Workhorse Mach cleaning

[domineight]

So I found a 6/6 and it turns up this morning. She was a hell of a mess but I've stripped the entire base back today, cleaned it all up, repacked bearings and thrown that it all back together, that part is awesome and practically new again - Now comes the harder parts, X6 ugly messy printheads. Oddly someone has removed and lost the Y micros from 4 printheads! Why I've no idea, I'll order new ones and at least they'll arrive clean.

I'm going to have a go at the arms next but I thought I'd stop to check if removing the rego gate and reinstalling it would give me any problems? I can't think why it would, but I might be missing something.
Presumably when I do it's just a case of installing the components again, and adjusting the nylon bolts to follow a centre line down the arms for the head to fall into? I don't have any experience of pulling that component apart and putting it back together is why I ask.

Also, I have to make some ali pallets because these MDF ones won't survive. Already a couple are warped. BUT, has anyone given any thought to giving the attachment some sort of pallet levelling feature?
I know workhorse are producing a pallet clamp to accept what looks to be M&R pallets, or using some similar extrusion with the 4 lever clamps, but this doesn't have any way to level pallets - The Auto workhorse clamp does, but looks to be too tall to adapt to the manual press.

I have briefly considered adapting the whole M&R bracket from a chameleon or sportsman onto the workhorse mach pallet arm, that would probably give me what I want and work well enough although I'm just guessing with measurement at the moment, but it does 'look' to be adaptable.

So if anyone had any idea regarding the rego gate removal/reinstall firstly, and a pallet bracket idea secondly, I'm all ears.

Ta.

[Frog]

I don't know about adding a pallet leveling feature, but I do know that the arms that support the pallets are leveled at the factory, numbered and marked, and to retain this leveling, must be replaced in the same locations on the carousel.
I can't think why removing and replacing the reg gates would affect anything.

[Prince Art]

Possible low-fi way to level pallets that don't have the ability built in:
-Number them, and assign them to specific arms
-Loosen bracket screws, shim as needed between bracket & pallet, tighten screws. Do this until it's just right.
-When changing pallets, always make sure they pair up with the correct arm, since your shims will be set for that arm only.

[domineight]

Roger that, Pallet arms all still numbered and have re-written the corresponding number on the carousel attachment points after cleaning. It appears I still have most of the locator pins that push into the  pallet arm when assembling also, so hopefully that all slots together nice - I don't imagine it won't.

So no drama ripping the rego gate apart to clean it all up and slot it back together again? I'm not going to find myself in some scenario where head #1 falls in nicely, but when I lower head numbers 2-6 the alignment is going to be hard over to one side and jam on me?

[Frog]

So no drama ripping the rego gate apart to clean it all up and slot it back together again? I'm not going to find myself in some scenario where head #1 falls in nicely, but when I lower head numbers 2-6 the alignment is going to be hard over to one side and jam on me?

I wouldn't think so. Heck, there's not really much to take apart. It's a "U" shaped hunk of cast aluminum with the two nylon bolts on the sides, and a bolt type doohickey in the middle where the print head off contact screw bottoms out.

[domineight]

That's how I see it too. And most things I pull apart I manage to put back together fine... I'm just wondering if I'll find myself in a sticky situation with each head having to fall into 6 different rego gates. If they're a little off I can see problems occurring.

I don't believe I've ever had to mess with that system so for probably the first time in my life I'm being cautious. Optimistic but cautious.

[Frog]

That's how I see it too. And most things I pull apart I manage to put back together fine... I'm just wondering if I'll find myself in a sticky situation with each head having to fall into 6 different rego gates. If they're a little off I can see problems occurring.

I don't believe I've ever had to mess with that system so for probably the first time in my life I'm being cautious. Optimistic but cautious.

Actually, the only thing that could be off, would be the nylon bolts, the actual "gate". If they are tight but a little off, the way I see it is that shirts printed on that head would be a tiny bit skewed, but still all colors should register relative to each other on that head nonetheless.
That said, I've never messed with that off-contact stop.

[domineight]

Yep. You know what I mean though right.

You have X6 stationary heads and each one has to fall into the same rego gate/nylon bolts. The actual head attachment points (3 bolt holes) have a bit of slop in them where they attach on the cast aluminium wheel.

