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anybody know what machine this is???
hi all,
i’ve obtained this machine but havnt a clue what it is or does. all i know that it is print related.
anybody seen anything like this?? i was just given it.
help would be greatly appreciated.
thanx 🙂
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41 Replies
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Well, that grey one in the middle definitely looks, to me, like a big button. :lol1:
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Any more parts, or is there a prize for the best guess……………!
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Have you tried switching it on to see what it does? 😕
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quote Phillip Patterson:hi all,i’ve obtained this machine but havnt a clue what it is or does. all i know that it is print related.
anybody seen anything like this?? i was just given it.
help would be greatly appreciated.
thanx 🙂
Looks like a three axis CNC control unit, switches activate indivial motors, the dial moves the motor back and forth, what wiring or sockets at the rear of the machine ?
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Looks like a PCB Bubble Etch Unit to me…
Matt
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yes im thinking something to do with bubbles like PCB etcher… looks like corian/acrylic stone casing.
You got power, then heater, then the dial (time?) and then bubbles
Or a train-set controller
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Matty gets the prize.
It’s used for stripping copper off PCB boards after the circuit layout has been exposed to UV the excess material is stripped. It’s basically a bath that heats the chemical and also bubbles to aid the process. of removing the unwanted copper.
Mainly used for prototype kind of work as it can only do single or double sided PCB boards or short run.
Takes me back 20 Yrs as I use to use one, hideous chemicals.
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Acid etch bath.
you can see the heater & the aeration switches and a note about haz. chem.
I would stake a cheese sandwich on it.
http://www.megauk.com/pcb_processing_tanks.php
second tank down…
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quote DavidRogers:I would stake a cheese sandwich on it.
Thought u said it was a bath not a grill!
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quote Dave Rowland:… looks like corian/acrylic stone casing.
Or a rusty panel surrounded by bubble wrap….. :lol1:
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thatnx for all your replies. yup some of you were right its a pcb tank, by mega electronics. etches copper to make circuit boards supposedly. anybony use this kind of stuff?? can you etch other materials like glass for example??
thanx
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So whats my prize?…..
😀 😀
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You get the bubble wrap Matty but you have to collect or pay the delivery :lol1:
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Never seen or used one of these before, but judging by the description I would say that copper stripping from PCB’s is about its limit.
Glass etching would require a fluoride like HF acid or ammonium bifluoride etc. Unless the unit is designed to handle these, which I guess its not, then a big no no.
Besides, heated fluorides are a nightmare for fumes!
Adrian
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Adrian, your now into self contained units with serious extraction systems, when I was in the Navy someone thought it would be a good idea to buy a vapour degreaser/cleaner for the component cleaning bay. It ended up as a large pile of scrap because under H&S it would require it’s own special enclosure built.
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Martin
Yip,
As of January, the suppliers of trichloroethylene will not supply the product to companies that have open topped units. A small hermetically sealed unit will set you back in a sizeable portion of the national deficit!
The other problem is that a lot of the plug and play replacements are just as bad, if not worse than the trike!
Good ol’ HSE!
* actually, not really HSE fault, most of it is forced legislation from Europe!
Adrian
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trichloroethylene
In-fact i think that we used to just call it Trek..
or the lung destroyer if you breathed in the fumes!Boy that takes me back!
We used to use that years ago to clean engine parts, and when I say Clean, I mean you could take the crappiest engine part and it would come out brand new stripped down to the bare metal,
we used to use an old bath with gas heaters underneath it and running water around the top of the bath to keep the vapor in,Mind you their is nothing and I mean nothing like it for cleaning metal.in it’s vapor form,
It was pretty much like any cheap engine cleaner in liquid form,
H&S would have a Hairy fit if we tried anything like that now.
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as an apprentice we had a very large and heated trico cleaner.
