Mr.Carter

Johnson we are talking here for https://www.opendtg.com/profile/8383-mdrake2016/

Where is he? Lol😂

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

You could if you cut a hole in the side, but it isn’t necessary. The 5rpm motor I received can’t be stopped by hand and handles 5+ lbs of powder in the hopper. 
 

likely it’s just a defective motor, or it was installed slightly off center causing it to bind or something. 
 

mine originally did similar , it would just stop working after some time, and work again later. It would slow and slow until it didn’t work until I let it sit. Also, half of the rotation it sounded strained even with no powder. The motor still sounds like that when nothing is connected to it. The replacement motor didn’t do that and worked fine, for me anyway. 
 

so far the main issues I’ve had with the mini shaker:

1. Duster motor

2. Poor quality relays causing high amperage draw and failing. Probably one of the reasons others experience failing heating tubes. 

3. The take up roller walks, so I put a guide in it. 
4. the slapper blade is getting damaged by the bolts holding it to the bearings, but in a way that doesn’t affect functionality. 
 

Haven’t had an issue since, yet. It’s ran for maybe 1000 hours so far. 

If there is space then you can replace it with this kind of motor bigger size heavy duty motor with same gear box at top

7 hours ago, johnson4 said:

To take the entire unit out remove the two bolts on both sides- on both side of the motor and both sides of the bearing, then slide them out of the way. Warning, it’s a PITA since the heads are next to the brush inside. 

Ok so no extra space here we can't replace motor with bigger one

7 hours ago, johnson4 said:

This is behind the main panel showing the motor controller-

It looks like they are using 555ic for pwm speed control 

N there is no microcontroller in mini shaker 

29 minutes ago, Mdrake2016 said:

Bad news. That part stopped working after 3 hours of use today. I have no idea what’s going on. Any ideas what could be causing this and if I need to replace something else? Sorry to bug you about this. I depend heavily on this machine and this has set me back severely. 

There might be problem of that small motor , attach photos of the motor location where it gets fitted i will suggest you another motor according to available space

35 minutes ago, Toma996 said:

I didnt fuly understand the code. 

Could you tell me if the pw sensors checks the side of the paper or just the begining? 

Do i need to know both the paper position and head position to emulete pw? 

I am making my own printer and its nearly done, i can print on low res then it does not check pw 

 

 It checks the position of paper to start printing from the edge you can remove sensor from bottom of the head carriage and emulate it as the images and diagram shows which i have sent to you

Sent to all

59 minutes ago, TranChung said:

sir.Carter. Could you pls post your result L800 dtg here

Some pictures for everyone to learn.

Thanks

6 hours ago, arapid@aol.com said:

Mr. Carter, would you kind enough send me the code,

I try to work on 1430

thanks

 

arapid@aol.com

Code already available for 1430 at open dtg forum, this is for models like l800,l805,r290 

On 8/16/2021 at 12:16 PM, Сентюрев said:

Для уф диода поставил мембранный насос. Все работает отлично.

👍

5 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

Where it is at now, and yes that powder all over the top, is melted to it. The box addition you see is the powder solution I came up with. It drops half a cup of powder every 5 minutes, and can run for an hour between fills. I also moved the vent, so it doesn’t interfere with the powder and to keep the “oil” away. 
 

crazy it’s all on one 2’x4’ cart and is still mobile. 

Wow great👏

2 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

I know for sure it was only a matter of time before a fire started because of the clone relay, if left unattended. I would say in general those relays have around 100-200 hours of printing time on them. Imagine the ones that never get checked. 

Did you mean they even dont tested it for 100hours? 😂

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

Thanks, yea I’ll be looking into it if the Omron doesn’t work out. It should, it’s well under its amperage rating, but we’ll see. 

Mechanical relay creates spark when ever they get trigger which is ok for small dc current but AC heater creates huge spark as they consume above 1000 watts i dont know why those stupid Chinese guys use Mechanical relay for this much of load there is some problem with there engineering

I will recommend you guys to use solidstate relay SSR for heaters and motor which runs on mains AC

Sent to all

59 minutes ago, theboemio said:

I see you use UV ink, what power is your led lamp? I have a 50w, will it be enough?

Actually its depends on your uv ink but in most cases 50w works

2 hours ago, talbm said:

nine.nopporn@gmail.com. Thank you sir!

Sent.

12 hours ago, johnson4 said:

About one inch wide, length varies. I spaced them so the left one would hit, as it turned away the right one then the middle as the right one turned away. Repeat. 
 

the Chinese ones use a silicone sheet for a “ flapper” which would probably be easier/better. 

 

Well ok but i dont think that full size flapper will work perfectly it just pushes the film n we dont want that 

We want the whole force at single point 

Sorry @johnson4 but Need some more help...

