Platens

[Action1]

Hey Action I sent you a message on those Workhorse brackets, they look way more stable than the originals.

They definitely are more stable. The picture you are referring to shows our standard manual pallet bracket assembly. It is comprised of an M&R Style pallet mount & manual bracket adapters. That is - all of your M&R Style pallets can be used on almost any manual machine. When you buy pallets for your manual machines - they can be used on almost all brands of automatics also. This design adds function while future-proofing your pallets. That is - changing or upgrading machinery won't obsolete your pallets.

The shape of the bracket adds  strength to the pallet and will keep it flat for a longer period of time.

[jsheridan]

Action.. does that bracket work on Lawson. I want to upgrade to Alum boards on my lawson HD max.

[Frog]

Well I have to say I'm surprised. 

I expected a vote to be heavy one way or the other.  But the vote is almost exactly even. 

Since I'm going to make them like I did the "shorties".  Out of MDF with Formica tops and bottoms, I think I'll try making rectangles and if I find I can't get used to them loading, I'll just make a new set.  The voting ends tomorrow.  Thanks all.

More than a "vote of preference" I see this as a report of what folks have on their presses, more than likely, the style that they came with for the most part.

[Action1]

Action.. does that bracket work on Lawson. I want to upgrade to Alum boards on my lawson HD max.

What is the distance from the top of the pallet arm to the top of the pallet? The MBA setup works when that dimension is between 3/4" to 1.5". I believe that your machine is one that will not accommodate this bracket.

[Shawn (EIP)]

Hey Action I sent you a message on those Workhorse brackets, they look way more stable than the originals.

They definitely are more stable. The picture you are referring to shows our standard manual pallet bracket assembly. It is comprised of an M&R Style pallet mount & manual bracket adapters. That is - all of your M&R Style pallets can be used on almost any manual machine. When you buy pallets for your manual machines - they can be used on almost all brands of automatics also. This design adds function while future-proofing your pallets. That is - changing or upgrading machinery won't obsolete your pallets.

The shape of the bracket adds  strength to the pallet and will keep it flat for a longer period of time.

I need some pricing just the brackets not the plattens. endlessink@gmail.com  Thanks!

[jsheridan]

What is the distance from the top of the pallet arm to the top of the pallet? The MBA setup works when that dimension is between 3/4" to 1.5". I believe that your machine is one that will not accommodate this bracket.

Tis why I asked. It's a few inches due to a weird bracket they use on the manuals. Thanks!

[blue moon]

we are in a little bit different situation with the MHM (v shape with quick platten position adjustment)

The plattens are tapered and we load the shirt all the way to the end for most of prints. By all the way, I mean we run the shirt as far as it will go and butt the shoulder seams against the edge of the plattens. Once in the groove, I can load the shirts straight on without having to adjust them left or right. Every now and then, it is off, but I can tell just by the way it slides on. Doing it this way, we can run the press at 1000 pieces per hour. Unfortunately, I don't have the stamina to go very long at that pace, and we tend to run out of shirts after a short time. The most we did was about 1300 shirts in about an hour and 15 min. For the most part, I have given up the high speed runs after seeing Tony's and another big shop. We are after the sustained rate and are loading at 300-500 an hour on longer runs now. But I digress, back to the original discussion. . .

On the MHM, the plattens are unlocked with a push button and are very easy to move in and out. On orders over 100 pieces, we usually move the plattens to keep the shirts loaded all the way to the seams but still change the distance from the collar. By loading all the shirts all the way to the seams and not having to back them up, we are able to eliminate one extra step and print faster. There is return on the investment here, and if the orders are small the time it takes to adjust the plattens might not be cost effective. In that case we just pull the shirt back some more. We do have the lasers set up, so it is very easy to see how far the shirt has to go. It is easy to do it this way, but there is no doubt that printing with the V shaped platten can be significantly faster!

pierre

[alan802]

I prefer rectangular.  I've always had them but I have loaded shirts on the other styles on several occasions at other shop visits.  We load and set everything up like John does but larger shirts (xxl+) we'll have a half inch or a tad bit more of overhang.  I used to move the larger shirts to the right on left chests until I noticed on my 2xl that I've printed for myself that the left chest is too far left so we don't move them as much, an inch at the most.

I don't like the collar to hit the screens when printing, it affects the off contact, as well as the pressure needed to shear the ink.  We load the shirt all the way on, then grab the shoulder seams and pull back till the collar just falls off the edge of the pallet.  If we do a wide range of sizes we might pull the smaller shirts down further on the pallet with the collar coming into contact with the screen, but only if it's a minimum amount.  We can move our pallets an inch or two in less than a minute for the whole machine so that's what we do.

