Cleaning a GR drum

[farabundo]

Hello. I have a few GR drums that were likely last used a few years ago with ink that has since gone bad. I've installed new ink cylinders but there is still probably quite a bit of bad ink in there. (I especially think this because all the prints are coming out with really smudgy ink). Is it safe to reach inside the drum when there's no cylinder in and scoop out the old ink as much as possible? Otherwise, I know the alternative is to simply print hundreds of copies, but I'd like to avoid that. Any help is appreciated.

[20gaugeO/U]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

Read up on taking the drum shell off (which is pretty painless) then get ready get dirty. Rubber gloves and old clothes to wear would be recommended. I used to use an old copier drum cleaning blade and turn the drive chuck key and wipe most of the ink off the squeegee roller in a couple of rotations. Then reach in the drum shell and clean with cloths and your cleaning agent of choice.
Have fun

[farabundo]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

Read up on taking the drum shell off (which is pretty painless) then get ready get dirty. Rubber gloves and old clothes to wear would be recommended. I used to use an old copier drum cleaning blade and turn the drive chuck key and wipe most of the ink off the squeegee roller in a couple of rotations. Then reach in the drum shell and clean with cloths and your cleaning agent of choice.
Have fun

Thanks for that. Can this be done while the drum is on the rails (or am I thinking of cleaning the screen)? Also, when you say "drum shell," are you referring to the drum covers, as they are called in the technician's manual (pictured below)? I was picturing reaching my hand into the drum after taking the ink tube out, but maybe that is not enough.

Screen Shot 2016-08-10 at 5.41.26 PM.jpg

[farabundo]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

Thanks for that. Can this be done while the drum is on the rails (or am I thinking of cleaning the screen)? Also, when you say "drum shell," are you referring to the drum covers, as they are called in the technician's manual (pictured below)? I was picturing reaching my hand into the drum after taking the ink tube out, but maybe that is not enough.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33815[/ATTACH]

Just realised I was silly to think I could simply reach in to scoop out old ink. I still don't understand how far I should go in disassembling the drum to accomplish this though.

[20gaugeO/U]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

Under the covers is 2 metal silver actuators, mark and take them off. Then flip the drum over and take the 3 large allen screws out of the end of drum where the drive chuck assy is located to remove the shell (the shell is what the screen sits on). When you remove the shell do it gently as it will be rubbing on the ink blocking things that are flexible, you just don't want to bent to much or brake them. One on each end of the squeegee roller

[farabundo]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

Under the covers is 2 metal silver actuators, mark and take them off. Then flip the drum over and take the 3 large allen screws out of the end of drum where the drive chuck assy is located to remove the shell (the shell is what the screen sits on). When you remove the shell do it gently as it will be rubbing on the ink blocking things that are flexible, you just don't want to bent to much or brake them. One on each end of the squeegee roller

Is there anywhere this is explained using pictures? I'm worried about messing it up. Also, if I want to clean the screen should I do that first, as presumebly all the bits will fall into the ink squigee bit, which I'll then have to manually clean? Thanks again for the help.

[Iowatech]

Re: Cleaning a GR drum

You might try this:

actuators.pdf

There's a few more steps there than necessary, as in the front of the drum you only need to remove the covers and the three plates, but other than that it should be pretty accurate.