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screen printing => Equipment => DIY - From master engineered marvels to cobbled together jury-rigged or Jerry-built junk! => Topic started by: Northland on December 10, 2013, 07:29:25 PM

Title: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: Northland on December 10, 2013, 07:29:25 PM

Ok... here's my entry for "gerry-rigged":
I came across an offer for a free conveyor dryer. It started out life as an 11 foot long, 9000 watt dryer. The mercury contactor failed so the dryer was non-functional and the owner wanted it "gone".

I couldn't make an 11' dryer work.. so I literally cut a 3' slice out of the the dryer to shorten it to 8' long. I spliced the sheetmetal with flatstock and screws. The old base was useless, so I made a wooden rolling base to match the new length.
I reduced the number of heat panels from 3 to 2 (9000 watt to 6000 watt) and kept one of the two air bar fans in service.
My work-around for the failed mercury contactor was a $35 PID controller and 2 solid state relays ($20/ea).
The belt was in good condition, so I cut about 6' of length out and spliced the belt with teflon thread to make it work for the new (shorter) length.

I didn't put much effort it to finish ( a $4 can of black spraypaint). I probably had about 30 hours of time in the project... so you could make the case that my time would have better been spent printing (earning). Live and learn.

Photo's for those who are interested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/northlandsp/sets/72157638561811093/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/northlandsp/sets/72157638561811093/)

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: Inkworks on December 10, 2013, 07:38:49 PM

Nice! I like.

My $200 24"14' Hix is still chugging along nicely, although I recently had to replace the mercury switch module, $55 for a used one off of ebay and we're back in business. I have made a mount for our flash cure and can put that over the belt at the infeed for a few jobs that need that extra heat/speed.

I'll get a photo in the next few weeks.

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: TCT on December 10, 2013, 07:39:46 PM

Nice, very cool!

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: mimosatexas on December 10, 2013, 11:25:53 PM

This is awesome!  Great job!

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: Kwan on December 11, 2013, 12:26:10 AM

Artistic decisions

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: screenxpress on December 11, 2013, 12:41:01 AM

Once again, a marvelous DIY job by Northland.

But I'm still partial to the stretching table that I pretty much copied.

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: Denis Kolar on December 11, 2013, 08:27:52 AM

Great job.

36" wide?

Title: Re: Gentlemen... introducing the "franken-dryer"
Post by: 3Deep on December 11, 2013, 10:58:30 AM

nice Job!