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screen printing => Equipment => DIY - From master engineered marvels to cobbled together jury-rigged or Jerry-built junk! => Topic started by: kingscreen on October 29, 2018, 10:22:32 PM
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Here’s a little thing I put together today. This is for when you really need that wet screen dry and ready right NOW. Not intended for regular use. From wet to ready for press in 3 minutes. Not bad for a $1.99 Goodwill hairdryer and some 2” PVC pipe.
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Not to be used for screens with tight registration. I reserve methods like this for one color jobs ( and yes, I get a lot of them)
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Interesting idea. We have the verticle rack with box fans on top. I paper towel off before racking if I need the screen asap and flip after a minute or two. Screens are usually tape ready in 10 minutes. I can see the added heat helping a bit more.
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Last shop I was in had a compressed air line right next to washout. Standard practice was to blow off each screen. Greatly sped up dry time. If we were in a bigger hurry, we then stuck the mostly-dry screen next to the dehumidifier in the screen room. Worked great, no heat damage. But it wasn't 3 minutes, more like 10. That's some good duct-tape engineering, King! 8)
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Yep I also use a box fan blowing down on our screens, dries in about 5 to 10 minutes...use those blue shop towels you can use them over and over instead of paper towels.
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we have a vacuum to get most of the water off the screen, box fan to dry when its in the screen room, then a 30" industrial pedestal fan next to the blockout table. if the screens need to be rushed, we have an air gun to help.
if we did less screens i would go for the hairdryer / PVC pipe method, but maybe use a computer style fan on the PVC - it might last longer.
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Last shop I was in had a compressed air line right next to washout. Standard practice was to blow off each screen. Greatly sped up dry time. If we were in a bigger hurry, we then stuck the mostly-dry screen next to the dehumidifier in the screen room. Worked great, no heat damage. But it wasn't 3 minutes, more like 10. That's some good duct-tape engineering, King! 8)
Compressed air on cleaned screens and exposed screens is standard practice here no matter when we need them.
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the heated, reverse of this:
http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/screen-vacuum-nozzle/ (http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/screen-vacuum-nozzle/)
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For about $20.00 bucks you can make one of these to suck up the excess water from your screens. Real simple and cheap all you need is a few bucks and a shop vac. You can customize it to a width that fits the screens you have for simple one pass operation the smooth bottom (after you sand or buff the cut area) will not harm your screen. detrails below.
With most of the water gone fan or soft heat drying is pretty quick.
Or if you want even a simpler device just buy one of these
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-1-Piece-Floor-Nozzle/1115361 (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-1-Piece-Floor-Nozzle/1115361)
mooseman
PVC pipe test plug
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-1-1-2-in-dia-PVC-Schedule-40-Test-Fitting/3357824 (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-1-1-2-in-dia-PVC-Schedule-40-Test-Fitting/3357824)
Shop vac hose adapter
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-1-Piece-Tool-Adapter/1085001 (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-1-Piece-Tool-Adapter/1085001)
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Wow, combining these vacuum heads along with the hair dryer tool, and we might actually save so much time that our clocks run backwards! LOL!
Reminds me of the story I heard when I was a kid of a guy who was a sucker for car gadgets, and bought a new carburetor that got 40% better mileage, special spark plugs that improved it 35%, a fuel additive good for another 30%, and about three miles down the road, his tank overflowed!
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Saati sell a really nice head for a vacuum that is smooth and won’t damage your screens.
Is we are in a hurry we vacuum the water off the screen and dry under a fan.
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Dried compressed air will get a screen dry quickly. 5 minutes from screen room to press. pulled, printed, exposed, dry, on press.
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Years ago there were some plans (from Vastex I think) for a drying cabinet. I was just looking for them... Does anyone have them still?
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I don't know about plans from Vastex, but I've seent other people's ideas posted here over the years.
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this link may help
http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,10214.0.html (http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,10214.0.html)
below is a box i made holds 6 screens but could easily be bigger.
used a small space heater with fan
typical thermostat, can't see it as is mounted outside on back of box to catch the exhaust air at the soffit vent se to @ 90 degrees
soffit vent
some 3/4' pvc pipe
cabinet grade ply wood
mooseman
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this is the vastex link, it's useful.
https://www.vastex.com/Articles/Screen-Drying.php (https://www.vastex.com/Articles/Screen-Drying.php)
I have a vastex drying cabinet if anyone wants one. half price. works great. i only took it out of production i ended up building my own based half off the vastex site above to accommodate a rolling rack.
https://www.vastex.com/Screen-Printing-Equipment/Prepress-Equipment/Dri-Vault/Dri-Vault-1024.php (https://www.vastex.com/Screen-Printing-Equipment/Prepress-Equipment/Dri-Vault/Dri-Vault-1024.php) the 10 screen dry-vault
retail $1,500 so asking $700. no i won't ship it. mid-ohio.