Meheen users unite!

[GlacierBrewing]

Wow, Linus,
I must have a COMPLETELY different machine from yours or I'm an idiot, or both.

I cannot find any springs associated with the fill head. Do you have any pics?
Dave

[lhall]

Dave,

On our old machine, and sorry I don't have it anymore to take a picture, there were springs on the capping head cylinders. These contacted a stud screwed into the side of the filler head when the fill head was down. Those springs were connected by a wire to the capacitance sensor in the panel.

If you unscrew the studs coming out of the fill head, there should be a little spring that fits into a hole drilled into the end of the stud. That spring presses against the fill tubes inside the filler head. If they are missing, they probably were broken off when the fill tube got jammed up by a bottle. There was hardly anything left of our little springs when I took our fill head apart.

I'd try calling Dave Meheen, he might could tell you more about your particular machine. That's how our old 1995 model was set up.

[GlacierBrewing]

Thought I'd update the forum:
Never did find any springs in my Meheen. However, I just completed two bottling runs of a stout and an oktoberfest. I had two rows in those two runs of 1/2 fills, unlike the previous bottling run which had rows of 1/2 fills every 5-9 rows. What I did was to increase my fill sensor value from the default of 10 up to between 50-75. (I know, Dave Meheen is probably reading this and saying, "Duh!! Obvious!!") That worked for us, hope it helps someone else.
Prost!
Dave

p.s. you access the fill sensor value by pressing and holding the reset button AS THE MACHINE IS RUNNING and then use the arrow keys to alter the setting. The higher the value, the less sensitive it is.

[GlacierBrewing]

Thanks Dave.
I think it is fantastic that you are still willing to give "support" and advice on your older machines! I wish other equipment/computer manufacturers had your sense of pride and ethics.
Thanks again Dave!

Prost!
Dave
Glacier Brewing

[sks]

Meheen cap filler...

I have a 2003? six-head with a crown feeder. I have to pour in a scoop of crowns every five minutes, or so. I want to dump in a box full of crowns and have it feed all day. I've rigged up various boxes on top to hold extra crowns, but found that the machine feeds much better when there are LESS crowns right behind the feeder itself. The "boxes" I've rigged up feed in way too fast and they pile up and then the crown feeder doesn't feed reliably to each slide.
Thanks,
Joe

[sks]

Capp feeding tweaks

I have a 2003? six-head with a crown feeder. I have to pour in a scoop of crowns every five minutes, or so. I want to dump in a box full of crowns and have it feed all day. I've rigged up various boxes on top to hold extra crowns, but found that the machine feeds much better when there are LESS crowns right behind the feeder itself. The "boxes" I've rigged up feed in way too fast and they pile up and then the crown feeder doesn't feed reliably to each slide.
Thanks,
Joe

[GlacierBrewing]

I have a 2003? six-head with a crown feeder. I have to pour in a scoop of crowns every five minutes, or so. I want to dump in a box full of crowns and have it feed all day. I've rigged up various boxes on top to hold extra crowns, but found that the machine feeds much better when there are LESS crowns right behind the feeder itself. The "boxes" I've rigged up feed in way too fast and they pile up and then the crown feeder doesn't feed reliably to each slide.
Thanks,
Joe

Hi Joe,
I have similar issues on my six-head (and on our former four-head). I rigged up taller walls on the crown hopper to hold more crowns but also have to "stir" the hopper from time to time to get the magnets to grab them. I've been toying with designing some sort of agitator in the hopper to keep the crowns from stacking and binding. Also, I think I'm going to try to put in a "false floor" in the hopper with a more extreme angle to force the crowns against the magnet drum. I'll report any results.

Prost!
Dave

[sks]

Sounds good. I've been working on a design as well. The basic design principal seems to be that if there are only a handful of caps in the hopper (next to the drum) then they feed into the cap chutes reliably, but when there is a pile of them against the drum, they clump together and hold each other back, resulting in undependable/uneven feeding. That being said, how does one feed caps into the hopper slowly?

Hi Joe,
I have similar issues on my six-head (and on our former four-head). I rigged up taller walls on the crown hopper to hold more crowns but also have to "stir" the hopper from time to time to get the magnets to grab them. I've been toying with designing some sort of agitator in the hopper to keep the crowns from stacking and binding. Also, I think I'm going to try to put in a "false floor" in the hopper with a more extreme angle to force the crowns against the magnet drum. I'll report any results.

