Author Topic: Do you change height or preasure????  (Read 1004 times)

Offline T Shirt Farmer

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Do you change height or preasure????
« on: July 13, 2012, 08:10:56 PM »
I read Alan's post and he frequently refers to changing the air pressure to his squeegee vs changing the mechanical stop/height of the bade to control ink deposit. I am of the understanding that you set your pressure and use the up or down mechanical control to properly set the amount of down ward pressure applied to the blade. Is there an advantage to using one method over the other? I think Alan's press has digital read out for PSI but most machines have a dial gauge which would a bit more difficult to control than the mechanical adjusters. My MHM has a thumb wheel that mechanically adjust the stop for the height of the blade and I leave the pressure stay at a fixed PSI.

Robert
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Offline jasonl

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Re: Do you change height or preasure????
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2012, 08:27:36 PM »
the whole reason for the dial pressure knob, is so you dont have to touch the choppers.  Yes you should adjust height on your flood bar aswell according to the substrate.  At least I have been doing it that way for 16 years.  M&R to btw.
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Offline alan802

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Re: Do you change height or preasure????
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2012, 09:57:00 PM »
I used to do both...thinking I was maximizing everything I could and having the perfect tool to shear the ink.  I've done it 3 different ways. 
1. Keeping pressure the same all around and using the mechanical up/down to control print pressure
2. Changing squeegee pressure and mechanical up/down
3. Cranking squeegees all the way so they go down as far as they can but using the regulator to control squeegee pressure.

Number 3 works the best in my opinion.  It is much easier to use the right print pressure and not a pound more if you don't want to.  I spent way too much time moving those blades up and down when it really wasn't doing anything.  If you didn't have the blade down quite far enough you might think you didn't have enough pressure so you crank up the psi then you realize you need to move the blade down and forget to take some psi out of the cylinder and before you know it, your settings are all screwed up and you're not operating at your best.  I know some would say what the hell does it really matter?  Who cares or whatever but you already have to spend the time setting the job up and it doesn't take any more time to set the job up right than it does to do it wrong, so do it right the first time and move on.

Luckily I've never ran a press that didn't have squeegee regulators and I wouldn't run a press that didn't.  I think it is a very important feature/option to have on an automatic.
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Offline jasonl

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Re: Do you change height or preasure????
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2012, 09:30:14 AM »

Luckily I've never ran a press that didn't have squeegee regulators and I wouldn't run a press that didn't.  I think it is a very important feature/option to have on an automatic.
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right on brotha!
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