Dropping squeegees

[Doug S]

Hey everyone.  I have a 2010 sportsman e.  I've had 1 head that has randomly dropped squeegees.  This morning I had another head start.  I've got 20 more psi to the press than what it calls for.  I don't hear any air leaking.  I know I could call M&R but was hoping someone here has had that problem and could give me the short and quick of it.  Thanks in advance.

[whitewater]

Hi - what do you mean by dropping squeegees?

[Doug S]

Usually during the print stroke but sometimes while it's flooding.  The squeegee holder just drops the squeegee in the screen.  You can imagine the mess that creates. 

[mk162]

are the clamps bent at all?  are the squeegees damaged where the clamps attach?

[Doug S]

I know the squeegees are ok and made double sure the grooves are clean.  As far as the clamps I’ll have to give them a closer inspection but I haven’t seen anything obvious yet.  I’ll check that first thing

[bimmridder]

Not sure about that press, but some of mt presses have solenoids that fail (too often). Probably not the case with yours. Try a few drops of 10 wt oil in the lines going into the cylinder.


(Sorry. I thought you meant the entire squeegee assembly, including bar, was falling on one side)

[Doug S]

Not sure about that press, but some of mt presses have solenoids that fail (too often). Probably not the case with yours. Try a few drops of 10 wt oil in the lines going into the cylinder.

I'll give that a shot.  I couldn't find any bent areas clamps.  When I flip the toggle to lock the squeegee in, it seems tight and may go 100 prints and sometimes 50 or so before it drops in the screen. I've been lucky so far and just had a mess to clean instead of a popped screen.  Thanks everyone.

[Zelko-4-EVA]

do you have a lot of angle on the squeegee?  ive seen it pop out of our M&R on a few heads when excessive angle was used with a lot of squeegee pressure... 

[Evo]

Not sure about that press, but some of mt presses have solenoids that fail (too often). Probably not the case with yours. Try a few drops of 10 wt oil in the lines going into the cylinder.

I'll give that a shot.  I couldn't find any bent areas clamps.  When I flip the toggle to lock the squeegee in, it seems tight and may go 100 prints and sometimes 50 or so before it drops in the screen. I've been lucky so far and just had a mess to clean instead of a popped screen.  Thanks everyone.

Make sure the clamps are all tightened securely to the squeegee bar. If they come loose it bends out the bar and the clamp will internally self destruct from side-loading.

If the o-ring in the clamp cylinder goes bad you will hear it. There is a bypass hole in the side of the clamp and if air gets past the o-ring it blows out of this. (typically on the print stroke when the squeegee is torqued)

The clamps don't depend on a solenoid, it's just air feeding a manual switch. Either the cylinder is bad or the switch is bad?

[farmboygraphics]

Make sure the clamps are all tightened securely to the squeegee bar.

Never knew this was something to check.
Just checked all of mine and the one's on the squeege side of the head I use the most are loose and the allen bolt seems to be
stripped, although I'm not sure how that would happen. Looks like I'm ordering parts I didn't know that I needed, but glad I know now.

Edit: Not stripped, there's a thin "wrench" that goes in between the bar and the clamp.

[Evo]

Make sure the clamps are all tightened securely to the squeegee bar.

Never knew this was something to check.
Just checked all of mine and the one's on the squeege side of the head I use the most are loose and the allen bolt seems to be
stripped, although I'm not sure how that would happen. Looks like I'm ordering parts I didn't know that I needed, but glad I know now.

Edit: Not stripped, there's a thin "wrench" that goes in between the bar and the clamp.

I'm in the middle of a multi-press rebuild of a bunch of these clamps. Out of a dozen or more maybe 4 were salvageable. Once the little piston goes sideways inside it chews up the cylinder wall and no amount of oil or grease will seal it anymore.

I noticed older iterations have a steel piston and newer seem to be aluminum with a stainless shaft, which maybe doesn't tear things up as much.

You will want to grab a couple 7/16ths open end wrenches and grind them flat and thin to a little less than 1/8" thick, or find some nice 7/16th cone wrenches. The flats on the shaft are hard to reach with anything else, *and* they get mangled when the clamp goes loose, as well as the end of the shaft at the allen screw (makes it almost impossible to get the piston out if it's bad enough). Also, the holes in the squeegee bar get bent and keyholed too.

It's a potential multi-part self destruct system. Something to keep an eye on for sure.

[Doug S]

Not sure about that press, but some of mt presses have solenoids that fail (too often). Probably not the case with yours. Try a few drops of 10 wt oil in the lines going into the cylinder.

I'll give that a shot.  I couldn't find any bent areas clamps.  When I flip the toggle to lock the squeegee in, it seems tight and may go 100 prints and sometimes 50 or so before it drops in the screen. I've been lucky so far and just had a mess to clean instead of a popped screen.  Thanks everyone.

Make sure the clamps are all tightened securely to the squeegee bar. If they come loose it bends out the bar and the clamp will internally self destruct from side-loading.

If the o-ring in the clamp cylinder goes bad you will hear it. There is a bypass hole in the side of the clamp and if air gets past the o-ring it blows out of this. (typically on the print stroke when the squeegee is torqued)

The clamps don't depend on a solenoid, it's just air feeding a manual switch. Either the cylinder is bad or the switch is bad?

Just an update.  I too never knew there were screws on the bottom of those clamps "I don't know how I thought they were fastened duh".  I've went around the press and tightened all of them.  Some of them seemed like they may have been stripped to some degree but all of them are definitely tighter.  I believe that's going to solve the issue.  I appreciate all of the info.