What is size of dusting fingers

16 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

I honestly have no clue. Imagine the stock Epson paper feed motor, attached to the encoder/rod as in a stock printer. Ran at 24V, I run it at about 70 percent of that. at least a few hundred RPM.

 

For the mini shaker I bought, It's on low usually. about 1/4 of the max speed, much slower than the one I made, But faster than all the Chinese videos. 

 

In general I don't think it's specific, I have to change the speeds from time to time depending on the film and how well the powder is coming off, but not so fast/hard that the ink falls off, or too much powder falls off since it can knock too much off too. If your making one, just give it a good variable. I watched a video awhile ago about some guy using a corded drill with tape on it, or some " rachet strap" material, so it's not insanely technical.

Thanks for help have a good day😊

8 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

I have encountered it, but only when it's not " smacking" the film enough. Certain films release the powder easier than others. The Glossy finish films ( transfers turn out glossy) the powder basically just falls off with a flick. The Matte films I tried( finished prints are matte), The powder sticks to it a little more, so I need to turn up the " smacker" speed. 

 

If the powder is sticking around the design like a " halo" it's probably too much ink and the moisture is " wicking" away into the surrounding pre-treatment. This is why some machines have a pre-heater, So that the film/ink will dry out a bit and become" gelled" so the powder doesn't stick to it as much. 

The film also needs kept in a dry enviroment. If I have a roll open ( like I do now) and let it sit for a week or two in the humid area, it will stick to it pretty badly. The manufacturer says to dry it out before using it again, that it should be stored sealed and in a dry cool area. I have left my roll out intentional to see how bad it prints after 2 weeks in a 60%+ humid area, then put it into a vacuum chamber for a few hours to pull out the moisture and see if that helps. 

If you see little " cirlces" or "swirls" or maybe even " dots" on the film, it has been exposed to moisture too long and probably will give you a hard time. 

Mmm can you tell me what is the approximate rpm of your smack  

Just now, Mr.Carter said:

Good information,  did you anytime ran into the problem with Powder stick on the film even after shaker is hitting the film with great force

I asked coz im getting that problem 

14 hours ago, johnson4 said:

It just takes the same basic principle as all the other ones, I made this before any of them were available, I started in January 2021 before the cheaper mini units were available. 

 

However, It's just a Metal rolling cart from Harbor Freight, 2 pieces of sheet metal ( you could use literally anything here, wood, acrylic, etc) for the "shaker". It utilizes 2 rods repurposed from a parts Epson P800, from the paper feed mechanism. 4 flush mount pillow block bearings ( 8mm to match the rods). I did mine with three 3d printed "slapper" things per rod. 

As for the " fingers" I just 3D printed 6 fingers, two on each end, one in the middle, in an alternating fashion. You could also easily make a longer one or whatever you wanted, use a piece of rubber/silicone for the entire width with a 3D printed adapter, I mean, a ton of options here, It just needs to smack the film to knock excess powder off, it doesn't need to be the entire width of the film, at least not in my case. 

To power the shaker, I used two epson Paper feed motors ( from parts machines) alongside the OEM belt, and encoder assy since it was also 8mm and fit on the rods easily. They ran on 24V, hooked to a 24V controller for speed control.

I cut a 15" hole about 3" wide for the film to drop down from the printer into the shaker box from the top of the cart, and the shaker box exit side is slightly lower than the heat press platen, with the edges " rolled" over so it's smooth.

 

After that, I used two metal tubes, one smaller than the other with a bolt/nut flange, with a heatpress platen attached to it upside down. I used the metal tubes to find the right spot height wise, not necessary and could easily just be mounted upside down at a set length, it was here and ready to use so I used it. As for the Controller, I drilled a hole, used a rubber grommet and attached the heat press control box to the top of the cart. You could easily make your own with a SSR and a PID, but I opted to use the heat presses original components. 

 

So far, The cart, The shaker box and the curing portion have been explained. 

As for the take up roller, I used an adruino and tried a few different methods, in the end I went with a cheap distance sensor mounted from the bottom of the shaker box facing up in the middle where the film would go. It's set to the minimum, right in the bellow of the film where the powder will sit so it always works correctly since the film is transparent. The roller portion was created using a TB6000 knockoff, and a nema 17 stepper.  The rest of the takeup roller was 3d Printed, aside from a 8MM metal rod. I Made a " sleeve" that went around the 8mm rod, to make it about 2.5 inches in diameter, with a slit in the 3d printed part for the film to go in, imagine a circle, with a slit going from the outside to the center. I just push the film in until it gets stuck. I then 3D printed two gears, which one went on the motor, one went on the rod attached to the " spacer" things I printed. All of this is mounted on a "film holder" the gear side has a hole for the 8MM rod to slide in, which holds the gears perfectly in place, the other side slides down into a slot.

