Squeegee/flood chopper topic

[IntegrityShirts]

Tony the shims on my press are only to raise the over all height of the head not to level it. It is something I can do myself when quieter god knows I spent 15 years keeping our Javelin leveled.

Again i was told it was not necessary to level the head because the choppers will make up for the differences, in a perfect world I wish the numbers on our chopper cylinders were equal side to side.

Look at the pic below and you can see how unlevel my heads are. And yes that is set to have the squeegee parallel to the platen.

No frickin way, something is seriously out of wack or bent!  My choppers are all within a couple clicks of each other height-wise.  Take a pic at the screen level looking straight down the head so we can see the twist in the printhead arm, because if there's 1/2" of difference from side to side we should be able to see the whole print carriage assembly off compared to the screen holders. eek!

[mk162]

Heck, I bet they aren't that bad on my 1999 Gauntlet.  You need to have a real tech go through it.  I am sure there is somebody around you that could do it.  It might take a half a day, but it will be money well spent.

[JBLUE]

Machine Guru, Technicians Technician, and world traveler.............LMFAO.

[inkman996]

Brian AKA Binkspot installed my press and I see him on here sometimes, maybe he can explain to us why it is done that way. He is a great tech and obviously he learned from you know who, so i am not throwing Brian under the bus. I was never comfortable with the heads not being leveled but I accepted it as what it was. Maybe now I know better and come to think about it since head one is the worse and that is the head white is printed on I should get it leveled at least as a start.

[alan802]

Damn Mike, when you first explained the printheads being out of parallel I didn't think of them being twisted or leaning one way or the other like that, I thought of them just being simply out of parallel linearly in the direction of the printarm and pallet.  Is the actual printarm leaning one way or the other or is the print carriage assembly leaning or both?  If the printarms are leaning it seems like a simple fix with some shims on the low side to bring it up a little.  I would expect most presses to be off a click or two here and there but like others have already stated, that looks a bit extreme with your choppers.  Is there any chance that the choppers are all different and maybe not the printheads?  I know finding your highest chopper and shimming all of the others up to it would be a PITA but it might be worth it long term, plus your lucky it's not a 16 color, that would take forever.

Musterd, you use the same choppers right?  Do your choppers seem to be in close tolerance from side to side?

[3Deep]

Ink from what I see there that is way off, I,m thinking mine problem is the chopper cylinders itself, my print arms and platens are dead on.  One day maybe in December when things slow to a crawl I might go around the press and pull and match up choppers.  I can see where having to much pressure on one side can cause problems (screens for one) and ink deposits etc.

[IntegrityShirts]

No mine are dang near dead on.  Here's a pic of my "worst" which you can't really even tell from the pic it's only a few clicks more on one of the adjusters:

[inkman996]

I clamped a straight edge across the top of the print arm perpendicular, I then measured from both sides of the palette up to the straight edge and it is exactly 3/8" off. Not a half inch but close.

[GraphicDisorder]

Tony the shims on my press are only to raise the over all height of the head not to level it. It is something I can do myself when quieter god knows I spent 15 years keeping our Javelin leveled.

Again i was told it was not necessary to level the head because the choppers will make up for the differences, in a perfect world I wish the numbers on our chopper cylinders were equal side to side.

Look at the pic below and you can see how unlevel my heads are. And yes that is set to have the squeegee parallel to the platen.

Jesus that's awesome.

Brian please tell us how this is normal? 

Heck, I bet they aren't that bad on my 1999 Gauntlet. 

Of course it's not, its built by a company that know's what they are doing. 

Someone please explain to me what good all this "new" technology is if you can't build a press correctly. 

[inkman996]

LOL Brandt I was dumb and drank the kool aid but now I now I been snake bit.

Thank good there is people in our industry like Rich Hoffman and the guys at Anatol, they both have helped me out on our press when I needed it, since Ptex is not honoring their warranty.

[tonypep]

Tony the shims on my press are only to raise the over all height of the head not to level it. It is something I can do myself when quieter god knows I spent 15 years keeping our Javelin leveled.

Again i was told it was not necessary to level the head because the choppers will make up for the differences, in a perfect world I wish the numbers on our chopper cylinders were equal side to side.

Look at the pic below and you can see how unlevel my heads are. And yes that is set to have the squeegee parallel to the platen.



It's not "New Technology" it's "Better Technology". As the picture clearly shows.

Jesus that's awesome.

Brian please tell us how this is normal? 

Heck, I bet they aren't that bad on my 1999 Gauntlet. 

Of course it's not, its built by a company that know's what they are doing. 

Someone please explain to me what good all this "new" technology is if you can't build a press correctly.

[GraphicDisorder]

LOL Brandt I was dumb and drank the kool aid but now I now I been snake bit.

Thank good there is people in our industry like Rich Hoffman and the guys at Anatol, they both have helped me out on our press when I needed it, since Ptex is not honoring their warranty.

I thank the Printing gods  every day I didn't give in and buy a Playtex.  I LOVE my M&R.  Think of all the time all this "new" technology has cost you.  It is suppose to save you time you know that right?

[IntegrityShirts]

Either the linear rail that the chopper plate rides on is installed at an angle, or the print arm itself is pitched where it attaches to the main body.  Which part is funky?

[GraphicDisorder]

Either the linear rail that the chopper plate rides on is installed at an angle, or the print arm itself is pitched where it attaches to the main body.  Which part is funky?

Given a lot of other things we hear about these presses, how about BOTH?

[inkman996]

Either the linear rail that the chopper plate rides on is installed at an angle, or the print arm itself is pitched where it attaches to the main body.  Which part is funky?

It is the print arm itself and I understand that steel tubing like that can be less than perfect unless machined, I just always thought every print arm is paralelled with the hangers and palettes as a standard operating procedure. I will do it my self some day this way all movable parts have the least amount of stress on them. Now that i think about it we already have a blown seal on the flood chopper on head one, I wonder if that happened because there is more pressure on that side? Or simply a bad seal. I have not needed to replace it yet because it is minor but eventually i have to replace that seal. I will check my parts package for one, oops I forgot I did not get a parts package lol.