[Action1]

we are in a little bit different situation with the MHM (v shape with quick platten position adjustment)

The plattens are tapered and we load the shirt all the way to the end for most of prints. By all the way, I mean we run the shirt as far as it will go and butt the shoulder seams against the edge of the plattens. Once in the groove, I can load the shirts straight on without having to adjust them left or right. Every now and then, it is off, but I can tell just by the way it slides on. Doing it this way, we can run the press at 1000 pieces per hour. Unfortunately, I don't have the stamina to go very long at that pace, and we tend to run out of shirts after a short time. The most we did was about 1300 shirts in about an hour and 15 min. For the most part, I have given up the high speed runs after seeing Tony's and another big shop. We are after the sustained rate and are loading at 300-500 an hour on longer runs now. But I digress, back to the original discussion. . .

On the MHM, the plattens are unlocked with a push button and are very easy to move in and out. On orders over 100 pieces, we usually move the plattens to keep the shirts loaded all the way to the seams but still change the distance from the collar. By loading all the shirts all the way to the seams and not having to back them up, we are able to eliminate one extra step and print faster. There is return on the investment here, and if the orders are small the time it takes to adjust the plattens might not be cost effective. In that case we just pull the shirt back some more. We do have the lasers set up, so it is very easy to see how far the shirt has to go. It is easy to do it this way, but there is no doubt that printing with the V shaped platten can be significantly faster!

pierre

If you put soft top rubber onto your MHM Style Pallets - than you can create a collar easement as seen here. Adding soft top rubber to Honeycomb Aluminum has numerous advantages. The easement will eliminate many of the challenges of loading and allow you to print right up to the edge of the collar and shoulder seams.

[ZooCity]

we are in a little bit different situation with the MHM (v shape with quick platten position adjustment)

The plattens are tapered and we load the shirt all the way to the end for most of prints. By all the way, I mean we run the shirt as far as it will go and butt the shoulder seams against the edge of the plattens. Once in the groove, I can load the shirts straight on without having to adjust them left or right. Every now and then, it is off, but I can tell just by the way it slides on. Doing it this way, we can run the press at 1000 pieces per hour. Unfortunately, I don't have the stamina to go very long at that pace, and we tend to run out of shirts after a short time. The most we did was about 1300 shirts in about an hour and 15 min. For the most part, I have given up the high speed runs after seeing Tony's and another big shop. We are after the sustained rate and are loading at 300-500 an hour on longer runs now. But I digress, back to the original discussion. . .

On the MHM, the plattens are unlocked with a push button and are very easy to move in and out. On orders over 100 pieces, we usually move the plattens to keep the shirts loaded all the way to the seams but still change the distance from the collar. By loading all the shirts all the way to the seams and not having to back them up, we are able to eliminate one extra step and print faster. There is return on the investment here, and if the orders are small the time it takes to adjust the plattens might not be cost effective. In that case we just pull the shirt back some more. We do have the lasers set up, so it is very easy to see how far the shirt has to go. It is easy to do it this way, but there is no doubt that printing with the V shaped platten can be significantly faster!

pierre

If you put soft top rubber onto your MHM Style Pallets - than you can create a collar easement as seen here. Adding soft top rubber to Honeycomb Aluminum has numerous advantages. The easement will eliminate many of the challenges of loading and allow you to print right up to the edge of the collar and shoulder seams.

This looks nice.  Benefits that Pierre described in quick loading but with less hassle from the collar.  I was under the impression that rubber on honeycomb wasn't too hot for flashing?

My question is why are you making more work for yourself by moving the shirt around your pretty line and marking covered platens?? Mine have paper on them.. that's it
I have over 6 million prints under my belt from my contract printing days and I never moved a small down an inch or an xxl up an inch. It doesn't make sense to a contract guy printing 4500 shirts a day. Just put it on the board here, that's all you have to do.

Haha, alright then John, just the difference in our shops, the overall grade of work we do and our clients.  Contract is certainly different, agreed.  That's very nice you never adjusted for an optimal print location in over 6 million prints but would never fly around here for even a day.  Many clients simply ask for us to "do what looks good" on the range of sizes and our orders contain a great range very often.   There is more to it than just throwing shirts on the board for us as well as others working retail. 

[jsheridan]

I dig the rubber top knockout for the MHM.
To back up Pierre's mention of pulling the shirt on once with the MHM, that I really enjoyed and it enabled me to run the machine at capacity all day every day. It was also the length of the board that helped keep the shirts square, almost 4' boards on the 3000 series machines.

[screenxpress]

Thanks to all for the opinions and the voting, which is now locked.