Personalyzer plus adjustment?

Kentucky

Kentucky

Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
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Im curious, the personalyzer plus its adjustable up to what 24volts @ 3amps? I got around to checking our marking methods 45 last night with a meter and the volts stay steady on it at around 14.6 but the amps are adjustable on three settings.. 1amp, 2.6amp and 4.6amps.. Is there any benefit in one over the other? adjustable amps vs voltage?
 
I don't know what kind of resistance/impedance the electrolyte and applicator provide, but current (amps) are determined by dividing the voltage by the resistance in the circuit. So variable voltage is still variable amperage. Unless the resistance is so low that the current limiting device in the Personalizer Plus is the only thing keeping the amperage from going over 3 amps.
 
From what I've read the plus provides up to 24v at 3 amps. Though I don't own one and was curious what people who owned one thought. I'm going to put the meter on ours with a pad and electrolyte and see what the current drops to
 
Set the amps to max (4.6 amps in your case?) and use something in the range of 18 to 20 volts. Is the voltage the same on the DC and AC setting? The current drawn by the etch will vary depending on amount of "open" (area that is actually etched - turned black) space on the stencil and amount/type of etchant solution. You'll find etching at 18 volts or so will allow the etch to go faster than at 14 volts does. You do wish to be careful and not overheat the stencil.
 
How about that - it's current limiting. What type of system do you have? Is it a commercial etcher? OR - some commercial power supply you picked to use as an etcher?

No problem with 14 volts, just takes a bit longer. The current setting used won't matter, that will be self determining as mentioned above. I should say as long as the current is setup at 2.6 amps or more. 1 amp could be shy of what's needed depending on stencil.
 
Mine is built around a transformer with 12 volts and a maximum 3A. It takes me around 6x10sec DC and 6x10sec AC for a nice crisp etch.
 
I'll bet your stencil stays pretty cool with 12 volts? That's the secret to long stencil life.
 
heres ours, its a marking methods machine.. It has three levels, 1 amp, 3amps and 4.5 amps. All at around 15volts..Its got a yellow cleaner port that plugs in to a tray that marking methods makes that suppose to clean stencils too..
Untitled by Lisa West, on Flickr
 
When you check voltage in the 3 positions the voltage stays pretty close to the same in all 3 positions? Interesting.

I wonder what that yellow port does for cleaning - I just flip stencil over and rub across it a couple of times and it cleans right up. Remember, the DC removes metal which gets deposited on bottom of stencil clogging up the fibers. So, turning the stencil over in DC position removes the deposited metal from stencil fibers and deposits them to the marking tool pad.

15 volts is plenty for good etching - just a tad slower than higher voltage, but does keep stencils cooler and lasting longer.

Ken H>
 
Ken H> said:
When you check voltage in the 3 positions the voltage stays pretty close to the same in all 3 positions? Interesting.

I wonder what that yellow port does for cleaning - I just flip stencil over and rub across it a couple of times and it cleans right up. Remember, the DC removes metal which gets deposited on bottom of stencil clogging up the fibers. So, turning the stencil over in DC position removes the deposited metal from stencil fibers and deposits them to the marking tool pad.

15 volts is plenty for good etching - just a tad slower than higher voltage, but does keep stencils cooler and lasting longer.

Ken H>
Click to expand...
yea, Ken it stays the same at all three levels according to my meter. I find that weird that the volts stay the same and the amps are adjustable? I just clean the stencils with windex myself. Its a good machine, cant complain got it for like $25 off ebay 6-7 years ago because someone listed it wrong. didn't know what they had. It makes a deep etch just takes more passes. Though when I use it on the 4.5amp setting I notice I sometimes get some ghosting or excessive crud build up under the stencil but that may well be my fault, too much electrolyte or whatever
 
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