M&R chameleon

[Croft]

Anyone been running one for a while , Ive had mine 3 + years works excellent but the springs seem to be letting go all at once , I'm up to 14 in the last 3 months and need to order more , originals have failed plus some of my first replacements about 1.5 year ago are letting go . 

We use the press daily for 8hrs so i does get lots of use, we put some 23"x31" screens but mostly it only sees smaller screens .
 This may be a dumb question but shoud I spray a bit of lube on them where they attach ? this is the area where they are breaking.

[Dottonedan]

Maybe it's adjusted set too tight (if you can do that on it)?  We ran a MR Chameleon  every day printing 8-10 color prints at my last shop I was in and never had to get replacement springs.  Maybe you're getting a lesser grade or strength spring?  I donno.

[Croft]

not sure either ,  there M&R parts , wondered about tension as well but I started checking there tensioned just enough to hold up screen/sqeege/ ink??

[ZooCity]

Yeah, lube the area where the hooks attach, that's probably the main wear point.  It could be that your springs aren't ending their life but you are actually wearing/stressing the hook against the holes where they grad on. 

When we had ours is held 25x30 M3s all day with no major spring popping issues, we'd lose one here and there.

[Croft]

yea they only break in the hook area , the casting does have a sleeve in each hol probably brass by the looks of it but I will start lubing that area.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

My 8/8 Chameleon (with side air clamps) was under water for 3 weeks from hurricane Katrina....all I had to do was replace the bearings in the shaft. Never had one problem with it since. All of the air locks still work perfectly. A true testament of the M&R product.

[ZooCity]

Those presses are tank like...almost too much. 

[Rockers]

We got ours 8 years ago. 2 of the springs popped in the last 2 month. Apart from that it`s a great press.

[Dottonedan]

Borderline "too much" is right.  I have always wanted one (for doing the multi colors) like you can do on an auto without the cost, but dang, ever try printing  a couple a 10 color jobs on one of those? Arms are like spigot at the end of the day. We only used it for samples but ran a lot of samples on it per design and we got a break in between jobs by setting up he next, so if you had a order for 500 tees (8 colors), man-o-day. swinging that carousel around is more than a workout.

[ZooCity]

Agreed, I was halfway ripped from running it myself. I thought that was kinda cool but the staff wasn't into the daily screen printing workout routine.

Ironically, I feel that a lot of that weight is needless as there is somehow, someway, still platen deflection and the sheer weight of the carousel and spider can nudge a screen out of reg and will constantly throw your platens off parallel.

 But at least you know that thing will never, ever go out of service!

[Croft]

Borderline "too much" is right.  I have always wanted one (for doing the multi colors) like you can do on an auto without the cost, but dang, ever try printing  a couple a 10 color jobs on one of those? Arms are like spigot at the end of the day. We only used it for samples but ran a lot of samples on it per design and we got a break in between jobs by setting up he next, so if you had a order for 500 tees (8 colors), man-o-day. swinging that carousel around is more than a workout.

Funny I hired a new person to print last year , She had never printed before and this was her first press ever used. Well after a year she commented to me after her holidays this winter she felt great. Her and her husband will run 600-700 mile tours on there snowmobiles every winter and for the first 2 years she had lots of pain in her hands arms and shoulders. She told me it was her husband complaining this year