Comments on: SP-15 inking issues

By: Paul Moxon, Moderator

Paul Moxon, Moderator — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:30:43 +0000

Jenny did hire me after my workshop at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. I’m pleased to say it’s now in working order. With help from Jenny and Jessica Spring, I:
1) Adjusted the grippers by threading out the yoke that connects the foot pedal rods to the gripper trip assembly arm, thus allowing the trip lever arm to back off the push rod when the carriage is at the feed board.
2) Locked down the auto gripper latch (someone had added washers to prevent this),
3) Installed small, dowels (didn’t have nuts or washers that fit) as risers into the holes that seat the form roller adjustment posts (too short).
4) Tightened the lock screws on the bearing blocks.
5) Lowered the position of the motor mount the pivot of which, raised the reservoir drum allowing it to contact the rear form roller. To access this we had to remove the large sheetmetal panel covering the backside of the press.
It’s really a mint machine and should serve her well.

By: Jenny Wilkson

Jenny Wilkson — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:54:40 +0000

I take back my Sept. 23 post; following up on Eric’s suggestion that it takes a lot of force to depress the drum, I found that it does depress after all, so it’s not a spring issue. So, this problem is still unsolved! Many thanks,
Jenny

By: Keith Cross

Keith Cross — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 01:50:09 +0000

At the Mass Art Press, we also have a UniI, no adjustable bed, but it has the cycle-shortening bumpers/cam adjustment parts on it (forgive me if this is standard and doesn’t help identify it). Since Mass Art Press is a student shop, we are forever repeating, “don’t leave the rollers down” so they don’t get flattened out overnght or overtime. The SP15s in the shop, when you raise the roller assembly, the oscillating cylinder no longer comes in contact with the form rollers. However, the UniI is different…when you raise the form rollers, the oscillating cylinder sill touches the rear form roller (with gear). You have to raise the oscillating roller rack to the vertical position to get it off the back roller. Is this normal…or is this a roller adjustment/spring issue as well? I looked at the roller hangars (L shaped bracket that is lifted when the roller assembly is raised) and they seem to be screwed into the correct position…not sure they could the in the WRONG position. Any suggestions?

By: Alex Brooks

Alex Brooks — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:25:26 +0000

When i started work on my Uni I the bed was completely stuck. I soaked it in solvent. I used a sledge. Nothing worked. I could move the adjustor slightly, but the bed didn’t move. Finally I adjusted the wheel as far down as it would go, stacked an inch of paper in the bed, and cycled the press. This broke the bed free and allowed me to adjust the press a little bit more down. I added a little more paper and cycled the press again. When I got it all the way down I soaked it in more solvent, went to bed, worked on it in the morning. It took 4 or 5 days of working on it regularly for it to really work. I think i need to grease the rails…
-alex

By: Fritz Klinke

Fritz Klinke — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:16:36 +0000

I’m referring to the surfaces that the two parts of the adjustable bed slide on relative to each other. There are 3 bearing “rails” on each casting. As the bottom casting, much like the top or bed casting, just reversed, acts as a movable wedge that pushes the bed casting up, or allows it to lower. The contact points need the lubrication along their length. I may be a tad lazy in my terminology, so I’ll look up some of the relative blueprints and see what Vandercook calls those surfaces–perhaps “ways.”

By: Eric Holub

Eric Holub — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:00:58 +0000

Hey Fritz, what do mean by bed rails? I’ve only worked with a few AB presses, each had felts between bed and bed bearer, wouldn’t think grease was appropriate there, as opposed to a light oil. To me, rails refers to the projections off the side of the bed casting that the impression-adjusting roller bearings bear against. And in the manuals those rails are to be wiped with oiled rag so they are clean, but not left oily. So I’m curious where grease enters into the picture on an AB press.
Maybe there should be a diagram of the anatomy of a Vandercook here so we have common reference, especially since some features of the Vandercook are not specifically named in the manuals. I’ve seen bearers called rails, so some misunderstanding is to be expected.
Eric Holub, SF

By: Fritz Klinke

Fritz Klinke — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 06:26:16 +0000

We took a bed apart on a Univ I at a machine shop about 10 years ago and the machinist there was absolutely taken with the close tolerances and fine machine work he saw. In fact, he wouldn’t shut up about it for quite some time. And that creates a problem with sloppy use–that press came out of an International Paper Co mill and for years they used a blue ink for the paper testing, and washup was sloppy–imagine 24 hour use, 4 or more people assigned to test paper over all the shifts, and gallons of ink laden solvent soaked down the side walls of that press bed. There are felt wipers for the head and foot of the bed, but no protection on the sides. It took a hydraulic jack to break that bed loose, and it went back to those same folks. The Univ I that I am working on now is from the same company, different mill, but blue ink dominated that press as well, from front to back. I discovered that sodium hydroxide, commonly sold as a degreaser for commercial kitchen use(definitely not household usage) works wonders with getting rid of the ink, and skin.

