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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: 3Deep on December 15, 2020, 10:41:43 AM
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How many of you resharpen your blades or just replace the blade, I know I could turn our blades over but I don't like the ridges our holders but on the blade plus they look out of shape, but I will use them in our manual handles. I was thinking of maybe getting a blade sharpener, but those things are costly plus could I really save money...but I guess that question depends on our production level and how fast we dull up our blades. I can get a 12 ft roll of rubber 70/90/70 for around $86 bucks.
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Resharpen here! And I sharpen new blades as well. New they are not sharp.
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We resharpen (screen printer's caveat: not as much as we should!!) but have the gear and use it intermittently throughout the year
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I buy my squeegee blades from a Chinese manufacturer, I think for $50 for a long roll of triple durometer squeegee rubber. Have to buy always 5 boxes though. I considered sharpening our rubber but due to the low price and the close proximity of our shop to mainland China I`m more then happy to just throw the blades out once they are not sharp enough anylonger.
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I re-sharpen our squeegee blades every 2-3 months, usually just a few swipes across keeps them good!
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What are you guys using to do the sharpening?
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What are you guys using to do the sharpening?
Was going to be my question. I have never had luck sharpening squeegees regardless of the method/tool used.
I've yet to try one of the slicers though.
To me, it's about like sharpening an orange or something.
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Right there with you Ebscreen, back in the day I did what Scott Fresener said to do, sandpaper on a board, just made it worse, I've seen some sharpeners at shows but they came with a nice price tag!!
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I have a squeegee sharpener with two different grit wheels. I don't even try to sharpen lower durometer blades. Like you, no luck with that. 70 and higher, for me.
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We have an abrasive sharpener. It isn't used for sharpening anymore, I use it as a small bench sander. It's really handy for rounding over the ends of squeegees, putty knives, and just general sanding.
I replace blades, they are cheap enough that when they are dull it's easier to replace them.
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We have a decent one that includes a diamond nib on a jig for dressing the wheel. As a hobby machinist
I'd like to think my grinder skills are pretty notch, but I'll be damned if I can do anything but burn rubber.
Maybe it needs coolant.
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We have an M&R Blade Shaper SC. I use the fine grit wheel. You have to go a little at a time and watch your speed as you move across the blade. Too slow will get the blade hot and it will harden, too much pressure will cause an uneven blade.
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Thanks for the responses!
For cutting the blades from a roll I use a pair of landscaping pruners that are curved. I then have the clipper thing that curves the edges from firmor and sand after I do that.
The pruners work pretty well, a little dangerous, but what is life without a little danger.
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To me, it's about like sharpening an orange or something.
lol, same.
Also, the sharpener we had couldn't align and hold the blade correctly to begin with so it can be a fool's errand even with a shiny new sharpening machine.
We replace. It doesn't cost much and it works!
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Replace. Some rubber is cut, others are extrusions (more expensive) to me sharpening is not a good use of time and very little ROI on the machine and bits. It will also roughen up the raw edge of the blade which is undesirable for some.
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So, with replacing the "rubber" gaining in popularity, and getting more and more nods, who's got the deals?
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So, with replacing the "rubber" gaining in popularity, and getting more and more nods, who's got the deals?
Generally speaking the price is inconsequential, so we buy from whoever has what we want in stock.
Now when we were running just MHM's, they use metric squeegee (yep) that you literally can't buy in
the US, so we had to import rolls from China, minimum order of 10 rolls or something per size/durometer.
That was comparatively cheap, and near as I could tell, of decent enough quality to not notice a difference.
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Yep Frog they answered my question, so I will answer yours, I buy my blades from Miami Screen Supply best price on all blade types 60, 70, 80 60/90/60, 70/90/70 etc in 12ft rolls
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To be clear..... the "rubber" is a type of polyurethane (as far I as I know) The earliest squeegee blades were wooden. After Edison and others developed rubber technology, these became more common, although quite prone to develop problems due to harsh inks and chemicals, among other things. It was not uncommon for a flat bed printer to replace the blade after each run to ensure consistency.
There is your useless information for the day.
tp