Press Calibration

[travis.hoyme]

What is the best ways / tools to use to make sure an older press is calibrated?


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[blue moon]

a good long level to get you close and a dial indicator to get it right on.
start with the base and work your way up. All the platens need to be at the same height from the ground and level front to back/left to right.
Then the print arms. Make sure they are parallel to the platens. Set the dial indicator on the squeegee/floodbar assembly and move back and forth across the platen. You can also move the platens left and right to confirm they are level.
You are shooting for 5/1,000th on any measurement. If you can get the press to be within 15/1,000th you are doing good! (that's no more then 15 in all directions across everything, arms, platens, base. . .)

pierre

[travis.hoyme]

What do you mean by a dial indicator?   Do you have pics of one?  Where can one be purchased?


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[blue moon]

harbor freight has them pretty cheap.
It's a standard measuring tool for fine tolerances, google it . . .

pierre

[Atownsend]

.015" is pretty damn good for pallet leveling. I must have some old / out of flat pallets, because No matter what I do I can only get to about .02" tolerance. It drives me crazy, because I know its forcing us to run with higher pressures. I'm not mounting dial indicators to a flood bar, but I do have shims that I aim at with the floodbar. Anybody have pics of their floodbar / dial indicator mount? But if my pallets are not flat I might just be spinning my wheels though. If I take a straight edge and place it in the middle, I cant see any sag in the middle. I think my issues are more with bottom left / top right etc. The place I picked up my sportsman from was running stupid high print pressures with T mesh. So, how to confirm if your pallet is actually flat? When do you replace your pallets, or do you replace them at all? If warped, can they be ground flat again? Am I missing some secret to pallet leveling? how long does this take you per pallet? Me getting to .02 was not exactly easy or quick.

[mk162]

warped pallets must be replaced.  sorry.

The dial indicator from HF works really well.  I registered our press with it after a tech jacked it up with his.

[merchmonster]

joe clarke would say print a 9 zone and email him

[merchmonster]

Oops I made a boo boo

[Atownsend]

I realized the screens are in an AI file. Here's a link to all the docs and the screen printers bible also:

Thank you!!! I spoke with Joe about this the last time we talked on the phone but forgot to remind him to send it to me.

warped pallets must be replaced.  sorry.

The dial indicator from HF works really well.  I registered our press with it after a tech jacked it up with his.

Yeah I have 2 that I think I am going to have to swap. I wish there was a definitive way to measure to see if they were out of flat, but my brain is drawing a blank on how to actually do that. I did swap out one of the troublemaker pallets for one that was on our old gauntlet and I ended up getting that in tolerance. I suppose that is confirmation enough, but would prefer to have a tool.

Sucks that a "tech" effed that up for you. I haven't done it yet, but I really don't think it is that difficult if you understand what is going on. I have seen it done and think I have a good grip on the procedure. Did you build your reg device or buy one? I would like to build one so I can at least check our presses. Our gauntlet will probably be going into storage until our neighbors want to give up space or we move to a bigger bldg, so I will need to put it back together somehow. It would be a nice to practice on a non essential machine.

[blue moon]

I realized the screens are in an AI file. Here's a link to all the docs and the screen printers bible also:

I deleted the link that contained Joe’s 9 zone file. Last I talked to him, those were his IP and he din NOT want them shared. I think he actually charges for it.

Pierre

[blue moon]

.015" is pretty damn good for pallet leveling. I must have some old / out of flat pallets, because No matter what I do I can only get to about .02" tolerance. It drives me crazy, because I know its forcing us to run with higher pressures. I'm not mounting dial indicators to a flood bar, but I do have shims that I aim at with the floodbar. Anybody have pics of their floodbar / dial indicator mount? But if my pallets are not flat I might just be spinning my wheels though. If I take a straight edge and place it in the middle, I cant see any sag in the middle. I think my issues are more with bottom left / top right etc. The place I picked up my sportsman from was running stupid high print pressures with T mesh. So, how to confirm if your pallet is actually flat? When do you replace your pallets, or do you replace them at all? If warped, can they be ground flat again? Am I missing some secret to pallet leveling? how long does this take you per pallet? Me getting to .02 was not exactly easy or quick.

Last time I did it, it took the whole afternoon, probably close to 6 hours to get EVERYTHING inside 0.015”.
For the dial indicator, it was attached to the squeegee/floodbar carrige. This way you can move it back and forth to see if you platens are dipping or rising. Then by rotating the carousel you can measure if there is any crowning on the platens.

Pierre