sodrisc

At the moment i use perspex bought cut to fit from ebay, including perspex tubes to make the legs, it works out at about £15 - 20ish per platen and you just glue it all together like a kit, nice and easy but obviously its fixed height. I was wondering what else people have tried, anyone got a platen from a commercial machine working with a diy ? if so how did you attach it to the drawer ? i could do with a platen for a future baby clothing line and im tempted to try a commercial one, anynone know where to buy them ? in europe would be nice, im getting killed by shipping and exchange rates lately

 

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CUSTOM UK

Hi. I am still in the process of sourcing the bits to build my own diy dtg, but I have been looking at a range of build materials, essentially to keep the weight down, especially to reduce loading on the drive roller.

I have found that both upvc cladding and the polycarbonate roof panels give the required rigidity for a platen, plus are exceptionally light. Their box construction makes attachment easy, without intruding onto the print surface. There is also a foam type board, like polystyrene, but it is much denser and has to be cut with a saw. Can't remember what it's called though.

Height adjustment I am still looking at, but it ranges from simple spacers on pegs, through to a scisssor lift using nylon components to reduce the weight. I am assumimg (either correctly or incorrectly), that the height adjustment range would only need to be in the region of 0 -15mm to allow for thicker items such as mouse pads, sweatshirts etc. ?

 

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Titchimp

I was thinking two scissor jacks with a screw going through both, would mean you can ligt them both at the same time.. but is more stable than just one jack.

 

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moffett8

To make a good cheap platen try using 4 turnbuckles with a piece of Masonite on the top. Replace the eye hook on the top with a flat head screw. On the side of the turnbuckle that has a left handed eye screw put on the bottom side and attach to a 1x1 inch piece of wood with a spacer between the eye screw and the wood so the turnbuckle won't hit the wood and you can still adjust up and down. It works great and you can even adjust to make up for any imperfections in the shell/drawer assembly too. I've attached a picture of a partially build platen with the top upside down so you can see the turnbuckles. Pretty easy to build and don't cost allot to build and does a good job.

Philip

Quote: Originally Posted by DREAMGLASS Hi. I am still in the process of sourcing the bits to build my own diy dtg, but I have been looking at a range of build materials, essentially to keep the weight down, especially to reduce loading on the drive roller. I have found that both upvc cladding and the polycarbonate roof panels give the required rigidity for a platen, plus are exceptionally light. Their box construction makes attachment easy, without intruding onto the print surface. There is also a foam type board, like polystyrene, but it is much denser and has to be cut with a saw. Can't remember what it's called though. Height adjustment I am still looking at, but it ranges from simple spacers on pegs, through to a scisssor lift using nylon components to reduce the weight. I am assumimg (either correctly or incorrectly), that the height adjustment range would only need to be in the region of 0 -15mm to allow for thicker items such as mouse pads, sweatshirts etc. ?

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Platen Top Upsidedown.jpg (47.5 KB, 95 views)

 

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sodrisc

Quote: Originally Posted by DREAMGLASS Hi. I am still in the process of sourcing the bits to build my own diy dtg, but I have been looking at a range of build materials, essentially to keep the weight down, especially to reduce loading on the drive roller. I have found that both upvc cladding and the polycarbonate roof panels give the required rigidity for a platen, plus are exceptionally light. Their box construction makes attachment easy, without intruding onto the print surface. There is also a foam type board, like polystyrene, but it is much denser and has to be cut with a saw. Can't remember what it's called though. Height adjustment I am still looking at, but it ranges from simple spacers on pegs, through to a scisssor lift using nylon components to reduce the weight. I am assumimg (either correctly or incorrectly), that the height adjustment range would only need to be in the region of 0 -15mm to allow for thicker items such as mouse pads, sweatshirts etc. ?

i have tried polycarbonate but i found it to flexible which did cause some problems (although i cant recall what they were!) maybe the stuff your looking at is thicker/better quality than what i tried, the turnbuckles look interesting. I do recall somebody else trying the scissor jacks but there were some stabilty issues, i guess that might depend on the quality of jack you go for, there seems to be a fair few out there, not something i have tried but i have looked at dipping a toe.

 

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CUSTOM UK

Kafian on here, has a video of his diy dtg machine at the link below. He appears to have some sort of scissor lift height assembly on his platen. Check it out.

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