Can you see what it is yet?

[julianf]

Courtesy of another forum members kindness with collection, i'm pretty chuffed to now have this in transit -

(ive been after one, on and off, for close on 3 years now)

Its only very tenuously applicable to this forum, but, give it a couple of months, and im sure ill be showing off its output. Or rather the product of its output.

Anyone here in that game? (those that are will recognise the tool!)

 

[awemawson]

Vacuum former ?

 

[julianf]

It has a vac pump on it, but its not a vac former.

(id like one of those as well, but that's another story...)

 

[daleyd]

It's a Mercedes sprinter if I'm not mistaken?

 

[zx9]

Oven for powder coating? But that would not have a vacuum pump.

 

[Paul99]

Incubator?

 

[Maker]

It has a vac pump on it

Rubber vulcanization oven?

 

[julianf]

I didn't really think this would get this far - i thought someone would just call it.

Ill leave it open - give someone the pleasure of being right! : )

 

[slim_boy_fat]

CNC enclosure?

 

[Northumbrian]

Laser cutter??? Hey it's as good a guess as any

 

[Maxakarudy]

Encapsulator or for screenprint stencils

 

[Woody.v8]

Chest freezer with Henry inside?

 

[knighty]

I picked it up.... and I have no idea what it does :-o

 

[julianf]

Encapsulator or for screenprint stencils

You win : )

The screen is coated with photosensative 'paste'. The acetate is placed on the glass, and the coated screen above. The lid goes down, and the vac pump sucks out the air, causing the lid (a flexible neopreme type material) to press down on the whole lot, so as no light can 'leak' around the acetate.


This is because i dont find it easy to compete on some of my work - for 1-off stuff, cnc is great, as the per-run setup is so minimal, but the machine time on 50 units is pretty much exactly 50x what it would be for one unit - so it really does not scale well in that respect.

Print has a much more significant run setup, but the additional unit cost thereafter is so low that, on bulk jobs, it comes into its own.

People think of screen printing as t-shirts, but it has so much more application than that.

 

[Maxakarudy]

So you acid etch engrave then?

 

[julianf]

No.

I do mechanical engraving - physical removal of material using rotating tungsten carbide. That's how the part in my avatar was made.

<<<

The exposure unit being loaded into Knighty's van is for print. Still for control surfaces (i have little interest in t-shirts, estate agents boards, or any of the other things that are screened) but printed onto metal, rather than cut into it.

As i say, print scales well, but has high setup. Cnc has low setup, but does not scale well. So, same game, but just a different tool to get a similar application.

 

[normspanners]

It's a Mercedes sprinter if I'm not mistaken?

where???? all I can see is a transit ?? you must have good eyes to see through them glasses


In fact julian has already said----- well he lied a little coz at that point it wasn't in transit

Courtesy of another forum members kindness with collection, i'm pretty chuffed to now have this in transit -

 

[Maxakarudy]

So you use Traffolyte or similar?
I'm a signmaker, never got into engraving, it's different niche to what I do, I make letters of a different scale

 

[julianf]

Ive never been asked to, rather than i cant / wont -

My market has been control surfaces, so, traditionally, i guess, people have wanted a tougher finish than plastic - especially as, often, the control surface is partially structural (as in it holds the controls, rather than is just a legend for them)

I use infills to get the colour. It always a bit of a battle - a more acute cutter geometry gives you better resolution, but then its harder to get the depth without cracking off the tip... and you need the depth to hold the infill.

....which is where Traffolyte would excel, i guess. (for those who dont know, its a laminate, with the core layer a different colour - so you cut through the, say, black top layer, to show they white innner).

Its also softer, so less cutter bother as well.

...but, no, ive never used it - not even once!

 

[Northumbrian]

Do you do it properly, I mean the old fashioned way with a Pantograph such as a Deckel G or GK?
OR
Do have you gone to the dark side and use CNC?