It stripped paint from components in seconds, the operators were addicted to the fumes, and were p1ssed all day, they were paid the equivalent of minimum wages but I swear, some of them would have done it for nowt, as it was so addictive.Peter
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Grew up using Trichloroethane based solvent for degreasing & cleaning electrical cabinets in a machine tool manufacturers…always the apprentices job to get out of his face…I couldn’t order a pint in a bar, but sure could get you wasted on fumes.
Don’t know if anybody still uses it, but trichloromethane is EXCELLENT for joining most plastics together.
I used to use it to create invisible (glue free) joins when making up acrylic boxes & stands. Glass & steel syringe and capillary action to draw it into the joins. H&S would have a hissy fit as it’s a respiratory system suppressant in vapour form and so, so toxic as a liquid….otherwise known as chloroform.And that amazing contact glue that was withdrawn from general sale…the devil’s snot…evostik (528?) and the litres of cellulose thinners that got sloshed around with all of the toluene, xylene & benzine compounds. Ah, in the days when ‘well ventilated area’ meant "crack open the window a bit if it’s not too cold outside".
Somebody mentioned the hydrofluoric acid…I believe that stuff is toxic enough to require the amputation of body parts as it’s absorbed through the skin and can’t just be washed off.
Ah, the joys of modern day life.
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My first job was as a lab assistant when I left school.
Amongst other dangerous activities I used to use Mercury (a poison) Toluene (a carcinogenic), concentrated Hydrochloric and Nitric acid, as well as asbestos gloves (for handling heated glass apparatus).
Nowadays H&S frown upon me climbing up a ladder…
How I survived to this day I do not know 😕
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Phill the world has gone mad you can’t send a child up a chimney, you can’t let a sign maker climb a ladder, you can’t pick holly off a holly bush 🙄
spect it’s to do with global warming 😀Lynn
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quote Lynn Normington:Phill the world has gone mad you can’t send a child up a chimney,
:lol1: :lol1:
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Lynn, can you babysit this weekend?
Brill….a night out and the chimney cleaned! 😀 😀 Must be christmas.
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:lol1:
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quote DavidRogers:Don’t know if anybody still uses it, but trichloromethane is EXCELLENT for joining most plastics together.
Oh God, that stuff was divine! 😮 When I first started where I am now, around 22 years ago, we had both Trichloroethylene and Trichloroethane plants. Genklene, (trichloroethane) was such an addictive aroma!
Still use Trike here now, but the new bit of kit required cost us 120K two years ago. Mind you, cut down usage from 20 tons a year to under 1 so does have its advantages.
As for the HF, use that too. Mix it up with a bit of nitric acid and water and you have a jubbly titanium or stainless steel dissolver! 😀
As for regulations, REACH is the latest kid on the block. Causing all sorts of problems in the finishing/aerospace sector with restriction of certain chemical supplies.
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Ok I was going ask yesterday but after the last post I have to ask now, what the hell do you actually do Adrian? Doesn’t sound like anything we do here with the kit you have?!?!? Not to mention the knowledge of bizarre chemicals though now more people are coming out the woodwork with information on chemicals I’ve never heard off, am I missing a big part of general knowledge or are there just chemical geeks on here?
G
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Hi Gavin
Think I have said before, I am one of the part timers on here. Day job is running the lab in an aerospace finishing shop…. Cadmium plating, anodising, chromate conversion and a paint shop. Company also has a couple of large machine shops and sheet metal works.
Pays the bills but about as satisfying as watching paint dry. Got into the graphics side by accident in a way about 8 years ago when a couple of us who were a bit disenchanted at the time were looking at getting out of the business and doing something a bit more creative! Initially it was going to be glass etching as the my then partner was quite artistic. Bought a little roland CM12 or CX12, cant remember now to use as a stencil maker for blast engraving but discovered quite quickly that it could be used for much greater things. Went from there really. Partner moved to Thailand about 5 years ago now so I was left with the big decision on what to do!