The bed rails on all the adjustable bed presses need lubrication with a high grade of grease, molykote is what Vandercook used, if I recall that correctly, and most beds are well past the need to be cleaned and regreased–not a task for the faint-hearted or person without basic tools and healthy, strong friends.

By: Gerald Lange

Gerald Lange — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 04:31:34 +0000

Fritz

Sort of a segue based on your “nothing short of a sledge hammer” comment. This morning, teaching in a different institutional environment I had to prepare for a demo a Universal I with an adjustable bed. The bed was stuck well over type high and the guage did no good one way or the other. So, in a bit of what else can I do kind of lunacy I filled the bed with solvent (not vegetable oil) and whacked the crap out of it with a rubber hammer. That actually worked!!!

Gerald

By: Fritz Klinke

Fritz Klinke — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:55:15 +0000

They are indeed stiff springs, but are depressible with a good push. You can also watch the action of the rear roller by looking into the roller assembly at the same level as the ink rollers, and you’ll see the action of the ink drum and then the rear roller actually riding up onto the ink drum as you slowly return the carraige to the start position–rollers in the inking position, drum motor on. It’s beginning to sound like springs. Take the cover plate over the motor plate off, get a good light source and look down where the springs are–maybe no spring at all, or hanging off the stud if its broken–sounds like both may be broken.

By: Eric Holub

Eric Holub — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 22:28:58 +0000

I don’t know offhand if it is exactly the same on the SP-15, but on the SP-20 the ink-drum springs are very stiff and it can take a bit of force to budge them; and at one or both ends of the drum there would be a bumper. It contacts the cylinder when it passes over and forces the drum down briefly, with the springs needed to return it to operating position. Without that the packing would get inked.
–Eric Holub, SF

By: Jenny Wilkson

Jenny Wilkson — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:10:16 +0000

When I was looking into this problem earlier, I compared this set of rollers (purchased from NA, apparently, but a couple of years old, no apparent shrinking or swelling) and the ones that originally came with the press (they are in beautiful condition, and are still housed in a Vandercook box) by encircling each roller with a piece of paper. The new ones did appear to be ever so slightly smaller in circumference. What tool do I need to borrow to properly measure roller diameter? I can’t figure out why the previous owner bought new rollers; maybe she was fighting the same battle.

You are on to something with the drum, Fritz. I didn’t do the straight-edge test, but I did run downstairs and push on it, and what do you know, the drum does not depress.

Hopefully that solves the drum issue. So, if I were to install new springs, and shim up and plumber tape my roller adjustment knobs, maybe I’ll be in business?

Let me know what you’d like to see good photos of, and I’ll send them ASAP.

Many thanks,
Jenny

By: Fritz Klinke

Fritz Klinke — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:59:32 +0000

The ink drum height is relative to type high as opposed to the bed, but I guess that’s simple math. A straight edge laid length wise along the bed with a type high form in it and touching the ink drum will have the ink drum end higher by roughly 1/16 to 1/8th of an inch, and I just ran such a scientific test on our SP-15.

But, for the hell of it, I just pulled print X-20740, “Power Ink Drum,” and it states “Ink drum to be .030 to .050 above bearing rail and parallel within .010. Shim to suit between X-20621 and X-20610.” Of course, the bearing rail is at type high relative to the bed on a .918 press, or at .968 on a galley bed press. Now, what are these last two X numbers? They are the pivot clip and pivot block that the ink drum cradle rotates on, so shiming one or the other side will bring the ink drum parallel to within specs.

When the rollers are lowered in the inking position, the rear roller rides up on the ink drum, depressing it slightly, and that pressure insures that there is enough physical contact between the drum and the roller to transfer ink. The ink drum is in a large U shaped steel cradle with pivot points at about the mid-point of the cradle and a set of springs on the bed end (X-20771), one on each end of the ink drum. This frame also holds the ink drum motor. I’d check to see if the springs are intact–the ink drum will depress with hand pressure, and it could be a simple problem of broken springs. These are the same springs used on the SP-20.

The cover plate over the ink drum motor has to be removed to access all this, as well as the gear cover on the far side of the ink drum. And that cover should come off at least twice a year to oil the gear drive on the ink drum motor.

What is conveniently missing from the SP-15 manual are all the part numbers I have listed above

Still would be nice to see some good photos.