changing the platens on a hotronix...?

[staybeautiful 0]

so i have my hotronix 16x20 auto that i purchased from us cutter back in december. got the 3 free platens...this weekend is the first time i've tried using them.

my question is...is there any easy way, whatsoever, to change platens? i'm not about to spend 20 minutes or more changing one of them every time i need to do a different job. the bolts are in too precarious of a location to just slide a normal socket wrench in there, so i just flipped it on its side to change them out. pretty annoying. especially since i'm paranoid of screwing something up in an expensive machine by putting it on its side.

seems like a small thing, but when you're looking for efficiency, it's not the best.

(not to mention that the bolts are just over 1/2" so nothing in my socket sets would fit and i had to use a regular wrench haha...annoyed. gotta pick up a larger socket today.)

i was thinking of actually drilling two socket-size holes in my table directly under the bolts for an easier change.

anyone have any brighter ideas?

[Can-Am 1]

One thing that I found with the additional platens is that they are not as tall as the original.

They should have a spacer under them to bring tham up to the same heigth.

How about it Ken, can you get Hotronix to supply the fix for this inconvience.(Quality screwup)

Dave

[staybeautiful 0]

yeah it's pretty aggravating to pay this much for it and then have it be such a pain in the arse to change. i ended up drilling holes through the table and the mdf support. now i can just reach straight up through the table with an extended socket and unscrew them. wham bam done.

every minute counts, right?

and you're definitely correct about the platen height. i actually just figured the pressure wasn't showing up because the platen is so small. either way, it DID work with no spacers and the firmness all the way up.