Dual Dryer Project DONE!!

[Mr Tees!!]

hey Gang! I finally got a minute to post about the "Build-Your-Own-Boomerang" dryer project from two Vastex EC1's

Here is what I began with, a 30" EC1 with belt extensions and a two-panel DB30 chamber behind that...



Took off all the chambers, added one more conveyor extension:



Here is the dryer with the second conveyor added. The black spacers you see are sections of 2x6 painted black. Im hoping in the future to see if Vastex might hook me up with the dryer extextion sides ony, for a cleaner appearance (Mark, you readin this? Me and my brown-nose love you guys! ):



I didnt take many pics from that point. Put the chambers back on (four panels now, after adding the second EC1 chamber) and wired up all the accessories to  a powerstrip...an exhaust box on each end, both converyor plugs, and a forced air bower which is installed in at the end of the DB30 chamber.




Here is a video of it (and myself) in action:
<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N2WO-_JG3y4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

...Just been wanting to share this for awhile! hope you guys dig it!

[mk162]

k, a couple of things...forst off, nice job, that looks like quite the project.

Do you find that loading them on the belt that high up is going to kill your arms after a while?  Also, how high can you stack the shirts on the loader above the platens?

[GraphicDisorder]

Glad my old dryer is being put to good use.  Awesome!

[Shawn (EIP)]

You should have sold your idea to Vastex maybe picked up that extra belt for free 

[blue moon]

AWESOME!

[spotcolorsupply]

Man, that is sweet!!!

[ZooCity]

Super cool.  Must be nice to not have to stop and catch ever. 

Have you considered encasing the second belt to give it some hot forced air from the main chambers?  I figured that having the shirts return to you was half the benefit of a return belt and the other half was getting 2x chamber time out of your dryer footprint.

It looks like you're getting a lot of benefit out of the return though. 

[Denis Kolar]

Nice one there Mister!!!

Can you sell that to Vastex ? Mike?

[3Deep]

Pretty dam neat!!!!  I would love for you to post this over at my Mom&Pop shop on SPOF if thats ok with everyone.  I will keep any noise down if you posted it...love it

Darryl

[Mr Tees!!]

...Thanks everyone! It was fun! This is what happens when you are a one-man shop...you just start printing and thinking, the wheels start turning, and you end up with some kinda crazy idea like this.

...Shawn, thought about approaching Vastex about it beforehand, but ehhhhh.....I was actually a bit concerned about something here voiding my warranty or something ridiculous like that. I hope they see this and can maybe at least offer a way to get the dryer extention side pieces by themselves. Besides, our buddy Brandt here at Graphic Disorder was nice enough to sell his old EC1 to me at a fair price, even though he wasnt really SELLING it.

...speaking of which, Brandt, it was a blast meeting you and Shelly! Brandt's shop is awesome (once you find it, that is  )...one day when I get in a bigger building and have natural gas available, you may wanna think about installing Lojack on that Boomerang...just sayin

...Brad, yknow, i was kinda worried about that too, especially  when I got the two conveyors together and saw just how high it was. But if you look at the first pic you can see I had the dryer on blocks anyway to raise it up. I just kinda like it up high like that, its just more comfortable to me. I usually put about 100 or so at a time on that loader station mounted on the press. I could probably get more, but im not all that tall, so thats a good number. That contraption is actually my homebrew laser guide system, and one day I realized I could just put a board on top of it  and load shirts from there. Maybe I will show some pics and stuff of it here too. As you can tell, I LOVE to engineer stuff to make the job easier or quicker.

...Zoo, the way the Vastex dryers are made, the top level with the chambers actually has a floor that the sides attach to, and the belt kinda rides along the top of it. Heat cant really penetrate that. I also left some openings between the conveyors in case the power went out or a shirt got caught in there, so it could be easitly removed. The nice thing about it is that because the top belt has about a foot of outfeed before it drops, the shirt is pretty hot. by the time it runs back under and to me, its almost back to room temperature. I would like to extend both conveyors one more time for some more infeed/outfeed, but im close to the garage door here as it is, and will probably have to upgrade the conveyor motors at that point. Another thing thats cool is that each conveyor is controlled independantly, so I can fiddle with the speed infinitely to keep a good rhythym. In the case where I have a BIG RUSH run and it benefits me to have someone here catching, I can turn the bottom conveyor off entirely.

...3deep, no offense, and clearly I love to share and help, but I prefer not to post anything over there these days. I saw that Johhny had already posted my video, but I like Johnny and he found it on his own so its cool. Feel free to post a link to here if you wish

[Frog]

Pretty dam neat!!!!  I would love for you to post this over at my Mom&Pop shop on SPOF if thats ok with everyone.  I will keep any noise down if you posted it...love it

Darryl

Are you sure that it hasn't already been copied and pasted? It's been known to have happened. 

[3Deep]

No problem just thought I would ask and not grab someones stuff and post.

Darryl

[Mr Tees!!]

Thanks for considering my wishes beforehand and actually asking, Darryl. If everyone was that considerate, I wouldnt have a problem with it, Yknow?

[GraphicDisorder]

Besides, our buddy Brandt here at Graphic Disorder was nice enough to sell his old EC1 to me at a fair price, even though he wasnt really SELLING it.

...speaking of which, Brandt, it was a blast meeting you and Shelly! Brandt's shop is awesome (once you find it, that is  )...one day when I get in a bigger building and have natural gas available, you may wanna think about installing Lojack on that Boomerang...just sayin

Was no problem!  We like our ship hidden away so your not the first to say that, but its great for keeping people out of our hair.

I will go ahead and install a lojack on that boomerang now!  Haha. 

[Sbrem]

Good job, great idea, perfect for the one man shop. Nice clean shop by the way...

Steve