All air sportsman- chopper settings

[Inprint]

Hi everyone
First post, so much good info on this forum!

We just setup our "new" used 2004 all air 6c/8s m&r sportsman

It's our first auto, got everything level, first jobs went surprisingly pretty well.

Couple questions, even after reading up on these issues on this forum:

Were having trouble clearing the top of the image, were burning our image about 7" down from top of screen.

Been reading here about deflection of pallet/head.

We have our choppers set at "1", and are seeing quite a bit of movement on the print head and pallet.

We read somewhere on this forum that the choppers should be set all the way open, or around 1.5, but it looks like that would literally bust through our screen the squeegee would come way too low.

Is that correct? Choppers all the way open?

We're thinking we could burn our art lower on screen and move pallets in a bit, but still unsure about the ideal chopper settings.

Are we missing something? We had our pressure regulators set at about 45psi and still had to double stroke, sometimes 2 whole cycles, to get the screen to completely clear and give a nice smooth white.

We're using brand new statics at around 30 netwons.

[jvanick]

First off.. congrats!

A few things to check... 45 psi sounds good for the print pressure...

Check your off contact settings...

Check the leveling on your pallets.

[Inprint]

Thanks for the reply man
We leveled our pallets best we could for first time, using the sportsman manual and online videos, I think we did a good job.

As for off-contact, were at minimum off contact on central adjustment of machine, and setup our screen holders at about a nickel height on each corner.

We're a little confused as to how to set the chopper stops

[jvanick]

Max the print choppers out... as in if there's no squeegee in them it should go as low as possible.  Or said another way, at rest the squeegee stop should be in the highest position.

[dirkdiggler]

yes, max them out, if you are gonna bust your screen with that setting, you have WAY TO MUCH off contact.

[Inprint]

That's what we'd read on another thread here, but at that setting on our press it looks like the squeegee is going to go right through the screen! Looks WAY too low!

Too much off contact eh?

Guess it's back to square one...

[244]

That's what we'd read on another thread here, but at that setting on our press it looks like the squeegee is going to go right through the screen! Looks WAY too low!

Too much off contact eh?

Guess it's back to square one...

not all models have the squeegee pressure adjustment on the front of the head. If it does start at 30psi and knobs all the way up

[Inprint]

We do have the squeegee pressure regulators.

The maxed out at choppers is where were a little stumped, guess we need to lower our screen holders quite a bit, but we HAD set em using nickels at every corner of pallet #1 for off contact adjustment, so a bit stumped why our screens seem so high in relation to the choppers.

[Binkspot]

Just a thought it may not be the machine but the ink, angle, dull squeegee, speed, etc.

[Inprint]

Oh yeah, I'm not ruling anything out!
Just trying to make sure we at least have machine set up close to right.

We put brand new triple duro squeegee rubber, been printing at different speeds, pretty much near 0 angle on new winged flood bars, and minimal angle on squeegee to start.

[3Deep]

What is your screen tension?  white ink is always a monster to print in one stroke from a cold start, once it warms up a bit it prints pretty nice.  I can speak from experience of printing white ink thru low mesh screens and yep it's tough and double stroking is about the only way your going to get a nice print on low tension.  Hey welcome to the jungle here

darryl

[jvanick]

He mentioned 30n above... my suggestion is to try more angle on the print stroke, and slower print stroke.

With air heads, you need to slow the print stroke due to the acceleration of the building of the air in the cylinder.

[3Deep]

He mentioned 30n above... my suggestion is to try more angle on the print stroke, and slower print stroke.

With air heads, you need to slow the print stroke due to the acceleration of the building of the air in the cylinder.

Your right I didn't read the complete post, and I totally agree with an all air press the print stroke can be a little different each print as I've learned to deal with on my press.

[Frog]

You 30n static screens are worthy of their own thread. 

[jvanick]

I've had brand new 156 frames come in at 30n... they settle in at 25-27n.  I believe they were stretched by Xenon.