The Framers Forum

Hi,

Just connected up my second hand Minigraf 4. Air leaks like crazy out of one of (or two of) the blue silencers at the back. I guess it just needs replacing? Can I bodge it with tape/silicone whilst I'm waiting?

Secondly, does anybody happen to have an unwanted front clamp? (Presumably from a dead machine.) That's the bit that sits directly in front of the operator, and moves in horizontally towards the machine to clamp the moulding (as opposed to the vertical clamp). Annoyingly the seller of the machine forgot to give it to my courier and now cannot find it - along with the smaller wedge blocks, so again if anybody has some unwanted blocks...

Thirdly, is there an intermediate stop on the foot pedal? I am finding it difficult to feel the right place to stop half way whilst the clamps move into place. I guess this might be easier when the leaks are cured.

Thanks!

Hi and welcome to the forum.


Your air leak could just be an air pipe thats come out. They're only a push fit and it would be worth checking they are all fully home. Be also worth checking you have the foot pedal connected to the machine correctly- should be colour coded on the pipes.

Its perfectly ok to use the machine without the missing clamp. I used one of these underpinners for years and never bothered with the clamp.

The foot pedal is just a question of getting used to it- Half way down with your foot brings the clamp down and all the way down to fire the pin.

Hi,

I'm no expert with the mechanics but i'm sure the blue silencers are only there to quieten air as its released from the machine so if there is air continually leaking out of the silencer, then there is probably a problem further back inside the machine. If you take the blue thing off you can see that its only a simple piece of plastic and the machine should still operate without it.

You will probably need to download the manual and check out the parts diagram, If you can see which silencer is leaking you may be able to follow it back on the drawings to see where that air comes from. There is probably a leaky valve or something further back in the chain

You can also try things like lifting the safety guard and working other functions to see if this makes a difference, you just need to find out where the air is coming from so start at the blue valve and work back to see where the air is released from.

Hope this makes sense

Cheers
Steve

Hi thanks, that's helpful.

If I unscrew the silencer and put my finger over the hole then the leaking air stops.

The leak also stops if the foot pedal is fully depressed, so it's presumably the v-nail firer part of the system that's got the problem.

http://underpinner-spares.co.uk/details ... emID=10079 Seems indeed to be a faulty valve. Thanks.

How much air should underpinners like this leak? None at all?