I have a Plockmatic 350 booklet maker with a square fold and face trimmer that I'm using offline. Ive been having an issue where the facetrims are slightly skewed top and bottom. I've been been having to take my booklets and face trim them afterwards through our cutter. Is there a way to adjust the blade angle? It's roughly 1/16" longer on the top cut (inboard side of the machine) than the bottom. Please advise. TYIA
Plockmatic 350 Booklet Maker skew adjustment
- Thread starter APablo760
- Start date
There's a knob under the machine in a drawer next to the waste trimmer bin. It took me a couple years to notice it (okay it wasn't even me that found it). Anyways, turning the nob helped with skewing because it changes how it's folding. You should check to see if it's folding correctly first by changing turning the blade off.
To my knowledge there isn't a way to adjust the knife from what I can tell even in the tech area. I'll look again though.
To my knowledge there isn't a way to adjust the knife from what I can tell even in the tech area. I'll look again though.
PricelineNegotiator
Well-known member
You can always read the manual.
I've read a good portion of it (sadly). The manual is not very well written, very frustrating to read especially because many parts of it are mislabeled so if you're trying to follow the breadcrumbs (everything tells you to go somewhere else for the details) you have to hunt around for the correct diagrams/sections. We have very few trained techs on this machine in our area.
you've probably already thought of this but i've had quite promising results asking AI to interrogate user manuals and resources across the web to answer questions which are unclear to me from reading manuals etc.
some more so than others - i find ChatGPT hallucinates a lot more than e.g. Gemini to the point I have little faith in what it says about very specific technical matters.
I would never normally be one to present AI answers on a forum, but i checked it on Gemini out of curiosity and it seems to corroborate what you are saying:
"When you have a face trim skew of 1/16" (longer on the inboard/top side), the issue is almost never the blade angle itself. The trimmer blade is fixed on a massive, heavy-duty assembly that doesn’t lose its physical angle relative to the chassis easily.
Instead, the culprit is almost always how the book is being presented to the blade. If the inboard side is longer, it means the book is entering the trimmer slightly crooked, or the stop gate inside the trimmer isn't square.
Before resorting to mechanical adjustments, perform these checks to correct the skew:
1. The "Paper Trash" Check (Most Common)
Because you are running offline and hand-feeding or feeding from a feeder, it is incredibly common for a small piece of scrap paper, a rogue staple, or heavy paper dust to get wedged under one side of the stop gate inside the trimmer module.- Open the trimmer top cover.
- Use a flashlight and look deep down into the compilation/stop area right before the blade.
- If a tiny piece of paper is trapped on the outboard side, it will stop the bottom of the booklet early, causing the inboard side to sit deeper into the blade, resulting in that extra 1/16" cut on the top. Clean the path thoroughly with compressed air or a flexible ruler.
2. Manual Operator Skew Adjustments
Plockmatic systems feature physical "operator-accessible" knobs to adjust registration without needing a service technician to dismantle the blade assembly.- Trimmer Stop Gate Adjustment: Open the top cover of the Trimmer unit (FTR module) and look for a locking knob (often colored green or black) near the registration assembly or the drive rollers. Loosening this knob allows you to slightly pivot the angle of the stop gate. Adjusting this will square up how the booklet rests right before the blade drops.
- Stitch-to-Fold Skew: If the book isn't folded completely square before it gets to the trimmer, the face trimmer will cut parallel to the machine, but the book itself will look skewed. Check the main booklet maker unit—there are adjustment screws under the top covers that handle the stitch-fold skew. Ensure your fold is perfectly parallel to the spine before looking at the trimmer.
3. Check the Infeed/Inter-unit Docking
Since you are using the machine offline, check the physical alignment between the main Booklet Maker, the Square Fold, and the Face Trimmer.- If the modules are not locked together perfectly straight, or if one of the units was bumped slightly out of parallel, the booklet will kick to one side as it passes from the square folder into the trimmer rollers.
- Undo the locking latches, give the units a firm push to ensure they are fully seated and flush against each other, and lock them back down.
Quick Test: To prove whether it's a trimmer issue or a folding issue, take one of your folded/square-folded booklets before it goes into the trimmer. Measure the top and bottom width manually. If the booklet is already uneven after the square fold, your adjustment needs to be made back on the booklet maker's fold rollers or stop gate, not the trimmer."
I did not. And this post looks incredibly helpful. Perhaps it's time to get out the old leaf blower and a vacuum and see if I can cleanup any "rogue" paper out of the machine.
The sensor for the waste trimmer bin is very unhelpful and waste frequently overruns the bin before someone thinks to check it so... this could be the cause of many minor annoying issues.
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