In the end, decided not to take the plunge and go all in, but carried on with the graphics in spare time. Must admit, I do pick and choose what I do and tend to do mostly canvas printing now as I quite enjoy the photo editing side of it. Only have a small customer base for sign work and the like but any more than that would mean my level of service would drop. It also means that I can afford to walk away from customers who want to kick me in the nuts when i give them a price and not worry about paying the mortgage! 😀
Waffling now lol
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quote Gavin MacMillan:Ok I was going ask yesterday but after the last post I have to ask now…now more people are coming out the woodwork with information on chemicals I’ve never heard off, am I missing a big part of general knowledge or are there just chemical geeks on here?
G
I know that, for me, it’s that I like to know what I’m sniffing and whether or not I should be worried – more often that not it’s just curiosity.
The COSHH data sheets can make interesting reading for a lot of chemicals we all use in day to day signmaking. Notably, the hardener used in Tensol glue as it contains phylate plasticisers that are molecularly similar to oestrogens and does carry the warning of reduced fertility from exposure.
My interest began way back when I was learning to arc weld…and the need for adequate ventilation due to the nasty fumes from the flux coating on the rods being instilled in me.
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quote DavidRogers:and does carry the warning of reduced fertility from exposure.
Can girls use that stuff?
I’m just trying to reduce costs….tis a reccession you know! 😀
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Are you allowed to practice cotnraception Harry? 😕
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BET EVERYONE HERE USES TRICHLOROETHANE, AND KNOW WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE!!!
Tipex, has it as it’s main solvent.
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didn’t think it did anymore???? 😮
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I spent many a year around Trike and the fumes in South Africa and as far as I know is still widely used freely without the H&S restrictions (just warnings on the bottles I presume, or should I say barrels as we went through many barrels) I worked at a Flexographic plate production company and trike was the main chemical for cleaning and prepping the plates, I didn’t work in that area so am not 100% sure what else it was used for but all in a normal room, no major extraction or ventilation systems, just a room with a few machines etc
It’s frightening to think about these chemicals etc that we use today and only slowing we find out how bad they are and start enforcing restrictions etc, take asbestos for example, how many other things are we going to find out about in years to come 😕
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Ok so it is just me! I was quite good at chemistry in school though (I’ve forgotten it all now!)
Adrian: your reason is the best one! (no prizes but you may sniff some chemicals on your lunch break)
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quote Ian Johnston:BET EVERYONE HERE USES TRICHLOROETHANE, AND KNOW WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE!!!
Tipex, has it as it’s main solvent.
Pretty sure they dropped TCE as the solvent in tippex / tippex thinners in the early 90’s due to a spate of teenagers dropping dead.
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quote Peter Normington:the operators were addicted to the fumes, and were p1ssed all day, they were paid the equivalent of minimum wages but I swear, some of them would have done it for nowt, as it was so addictive.ach and heres me who got into screenprinting for a buzz, that sounds much nicer :lol1: :lol1:
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quote :ach and heres me who got into screenprinting for a buzz, that sounds much nicer :lol1: :lol1:
Thought Ann Summers was the place to get one of those??? 😮
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quote :Thought Ann Summers was the place to get one of those??? 😮
whos she? 😛
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quote Nicola McIntosh:quote :Thought Ann Summers was the place to get one of those??? 😮
whos she? 😛
Dunno…… but the missus must know her well, always popping in! 😛
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Back to the subject… The chemical for use in this machine is Ferric chloride and you can get it on your hands. It can be bought in small amounts as disolvable rocks from electronic shops like Maplins.
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quote Martin Oxenham:Back to the subject… The chemical for use in this machine is Ferric chloride and you can get it on your hands. It can be bought in small amounts as disolvable rocks from electronic shops like Maplins.
….but dont get it on your clothes. About half my clothes are permanently stained from Ferric Chloride.
I buy it in half kilogram bottles (granules) and dissolve in warm water to etch brass plaques.
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