It's set to take up the film whenever the sensor is triggered, I also made an external button set to manually take-up or reverse when needed. One could easily do this with a simple relay instead of an adruino, but I wanted the take-up speed to be controlled and precise, since I wasn't certain which way I was going with it initially, it also has a variable speed, controlled by a POT connected to the Arduino. 

 

As for the paper roller on the P400, it's the same concept as the takeup roller, except just slides in to hold the film, which attached to the printer itself Via bolts. 

 

So, The only thing I never did was the powdering portion. The fan I made was to suck the fumes out of the slot where the film went in, because I wanted heat to "roll up" the film as it went down into the shaker sorta like a " pre cure". Well, this is the same spot the powder goes in. At the moment when I purchased a mini shaker, I was going to cut a hole above( in the top of the cart)  the heat press for a 4" flange and connect the fan there, and make a auto-powder system. a "controlled" amount that rotates and dumps " cups" of powder into the shaker. The "shaking" action itself evenly distributes the powder, so the idea was to time( it would also have a variable timer, since that changes with print speed) how much powder needed to go in to keep it covered and weighed down, as to maximize the usage. With the one's you buy, it just constantly puts powder in at a set speed, so if too much goes in it goes over the side into the recollection bin, unnecessarily making you need to fill the hopper more often. Manually, I added 1 cup every 5-12 minutes without the auto powdering dumper thing.

 

As for the powder recollection, Under the shaker box ( the bottom of the cart) I cut out two square holes about 4" long each, where the edges of the film are. This lets the powder fall straight out the holes. For the recollection bin, I used 2 aluminum L channels, Cut and bolted to the cart underside. I used a " turkey" pan that you can pick up a 3 pack for like $5 at any store. It holds about 10LBS of powder. The pan just slides on the rails, so you slide it in and out.

 

I used this machine everyday, and alongside the new mini shaker. It turned out great and worked very well, aside from the annoyance of running two completely different machines at the same time. I didn't have much cost, since most everything I had was repurposed, I didn't have to buy much. I did buy the $60 cart ( I think it was). the heat press had tens of thousands of presses, I paid $200 for it new and it was just didn't press evenly anymore, it has since been replaced and was just in the " scrape pile" which would be most of the cost for anyone building it. 

 

The concept is very simple, I have even been researching building my own printer. The amount of stuff out there is insane, pre-made carriages using a regular hiwinn rail system, custom capping stations and of course converters to use different heads with OEM Epson mainboards ( So I can stay with software I have been accustomed to). 

 

Anyway, Looking back at my production, both of those machines ( the one I made and a mini shaker, both with a P400 main unit) produced over 5,000 transfers, ( I ran 15 rolls of film through them in total after counting the rolls) in about a 3 month period, the majority of them were actually in a 30 day period, so they ran non-stop. 

 

The issues I have had, I never got the auto-powdering finished on the one I made( ran out of time, got hit with business), The mini shaker, well the curing portion is wonky sometimes. So, keeping an eye on both of those things sucked. Another SUCKY thing was that both, my cart, and the mini shaker HAVE NOTHING to keep the film on the roll straight. So, As time progressed they would start "going off center" and "take-up" crooked, which in turn led back to the printer( since one side of the film would be tighter than the other) and causing head strikes. So imagine taking TP and throwing it across the floor, and trying to roll it back up. If one side slides over slightly, it keeps going until one side of the film is tighter than the other, which eventually reaches the head causing a strike. While its not the end of the world and it keeps printing, it is a ruined print/film/ink and annoying to keep aligned for 14+ hours on two machines. When I have time, I will add ends to the rolls, ( think like a roll of wire) so the film is always held perfectly on the rolls, for both my cart and the mini shaker I bought. 

 

 As for the P400 engines, I went through several issues with those, mainly from overheating after printing non-stop for 14 hours. Adding fans, running long USB cables and amping up my Router fixed the majority of my issues. I used EKprint for all of them, printing each transfer manually, with a .5 inch gap between each " print" so I could cut them and press them. I did have the heat strike issues when the take-up rollers went crooked, so I had to keep an eye on all those functions, while also printing each individual design from Ekprint about 15 ft. away. Good news, once I was done " sending the print jobs" they would just do their thing While I pressed away with the already printed transfers, which I could keep a better eye on them. 

 

With time, I'll get all the bugs worked out, but FOR SURE, you could easily make your own shaker, even printer, with enough time and spare parts. But, for the time being, you could also buy a mini shaker and a 13" printer( like the p400) for about $2,000 combined with shipping if you do enough research.

 

Overall, An awesome experience and it has taught me in the "in's and out's" of the process pretty quickly!.

 

 

 

Good information,  did you anytime ran into the problem with Powder stick on the film even after shaker is hitting the film with great force

Can you please explain about your powder shaking dusting mechanism 

On 7/2/2021 at 1:56 AM, Сентюрев said:

Охлаждение вода или воздух? Если вода, то какой насос? Я хочу поставить мембранный насос.

For uv led?