I'm wondering if the best way to tackle it is to have a piece of film laid up square on the pallet, the screen set in head #1 and rego'd up nicely on pallet arm #1. Then push the actual pallet back so it's hitting the screen clamp, spinning head #2 around and dropping it into pallet arm #1, tighten the head up so the clamp is hard against the pallet, do the same for the remaining heads. Then drop head #1 down into pallet arm #2 and clamp the rego gate on that arm with the head in that down position, and carry on through the remaining pallet arms.

I've never dealt with a movable rego gate before, so I'm thinking of the complexities of everything being bolted tight, but misaligned.

[nobrainsd]

I guess I'm a little late to this party. I was relaxing in Cabo. But I'll throw out some comments from my experience.

I dismantled my eight color all heads down workhorse when I bought it. It definitely needed some work! I cleaned it up and painted it. Replacing the registration gates is pretty straight forward. There is some play in the assembly until the two bolts are tightened up. The center stop bolt doesn't go into the arm (you probably know that by now). I found it necessary to install the registration gate loosely, drop the print head into position, make sure the print head centers on the arm and then tighten the holding bolts with a box end wrench. Doing that on each arm ensures that your printed images will be nice and straight on all stations and heads. Of course, your actual registration gate nylon bolts need to be set so that the print head falls centered in the gate too. Really not very difficult and easy to go back and adjust both the registration bolts and the gate position if needed.


Obviously you want the printed image to fall in the same spot on all of the platens. That wasn't too difficult to achieve. Getting the rest of the platen alignment done can be tricky depending on the condition of the press. I'm assuming that your press has the adjustable support arm? That feature helped me get my platens leveled, but wasn't enough on my old press. Tightly clamping the platen on the arm deforms it a little bit over time. Or maybe it was caused by people moving the press by holding the arms. Most of my platen arms had some slight twist to them. If it isn't a lot you can still level all of the platens to each other. I picked the sweet spot for platen position along the length of the arm and placed platens on all arms at that same spot. I used a very flat 11 layer birch plywood piece bolted into my head and lowered it down to check the platen level. I felt this worked better than using a roller frame. I adjusted the level as much as possible using the support arm, but if there is any twist I had to remove the set pins from where the platen arm attached to the press body. Then I loosened the attaching bolts enough to move the arm assembly. I could then adjust the position so that the platen and the clamped board would be entirely level. It is a little difficult to move the arm assembly and keep it in position while you tighten the attaching bolts. I kept the attaching bolts a little snug and tapped carefully on the assembly with a mallet. I used two clamps to hold the position while checking the results and while tightening the attaching bolts. When I had the twist accounted for I bolted the arm assembly fully tight to the body and checked again to see if I needed to make any adjustments using the support arm. When I was really satisfied I drilled new holes for the set pins. I filled the old holes with JB Weld to avoid any future confusion and painted over them.

If you need to re pin the platen arm assembly watch the height too, not just the twist. All of the assemblies need to be in the same plane.

If you don't have the adjustable support arm (do newer workhorse models still have that feature?) then I would rather shim behind the platen arm assembly where it bolts to the press body, but that is so I can move platens around without care.

My ancient Workhorse has remarkably level platens. I have leveled a couple of Hopkins too. It is sure worth taking the time to do so! Everything prints so much better with level and flat platens

I hope your press is in better condition and you don't have to set new pins on your platen arm assembly, but it sure did work for me.  If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Those presses are tanks and hold up amazingly well, particularly if you don't move them by lifting the platen arms. I use a motorcycle lift to move mine.

[nobrainsd]

I should add. I took some time with my platen arms in their original positions, platens installed and my flat board clamped in place and adjusted as well as I could. Then I surveyed all of the platen positions to see which were near or close to being level and which needed the most adjustment. I picked the best position to start with. Got it leveled and then worked my way around. I had a couple of arms that were easy to get leveled. If I had started with the worst I would have had a harder time. Just a suggestion.

[domineight]

Heyya,

No not too late. I spent about 5 hours yesterday dismantling one printhead, cleaning it entirely, and reassembling it. So I've a way to go before I get to levelling everything.

Thanks for your time and explanation, that all reads sensible and logical and you've confirmed some of my own thoughts regarding the process.
I've taken a look at all the arms and while the rego gate is utterly filthy on all of them, it's not so filthy I'll have to remove them, so I'll clean in place and replace the nylon rego gate bolts and be done with that particular component.