Prost!
Dave

[lhall]

when all else fails, make it louder

We have been fighting for the past week, of all things, high fills. We could not see anything unusual about the machine - just that it would cyclically put out a couple of rows of high fills, almost all the way to the top, every 7-8 cycles.

I finally took out the three air filters/ mufflers on the MAC valve assembly, and found they were partially plugged, with what looked like an oil/water sludge. I guess it was creating some backpressure in the MAC valves that was slowing the operation of the valves. Once I took them out it ran like a champ, better than ever. They are soaking in PBW right now, and we'll try it with them back in tomorrow.

[beermaker]

Saw where Dave had posted the pic's and info on the big crown hopper, we had kind of sort of done our own mod on our old 1995 4 head machine but I wasn’t really ready to go that route on our brand new 6 head machine. After getting the hopper from Dave and getting it installed, which was really easy, I can report that this thing is great. It holds a ton of crowns and one of the panels is removable so it’s easy to unload at the end of the day. We are trying to go as fast as possible with only 2 operators so this thing defiantly takes keeping the crown hooper full out of the equation....if anybody has any questions let me know....

Michael Lalli
choc beer company
michael@chocbeer.com

[Laughing Dog]

. We are trying to go as fast as possible with only 2 operators so this thing defiantly takes keeping the crown hooper full out of the equation....if anybody has any questions let me know....

Michael Lalli
choc beer company
michael@chocbeer.com

My question is how do you run it with only 2 guys !!!
our six head runs about 110-120 cases an hour on the 22 machine and 2 guys cannot feed, case, close-up and put away
Fred
Laughing Dog

[gdebisschop]

We have been fighting for the past week, of all things, high fills. We could not see anything unusual about the machine - just that it would cyclically put out a couple of rows of high fills, almost all the way to the top, every 7-8 cycles.

I finally took out the three air filters/ mufflers on the MAC valve assembly, and found they were partially plugged, with what looked like an oil/water sludge. I guess it was creating some backpressure in the MAC valves that was slowing the operation of the valves. Once I took them out it ran like a champ, better than ever. They are soaking in PBW right now, and we'll try it with them back in tomorrow.

We run a four head from 1996 (I think) and had all kinds of weird things start to happen. Eventually we got to the mufflers and they were fouled with metal shavings (probably from one of the crowner pistons that were gouged and had to be replaced not long after). After clearing the mufflers, back to normal. Restricting the mufflers causes all the air-actuated functions to act strangely or utterly fail. We now check them regularly. If you have weird air-related stuff happening it's a easy place to look first.
cheers
geoff

[timbro81]

We run a four head from 1996 (I think) and had all kinds of weird things start to happen. Eventually we got to the mufflers and they were fouled with metal shavings (probably from one of the crowner pistons that were gouged and had to be replaced not long after). After clearing the mufflers, back to normal. Restricting the mufflers causes all the air-actuated functions to act strangely or utterly fail. We now check them regularly. If you have weird air-related stuff happening it's a easy place to look first.
cheers
geoff

Geoff,
We run a slightly older (94?) Meheen and have started having all sorts of issues with the air operated functions. Is it possible to easily explain the muffler repair/rehab process that you mentioned.
Thanks,
Tim

[gdebisschop]

Hi Tim,
I think there were alot of changes to the machine between 94 and 96, but all our air is run through a manifold of mac valves on the control box. On the top and bottom of the manifold are sintered metal mufflers that screw in. Simply unscrew them and see whats there. As Linus mentioned previously soaking is a good idea, they get pretty clogged. I think we soaked them in acetate, but anything that will get air flowing is good. Like Linus said you'll know this is the problem if you pull them out while you're running and suddenly everything seems right again, only alot louder.
cheers
geoff

[bennybrew]

So your six-head Meheen cycles every 11 seconds? You must hold the record. I'm very happy with my Meheen if it can do 18 second cycles. What's the secret?

We do about 80cs/hr. More (100cs/hr) with our 22oz machine.

If there is a secret I have no idea what it is.