Has anyone tried silkscreen for the filter on your fluid bed? I have had nothing but trouble so far with mine and I believe it is my filters. Because I live in rural area there are no screen printers in my area.
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Has anyone tried silkscreen for the filter on your fluid bed? I have had nothing but trouble so far with mine and I believe it is my filters. Because I live in rural area there are no screen printers in my area.
Have not tried that. But there's a good change I may have a lot of the stuff that's made for fluid beds in the coming months. I have to buy some for my Big Fluid Beds and may have extra after that. Going to be making some beds 16" long and 3" wide and have to build 20 of them. So its going to take a lot of it.
Pete
Shilohred, that is a lot of Powder painting! I thought about getting the one from CSI paint but those are big and will do a lot of heads at once. Are you going to be heating them and dipping or using a static method?
Jigtosser, I doubt silk screen would work. My guess would be that it would clog up quickly and not give you the results you want.
If you needing cups and they are cheap priced but not cheapily made check out Welcome to TJ's Tackle this where i am getting mine they are 7.00 apiece.....Im getting ready to order 25 myself!!!!
Jigtoss,
I am a screenprinter. I could send some to try if not a huge piece. If you find some anywhere else make sure to get the finest mesh count you can like 110 would be fine but maybe not tight enough. 120 would be better.
I don't see it on TJ's site but I thought at one time I read where he sold the material for the bottom of the cups. If I'm wrong sorry but send him an email or PM and ask. I'll search some of the other sites I frequent and see if there's anything on there.
I asked him though a email and thats what he sent me...I even bought my fluid bed though him on ebay..
porous polypropylene is what they use. he sells there at tjs precut...Benjamin is who you want to talk to..
Thanks for all the information.
What kind of trouble are you having. With some issues I have done about every thing to a fluid bed I can think of from putting a diffuser in the air chamber to vibrating motors. The result was minimal.
I can't get it to bubble. It is either nothing or blowing powder every where. Cannot get it to be evenly regulated. I have a fine adjust valve and large aquarium pump. I have used two different types of vacuum cleaner bags and several kinds of brown paper bags. My setup is 2" PVC. I have at the present time given up on the bed and found a better way to dip the powder coat and as of now it works really good for me. With the method I am using now I do not have a mess to clean up after each use. How well did the vibrator work? I happen to have a vibrator motor in my shop and it would not be a big problem to hook up.
Sounds like a lot of common issues all in one for you. The regulator could be bad or not fine enough. The material could be bad or just bad brand choices. 2 inch is kinda small and could be part of the problem. Could be bad seals somewhere or it could simply be Murphy's law in full effect.
Stirring and dipping works well and so does sprinkling but you will never go back to it once you get a fluid bed to work properly. The price of the setup to either buy the first or make one isn't bad. Getting the extra cups is really inexpensive. The vibrating motor will help with a lot of colors, I have seen the difference although I haven't gotten one yet. I wish I had one or maybe 3 of them. The vibration will keep the powder from developing stagnant holes for volcanoing and is especialy useful for black and other heavy colors.
I started with the cup 3/4 full and worked my way down to almost nothing, I did stir the the cup all the time. I used red. I just do not have the time nor patience to keep beating a dead horse. When the weather warms up and I can get back in my shop I may try it again. I will however order a known filter material that works.
I've always heard coffee filters. I have no experience other than what I read here.
I now use coffee filters. The vibrator and diffuser together helped I also put a y in my air supply line so the air was coming into the chamber from both sides. I was trying to reach the same goal as you I think. There are a lot variables and calculations a person could go through like volume weight force ect. but in the end you will never get the powder to react like you were dipping it in water. I have some stuff called powder water but have not had the time to experiment with it. Columbia coatings is where I got it. (I think)