AUTO WARS 3 - Squeegees & Flood Bars - Videos only

[Donnie]

I will defer to Shanarchy for this one.

[Screened Gear]

Where's everyone else at with their vids?  Busy I guess, which is always a good thing.  I'm interested in the Anatol and TUF.  I wonder how close the TUF is to the MHM with it being a center connected, self leveling blade.  We haven't had many/any M&R vids have we?

I would like to see some of the older presses also. This is not just about what brand does it better.

[inkman996]

The similarity between the tuf and the Mhm stops at the self leveling. On the Mhm it still uses individual flood and squeegee and it uses the common chopper style, the tuf is a v system that is well different to say the least. I operated a javelins for many years it was not till I went to a chopper system did I realize how frustrating the v squeegee system is.

[Donnie]

Well 3 Hoodies short and cant finish till tomorrow... So I went ahead.

Anatol Sqeegee and Flood Bars

[Gilligan]

But that is an addon or an option right?

Default they have those hanger clamp things right?  The one that I've seen was like that at least.

[Donnie]

If you are referring to the quick release, no. Every Anatol comes with this.

[Gilligan]

Hmm, when did they start that?  Maybe the one I've seen is just older?

[Frog]

I would like to see some of the older presses also. This is not just about what brand does it better.

If it's not just about that, perhaps you should not title your poll, "What press has the best Squeegees & Flood Bars?" lol!

[ZooCity]

I gotta ask- what is the difference between the squeegee pressure (pneumatic) that is universal to the printhead and the squeegee height adjustment on each chopper?   How do they interact?

The digital readouts on the RPM are such a good idea to me, not overkill at all.  You could ensure easy repeatability with a wide variety of operators with that sort of feature. 

[Gilligan]

But is it really that important to have your squeegee at EXACTLY 11 degrees vs "about 11"?

[alan802]

But is it really that important to have your squeegee at EXACTLY 11 degrees vs "about 11"?

Probably not but it does allow you more precise control over repeating a setting and there might be certain circumstances where that one unit could make a difference. That kind of control is more about eliminating variables and it does that better than any other option.  If it doesn't cost any extra to show you an exact digital number versus a dial on a gauge then I'll take the digital version.

Zoo, you don't have to do much, if any adjusting to the squeegee height once you get them set down far enough to where they will push the mesh down onto the shirt.  We move ours up or down if we change the angle enough to where the blade won't reach down far enough.  You use the air regulator to add or decrease the pressure within the chopper cylinders needed to shear the ink.  You can have your blade set all the way down but if you don't have enough pressure in the cylinders then the ink won't clear the screen. You can also have 100 psi in the chopper cylinders but if your blades aren't set far enough down then it won't print.

They are used in unison to a degree but you could set your squeegee chopper all the way down and never change it ever again. We don't have ours maxed out but pretty close to where we don't have to mess with them much, only on rare occasions with extreme angles or a very stubborn ink.  We leave a little play left in them but not enough to matter.  If an ink isn't clearing a screen we just turn the regulator knob and I add just one or two psi at a time to make sure we print with minimum pressure.

[Screened Gear]

I would like to see some of the older presses also. This is not just about what brand does it better.

If it's not just about that, perhaps you should not title your poll, "What press has the best Squeegees & Flood Bars?" lol!

Let me explain what I said. "This is not "just" about what brand does it better" That means something’s are and something’s are not about what brand is better. Some parts like the voting is about what brand is better. The making videos and sharing them is not just to prove your press is better.

I started this video series so other screen printers can see what options are out there. Like me many of us will never know how our brand new press works until its in our shop.  You can search the web for pictures and videos but they never show much. (trust me I searched for videos for months) The sales people will tell you everything good about them and sometimes what’s bad about other brands presses. Other screen printers will tell you what they think about their press. Many don't know enough about how other presses work to say theirs is the best or works the best. When I started this I thought it would be a really positive thing for our industry and this forum. It would let us shop for an auto press without the influence of sales people. It would let you see a lot more presses up close and personal then you ever could before. We always talk about them but seeing them and how they really work is much more productive.

Again I want to thank all the guys that have been making videos and I hope soon we can see some of the other brands. I think we are still missing a few brands people would like to see.

Thanks Jon

[Screened Gear]

But is it really that important to have your squeegee at EXACTLY 11 degrees vs "about 11"?

They are used in unison to a degree but you could set your squeegee chopper all the way down and never change it ever again. We don't have ours maxed out but pretty close to where we don't have to mess with them much, only on rare occasions with extreme angles or a very stubborn ink.  We leave a little play left in them but not enough to matter.  If an ink isn't clearing a screen we just turn the regulator knob and I add just one or two psi at a time to make sure we print with minimum pressure.

Alan,

This is the part I am having some issues with and talking to different printers I get different answers. Some use a steady air pressure and adjust the choppers. Then some are like you and leave the choppers alone and adjust the air pressure. I am sure there is not a right way but I would really like to hear more on this from other people. It may have to be another topic.

[IntegrityShirts]

But that is an addon or an option right?

Default they have those hanger clamp things right?  The one that I've seen was like that at least.

Older Anatols have the hanger clamps OR air clamps so yes at some point they switched completely over to the quick release system ONLY.  My circa 2004/05 Trident had membrane buttons on the head controls for squeegee and floodbar air clamps but didn't come with them installed, just hanger clamps.  When my press was upgraded with Pr1ntex chopper assemblies with air clamps they put in manual toggles for the clamps rather than run solenoids, wiring, etc to make it work with the head panel buttons.  It could have been done electronically but dang EACH MAC valve is $40, each head would have two, times 10 heads.

I could post a video of my chopper/squeegee clamps but I don't want to get shot in the face!

[alan802]

I think a video of your machine would be in context and would be fine, but it's obviously not my decision to make.  I'd like to see the Trident and how the chopper cylinders were retrofitted.  I've thought about doing something similar to our machine way in the future when our cylinders start failing, but that is a long way down the road...knock on wood.

 

Alan,

This is the part I am having some issues with and talking to different printers I get different answers. Some use a steady air pressure and adjust the choppers. Then some are like you and leave the choppers alone and adjust the air pressure. I am sure there is not a right way but I would really like to hear more on this from other people. It may have to be another topic.

We've always relied on the air pressure regulator for the most part, and I adjusted the squeegee up and down on stubborn inks that needed something extra or really soft inks that needed very little pressure.  My advice would to be to crank the squeegee all the way down, or close to it and rely on the air pressure to print with, you can really dial it in and not get into a habit of using too much pressure.  I always start our psi at around 20 when setting up a job, then do a test print and adjust it higher until the ink clears.  If you start low and go up then you know you'll always be printing with as little pressure as you need to clear the screen.  I know a lot of printers will have the pressure regulator on 40 psi from a previous job and then they put a new screen and new ink in that printhead that doesn't need that much pressure and just continue to print and they are using about 15-20 psi too much and losing opacity and wasting ink.  Try it both ways for a week and I think you'll end up using the technique that we do and very rarely will you need to mess with changing the chopper settings.