My arms do show a bit of denting, or pressure dents from someone, or people apeing the screw knobs on the pallet brackets. Not horrendously dented but definitely dented enough to impact the levelling in my opinion - I'll discover how much when I get to it. Actually someone at some stage had manufactured some additional brackets and have used quite a large allen head cap screw which I believe has done the most damage. Hard to imagine denting those arms with finger pressure alone.

One thing I did discover, is the nylon rod ends for the micro adjusters get pretty brittle. I managed to snap the head off one in the final assembly, then snapped another one while I was robbing a replacement from another printhead! I understand why four of the six printheads had no micros at all - Someone has snapped the rod end off and tossed the rest of it in the bin!
I did briefly question the use of the nylon rod ends and contemplated just replacing them with steel, but once I had this one printhead cleaned, greased and functional that nylon rod end is very very good. No slop at all and instant movement when adjusting.

[Printwizard]

Mostly Nylon in them as its aluminium / soft cast metal I think and the steel has the risk of buggering the threads as its softer I think was the thinking.  I used to get frustrated at the Nylon, but not so much as the back clamps and shifting the pallets....  Nice job cleaning but you should be printing and pressing Rod...

[nobrainsd]

Yep, steel bolts would wear a groove in the bearing face of the print head as it entered the registration gate. Also could easily dent the leading edge of the print head if you weren't right on in your drop. That brings up another point. Be careful when cleaning or polishing those bearing surfaces on the print head. You do not want them to be different from one head to the next in dimension! My press came with one surface some how reduced and that head was always a little sloppy in the registration gate, until I cleaned the press up and made all of the print heads the same (used wet and dry sand paper lightly on the bigger sized print heads). A very little difference sucks. I also had a few nylon bolts that snapped at first. Replaced all. Cleaned the threads with a tap. Lightly covered with spray silicone before installing and no problems since. The nylon bolts are sacrificial. Just snug them up every so often. Don't know why people stress about that registration style? If the bolt face gets too rounded I sand them flat and put a small bevel on the top where the gate comes down. Easy.

I print a lot with 23x31 roller frames and I don't have any trouble with just using back clamps. To each his own. I haven't had any trouble with shifting pallets either, but I do crank on them Or was the post referring to shifting platens as in a different platen? It  isn't a big deal, but it certainly isn't a QD release I print on 18" platens. Don't really have much deflection. When I first renovated the press I had some and I had issues with the center bearing hold down backing off a bit. Ran a little tighter than I wanted too. There was what I thought was too much drag when I spun the screens. It settled in and got much better. But an eight with large screens is a bit of a work out any way you cut it.

I cleaned up the micros, but I have always had some issues with "hang" when I use them. In other words I use the micro and it looks good, but after I lift the screen and re drop the reg moves a little. I just lift and drop and adjust, have gotten used to it. I know what to expect. Not sure if that is something on the press that I am missing or just the drag between the screen and art/platen when lowered and adjusting (it is a big screen). I bump the screen up as I reg and it works fine.

If you ever use the all heads down feature please post! I could never get 8 people who were efficient at this. I printed runs of 500 pieces with all 8 colors and it would have been nice to do. Damn, I have some spastic friends...

One last comment, on my eight I only use 4 arms now. Easier to move around and I don't see the need to deal more platens and arms than I actually need. YMMV

[nobrainsd]

When I went to thread I saw the print head shot. Doesn't look like an all heads down machine. I think they all have the sliding print head positioning. just an odd assumption on my part. Interesting how the print head hinge is just attached to the wheel. My ancient Workhorse has large spokes that run all of the way to the center of the turntable. Still, leveling is essentially the same.

I was sooo stoked when I bought my press for $1250. I hope you make some coin and enjoy your 6

[domineight]

Yes, this is the 6/6 "modular" model. Not all heads down but that big ali wheel that holds the printheads are drilled to hold X8 printheads. So I could buy a couple extra heads and throw them on to have an 8/6.

A bit of compromise there as while it's in the 6/6 configuration it will take sideclamps and/or a 26" wide frame in each head according to an old sales brochure I downloaded, or if I make it an 8 colour the frame width is limited to 21".

Quite a good bit of forethought from Workhorse there though. I think for 99% of what I do a 20X24" frame is fine so I'll place the heads in the 8/6 configuration as I'm cleaning and see how it looks and works for me.

At the rate it's taking me to get years of spray tack and lint and crap off I should be all done mid April. lol!