S Roq users: Pink squeegees?

[Shanarchy]

Anyone using the pink squeegee blades that Ryonet sells? I believe they are 80's.

Thoughts on them and what are you generally using them for? Are they better than a 70/90/70? Seemed like a pretty hard squeegee but I've seen lot's of pictures/videos online with the pink squeegees being used.

Thanks!

[DannyGruninger]

95% of what we do we use that blade...... I find it similar to a 70/90/70 but I actually prefer it over those

[Shanarchy]

Thanks Danny! I was hoping you'd chime in as I saw you were using them while stalking your IG. Very impressive shop!

I'm going to order one and see how I like it.

Do you ever use anything softer, such as a 60/90/60 or 65/90/65?

[ZooCity]

I think that ryonet is using Serilor for the blades either the universal ones or the LC series, which it looks like the pink blade is a part of:
http://www.fimor-serigraphy.com/products/squeegees/lc/

We like the 70/90/70 and 55/90/55 in this series.  The softer edges suit wb/dc/hsa printing much better for us and do fine for high detail plastisol though I'm sure a harder duro could be beneficial for plastisol. 

80 eh? I'm so dug in on our triple duros that you'd have to pry them from my holders. 

And speaking of, I'm happy to report that the s.roques are now shipping with holders built to accommodate u.s. blade. 

[Shanarchy]

Ooh! Those yellow/white 70/90/70's are way sexier than my green/white ones!

Zoo, which S Rog are you using?

[DannyGruninger]

I think that ryonet is using Serilor for the blades either the universal ones or the LC series, which it looks like the pink blade is a part of:
http://www.fimor-serigraphy.com/products/squeegees/lc/

We like the 70/90/70 and 55/90/55 in this series.  The softer edges suit wb/dc/hsa printing much better for us and do fine for high detail plastisol though I'm sure a harder duro could be beneficial for plastisol. 

80 eh? I'm so dug in on our triple duros that you'd have to pry them from my holders. 

And speaking of, I'm happy to report that the s.roques are now shipping with holders built to accommodate u.s. blade.

If your getting std pink 80 duro(they actually test softer around 75 duro) with your new roq I would take those off you if you want to tell me what triple duro you use and I will buy you replacements in triple duro....... From my testing we actually prefer the single duro pink blade over a 70/90/70 all day.... I'd be happy to buy those from you and replace with triple if thats what you want. We also found that a 55/90/55 puts down wayyyyyyy too much ink for us here on our roqs. We liked them more when we ran m&r presses for what its worth. I never thought I would say I prefer single duro's but I'm almost ready to make that statement LOL

[ericheartsu]

have you ever used the smiling jacks on the roqs?

[ZooCity]

Oh man, do not make me think about squeegee blade for this press anymore!  haha.

We are actually getting ours in with the 55/90/55 and the 70/90/70 now that the holders are us sized.  I actually thought we'd need the 55 more than ever moving to platens without rubber.   I'll try to pickup a small amount of the 80 to try with the new machine now that you've destroyed my squeegee blade worldview. 

A note about the LC series blade v. the universal and other grades is that this series is +/- 5 on the durometer.  So a batch might test low but the next could also be effectively at 85 duro in theory at least.

Shanarchy, we're finally putting an Eco 10/12 XL in here come Feb when it'll be slow enough to swap machines.  This was probably the most drawn out purchase I've ever made due to instability at our current space, very happy to finally get at least one machine in here. 

[ebscreen]

We run the pink and like them, I wouldn't call it an 80 though.

This may be a dumb question, but wouldn't squeegee thickness make a difference in effective durometer?
Or is that a measurement of the surface only? At any rate, on our MHM's the thinner blades of the same
durometer definitely do not feel as hard.

And yes Chris, it could be worse. The MHM's have two thicknesses of squeegees depending on squeegee width.
Our 20" ones are 10MM and the 16" are 8MM. I'm sure there's reasoning behind that but it makes me want
to say cuss words.

[Shanarchy]

This may be a dumb question, but wouldn't squeegee thickness make a difference in effective durometer?
Or is that a measurement of the surface only? At any rate, on our MHM's the thinner blades of the same
durometer definitely do not feel as hard.

I wondered this as well. A 70 duro is a 70 duro, but wouldn't a 9mm 70 duro have more flex to it than a 9.2mm (3/8)? Or is the thickness so close that it wouldn't make a difference in real world use.

Thanks for the info Danny. We've been playing around with different duro's and I was under the impression I'd want a little softer on the non coated pallets, but seem to get better results with 70/90/70 than 60/90/60 or 65/90/65's. I have some 75/90/75's I haven't tried yet and didn't think I'd end up going that hard, but now I'm going to try them out and order a couple of the 80's with the standard R3 holders.

Eric, I am going to try smiling jacks at some point after I order the R3 (3/8") holders. I didn't ant to try jamming them in the 9mm I currently have.

[Colin]

When testing for durometer hardness:

It is a pinpoint pressure/deflection test.

A small point pushes down and the "push-back" it gets lets you know its durometer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QwFPfUq3I8

I don't remember how to embed - Good video - kinda boring, but it gets the point across.

[ZooCity]

I agree, same duro at the point of contact with the mesh, but different characteristics to how the blade bends, which means it changes the effective angle at the screen.   

I've always though squeegee blades were a "secret sauce" type of item in the shop.  You mess around until one of or two of 'em work best across your applications and go with it.  I can't science my way around it due to the constantly changing variables so I like to have two types- one for heavier deposit and penetration, one for lighter deposit and better shearing.   

I think a lot of it comes from using various press types, we have old school air heads and newer ac heads, pretty different scenarios on those machines with ink deposit and control.

[DannyGruninger]

have you ever used the smiling jacks on the roqs?

Yes but nowhere near enough to give a qualified answer to that. I know lots of guys using them/happy with them but I have not done enough testing/production to give a solid opinion on it unfortunately.

[AntonySharples]

have you ever used the smiling jacks on the roqs?

We use all smiling jacks on ours.  We have an older gen model, so we had to pry the holders a bit to get them to fit in, but I love them because they are part of our system.  Our mesh, the way we tension, our blades, our inks are all set up to be in tune with one another.  It's not so much the durometer, it's the fit of the blade to the mesh.

[Shanarchy]

It looks like the pink 80 duro squeegees ship that way with the press from the factory, but Ryonet does not seem to sell them separately.

Anyone know of where they can be purchased?

*edit*
Just got a call back from Ryonet. Apparently the R3 squeegee holders come with the pink squeegee blades in them. Which works out for me as I was going to buy a set of them along with the blades as they won't fit in my R2's.

It also looks like Nazdar sells the pink 80 Serilor LC1 by the roll.