from the top I just roll the coater back and then finish up. All in one fluid motion on the stroke. If that makes sense.
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Wayne, it works like an auto coater in that sense.
Check out this video and see how they do it. This is basically what two handed guys do.
Screen Printing GRUNIG coating G-COAT 404.wmv (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Fl1wcUbe8#)
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Well, you got me thinking. That's a good thing.
Maybe when I have the time, I'll crank out the mig welder and build something like this. Unit with a handle to lean in and lean out, rotate the screen from top to bottom for second coat, then rotate again, orient inside to outside and do the final coat. I'll have to figure a clamp method on the screen tho.
I'm sure it works for you. I believe my screens are quite a bit smaller than yours (21 x 23) which allows a different design since I only need 1 hand for the coater.
It's at the bottom of my list right now, lol.
Update - watched that video and it gave me an idea for the missing part - a way to clamp the screen in. The coater is a unique design. Mine would be running out the sides I think at the end of the stroke tipping back. It's still at the bottom of the list :)
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M&R's uses a more standard coater but the method is essentially the same thing. Probably less "delay" between stopping and rocking it back. I just wanted you to see the mechanics... timing wise would obviously be adjusted as you are doing it by hand.
I have a few spring loaded ideas on how you could flip the screens around, not sure how good they are though. I don't have the room to test them out anyway. :)
If I did, I'd probably get Grunig. :)
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I have almost always coated using one hand to hold the frame at the top in the center, and do the same thing with the coater, just one hand centered. I tip the screen very slightly away from the coater while coating, and at the top tip it slightly toward the coater while always changing the coater angle like you see in that video. quick, easy, no mess or drips, even coating. I kind of can't imagine using both hands on the coater any more.
For a time I had an angled catch like you see lots of people using, something to hold the base and resting the top against something, though the bottom of mine was spring loaded and there was a stop on the top. It worked well enough, but it resulted in more drips and was slower than just doing it completely by hand. The only one of my screens I use both hands on the coater is for my 58x46 inch frame, but honestly I could probably even coat that with one hand without that much trouble. The frame is heavy enough that I just lean it against a wall and it doesnt move.
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Wow! This looks great. Can you post a photo of the hinge/spring mechanism?
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That looks familiar. Had this for more than 15 ys
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Where is this semi-auto version of the Vastex? That's a pretty slick idea but I think if you automated the screen moving up/down isn't that just a couple steps away from fully automating?
I like the wall mount C-100 from Vastex, it looks simple, cheap and adjustable. I was going to build one but for $300 and having adjustable height for different bodies coating I'm going to grab the vastex so long as it works with M3 rollers.
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Where is this semi-auto version of the Vastex? That's a pretty slick idea but I think if you automated the screen moving up/down isn't that just a couple steps away from fully automating?
I like the wall mount C-100 from Vastex, it looks simple, cheap and adjustable. I was going to build one but for $300 and having adjustable height for different bodies coating I'm going to grab the vastex so long as it works with M3 rollers.
I'm kind of with you there... but as you see it's pretty darn simple.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153270851156004 (https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153270851156004)
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Thanks for the link, I like it. Reduces fatigue, eliminates the speed of the coating trough as a variable. Price needs to be right though or it would make more sense to just pony up for an actual auto coater.
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Thanks for the link, I like it. Reduces fatigue, eliminates the speed of the coating trough as a variable. Price needs to be right though or it would make more sense to just pony up for an actual auto coater.
Or build one... can't be much to it. Foot pedals to trigger motor up and one for down and a couple of knobs for speed of said motors. Basically could be built with an arduino and some drivers for the motors and Bob's your uncle!
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And probably a small transmission to get the torque right and all.
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Gilly beat me with the link.
Yeah, so for the less mechanically inclined people who are drooling, the Vastex one is $365 (need to be mounted to something, such as a wall) and an additional $125 for the stand.
The semi-automatic is amazing. I saw it in AC and if I wasn't a cap film user would have bought it on site. Being able to easily hold the scoop coater with consistent pressure, while the screen drops towards you is great. No wrist curling, no accidental increase in pressure against the screen. It was somewhere between $1000-1500. I really want to say it was $1300. Give Vastex a call to confirm. If I ever go back to emulsion, this will be an immediate purchase for me.
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That's not a bad price at all.
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I'm having my prod manager evaluate getting the C-1000, it's $1500, flyer attached. I think it could add a lot of consistency and ease repetitive strain without spending 15 large for a full auto.
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$0 investment. Just some scrap wood I had laying around after I built a few rolling tables.
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I am just curious, am I the only hammerhead coating screens one handed?
Started this way from day one...... it is quite easy or so it seems but I really do not know any different.
Glisten method with an 18" coater filled to the gunwales.
mooseman
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Pretty easy w/ 18" one handed even with 23X31's.
I find it helps to stand perpendicular or to the side of frame.
Me and Mooseman have pipes!
I guess it's from my many wrist curls in the old baseball days. ::)
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I am just curious, am I the only hammerhead coating screens one handed?
Started this way from day one...... it is quite easy or so it seems but I really do not know any different.
Glisten method with an 18" coater filled to the gunwales.
mooseman
I have thought the same thing! Here at work they kept asking for a stand/shelf, couldn't wrap my head around it! We made one and I can't coat a screen with 2 hands to save my life! ;D
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I am just curious, am I the only hammerhead coating screens one handed?
Started this way from day one...... it is quite easy or so it seems but I really do not know any different.
Glisten method with an 18" coater filled to the gunwales.
mooseman
I have thought the same thing! Here at work they kept asking for a stand/shelf, couldn't wrap my head around it! We made one and I can't coat a screen with 2 hands to save my life! ;D
I can't coat a screen with 1 hand to save my life! Half of the emulsion ends up on the floor!
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...tried it two-handed a few years ago....eff that junk!
... the first shop I worked in did a lot of larger-size flat stock, so I had to learn to handle a 3ft+ filled coater, with one hand, while holding a large roller frame with the other. Keeping that heavy thing level while coating was a bitch, and you HAD to start from the floor and coat up to about chest-high. And then spin the screen, one handed without tipping the coater, and repeating on the other side. It was a crash-course introduction to scrennprinting, for sure. Until I got used to it after a few weeks, my wrist and forearm hurt like a sumbitch!!