Distributors and Humidity...

[Schu]

Hello all! Just curious about a few particular things with distributors and humidity.

Our center usually runs very well...a few d-jams every now and than nothing too horrible. We print off our call sheets about every 2-3 weeks and try to catch the dist. that are really causing troubles or ones that we have had "excessive" calls on...my question is, with the Kansas humidity we have, will that cause problems for the distributors, and if so, what kinds of fixes can I try to do...or is there anything I can do...like I said all of our dist. are adjusted great, its just the ones that we never usually expect calls on, we get one every now and than in the summer time....Anything at all????

Schu-

[Jerry Smith]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

When business slows down in the summer months some machines are used less frequently than others. This lack of activity can cause a well maintained machine to 'hickup' when fired up after a long period of rest. I wouldn't worry about it IF the maintenance is up to date. I would however, keep track of what lanes are being used in the summer. Desk personnel have habits of giving out the same lanes everyday, so you may have to convince them to break habit and give out the less used lanes.

[8270king]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

We put in new pins every August 1st...so I ma fighting old pins right now too.

My fav mod is to put a 3 inch strip of Brunswick ball wheel traction tape parallel to the pinwheel about 2 inches away from the dist belt....this helps straighten out all pins not orienting properly.

JK

[TheGMan143]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

Humidity can affect clutches... the biggest thing we found a problem with is climate control. Most places turn the air conditioning and ventilation off at night. We found that just keeping temperature and humidity in check with a low setting overnight cuts down on a lot of problems.

Our biggest 'flaky' problems happen with the change of season... summer into fall and winter into spring... that seems to be when we get a lot of oddball jams and problems. Once the weather levels out, they disappear.

[Schu]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

King....are you talking about on the O-pan right as the pins are dropped off onto the pan, is where you put your tape?

GMan, we too keep our ventilation on in the night hours. But with Kansas being so damn humid, we still get the oddball calls...We have also been trying the use of hurricane fans. We have one at each end 1 and 40....with the air blowing it doesnt give the humidity time to settle down onto the machines...the air is always moving...it has cut down on some of our humidity D-jams, but were still getting the machines that hardly have ever had d-jams...getting d-jams...very frustrating

[TheGMan143]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

If you have a couple machines that seem to have a consistent problem with jams that may be related to humidity, try this:

Go to the local auto parts store or lowe's, home depot, etc... pick up a can of 100% silicone spray lube (GUNK/Solder Seal makes a good one). Spray a light coating on to the o-pan (don't forget the orientor pins on the pan, too, but try not to get it on the belt) and inside the wheel, then wipe it off with a clean cloth. It'll leave a film of silicone that allows pins to break free of the wheel and not stick on the o-pan. It cut down a lot of the BS calls for us... and if it doesn't seem to work for ya, it's easy to reverse... just wipe it off with alcohol.

[8270king]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

Originally posted by Schu:
King....are you talking about on the O-pan right as the pins are dropped off onto the pan, is where you put your tape?

GMan, we too keep our ventilation on in the night hours. But with Kansas being so damn humid, we still get the oddball calls...We have also been trying the use of hurricane fans. We have one at each end 1 and 40....with the air blowing it doesnt give the humidity time to settle down onto the machines...the air is always moving...it has cut down on some of our humidity D-jams, but were still getting the machines that hardly have ever had d-jams...getting d-jams...very frustrating

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Closer to the dist belt.

JK

[Schu]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

also, will high humidity cause pins to orientate wrong off the pan and come to the bins head first??? Friday was prolly the humidiest day here in Kansas this summer, Friday night in back i must of had 4-5 D-jams where the pins were jammed head first in the shuttle....pissed me off!!! Is this another sign of humidity??

[TheGMan143]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

Could be... but usually headfirsts are caused by the pins dropping loose from the wheel too early, and the head of the pin gets in front of the orienting pins on the o-pan. Either that, or a pin sticks on the pan, and the next one off the wheel pushes it and spins it around.

[Schu]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

okay..since were talking about o-pans now as a potential problem of mine..Ive always been curious...what is a "correct" or accurate way to really adjust an O-pan as well as the kidney pan since those two parts work hand in hand in a successful distributor....right???

I also just wanted to say thank you to the many of you "veterans" out there who have helped me, I was reading some of my previous posts from when i first became a member...WOW I have learned alot from you BT members..once again thank you!

[LancerLanesMech]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

[LancerLanesMech]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

G man, I prefer original lemon Pledge on the O pan, elevator wheel, kidney, ect. You don't need much and it leaves everything nice &amp; smooth. I have had unbelievable problems with pins sticking inside the wheel. I have most of them licked now but talk about a pain in the butt. There were many factors in this, some were lack of cleaning &amp; maintenance before I worked there and another was that sticky crap that AMF used to use for rustproofing. That carmel color stuff that is almost impossible to remove. It was embedded in the carpet and the pins turned yellow after only about 5 days in the machine.
As far as adjusting the kidney and O pan, i'm finding it to be more complicated from machine to machine. I have one that I swear the mounting holes are off on either the distributor or kidney or both. It doesn't jam up very often but the pins come off really funny. I'm gonna have to do some mods. I can't get the O pan close enough to the elev. wheel. I think I'm going to have to make the slots in the O pan longer. I'll keep everyone posted.
The distance from the O pan to the elevator wheel determines when the pin will roll down onto the belt. If it's too far away, the pin will stay up longer, if it's too close, the pin might drop off too soon causing it to go head 1st. I like to adjust the kidney so that it's about even at the bottom (so the pin doesn't run into it and wear out the shock mount) and about even transfer at the top to the O pan. I find that people like to run the kidney high at the top, but I find that it can cause the pin to come off too fast and spin off the O pan, or almost spin off causing the next pin to be too close to the previous pin. Keep in mind that every time you adjust the top, it affects the bottom and vise versa. After an adjustment, i like to put a pin and run it through all bin positions head 1st, then do the same with the pin coming up bottom 1st. Seems like everyone has their own system for these adjustments but I've had exceptionally good results. If anyone knows who Bob Garlock and Tom Neidemeyer are, most of those clearences were showed to me by them. And I still think it will be different lane to lane depending on install clearances. Also make sure your distributor is balanced before making these adjustments. Not trying to start an orentation war here, all comments welcome. [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img]

[LancerLanesMech]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

[LancerLanesMech]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

I find that a good percentage of pile-ups are not caused by the distributor, rather orientation, or a shuttle problem or the way the pin is laying in the bin, or a combination of any of these causes it. In fact one problem that I haven't figured out yet is that the guides in the bin for the head pin look to not be sitting level to each other. One is higher than the other. Nothing looks bent, but what happens is that the pin hits funny and the top of the pin comes up, making the pin somewhat upright and making the bottom of the pin miss the pin holders and go on top of the table. Happens only a couple times a shift but still annoying. Only happens on a strike, as the bin needs to be empty. Any ideas?

[TheGMan143]

Re: Distributors and Humidity...

Pledge works pretty good... a lot of those polishes have silicone in them... we've stayed away from them, since they also have organic oils that can get sticky after a while... we just use the straight silicone.

As for the post, only a forum moderator or administrator can delete the post... but you can edit it and just remove all the text, which makes it a lot shorter, and people generally just ignore the blank post.