[Mosstone]

I just ordered a new set of aluminum pallets for a used press that we recently acquired, and the pallets arrived with no rubber surface on them... Just bare aluminum.

The manufacturer (Workhorse) says they don't put a surface on pallets for manual presses, just the ones for automated presses (for some reason), so I bought some rubber material from my local screen print supplier (McLogan), and they recommended HH-66 Vinyl Cement (by RH Products Inc) to adhere the rubber to the aluminum...

Well that didn't work at all... The rubber just peeled right off. It's just like the rubber cement we used to use back in the day for paste-up. Not at all strong enough for this application.

When I contacted McLogan to inform them how well their glue worked, somebody else (the owner or manager, I think) recommended contact cement, but that didn't work any better than the vinyl cement.

Has anybody out there actually surfaced an aluminum pallet and can tell me what glue to use? I'm not taking any more advice from McLogan.

And I'm getting tired of cleaning dried glue off this stuff and starting over!

 

[Ripcord]

You shouldn't need rubber on your pallets. Put the adhesive right on the aluminum and print with a triple durometer 70/90/70 squeegee. Your prints might come out crisper. If you have trouble getting even prints with opaque ink, work on your stroke pressure adjusting with both hands until you're happy with the result.

(edit) I'm glad someone besides me remembers doing paste up! LOL
.

 

[Mosstone]

You shouldn't need rubber on your pallets. Put the adhesive right on the aluminum and print with a triple durometer 70/90/70 squeegee. Your prints might come out crisper. If you have trouble getting even prints with opaque ink, work on your stroke pressure adjusting with both hands until you're happy with the result.

(edit) I'm glad someone besides me remembers doing paste up! LOL
.

Thanks Neil, but the aluminum gets extremely hot under the flash, and the rubber surface is heat resistant.

And yeah, I started back in the days of Varitype machines and stat cameras... Though I rarely used rubber cement for paste up.. Most professional shops had a wax coater (what were those things called?).

 

[Ripcord]

That makes sense.

We always just called it a waxer. I never knew if there was a real name for it. Do you remember a device called a "graphics modifier" that was going to revolutionize the graphic production industry? It came out about a year before the Macintosh computer and Adobe Illustrator made it obsolete. I felt sorry for the guy who invented it.

 

[gardenhillemb]

We sometimes have to replace the rubber on our pallets because I (sometimes) forget to switch the flash unit into home position and go answer the phone. After the smoke clears, I cut a new piece of rubber and use some contact cement we get from M&R. It has to be applied to both the pallet and the rubber and then it holds REALLY well. And no, I'm not that forgetful, only done it a couple of times in the past 15 years.