Admittedly, I have no experience with Vandercook or any other flatbed presses. Currently I run a Windmill, C&P and a Golding Jobber, but am looking to expand in size and versatility. I found a Power 219 for sale and was hoping that someone could give me some pointers on what to look for, and more importantly what to avoid! Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I think I might now what the prob is, but wanted to hear what others think. The spring under the latch that holds the cylinder back and in place that is not the original spring. I faked it with a purchase from a hardware store 7-9 years ago. Well, it seems that its time has come to an end because I’m having a problem getting the cylinder “over the hump” and when I step on the foot pedal the grippers don’t want to raise well. I can make it happen by being firm and stepping on the pedal multiple times, but the press is protesting with squeaks that I don’t like. Any tips? I think I might need to get a new spring — the part # in the manual is X-11022. Could be something else?

I am trying to restore my Vand #3, and am trying to find EITHER a Vand #3 or #4 Oscillating assembly. Does anybody have this.. or contacts that they might refer me to? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you, Aimee Wilson

The moniker “gravity press” refers to models 0, 01, 03, and 099, a group of small tabletop presses that were the simplest ones Vandercook built. The Impression cylinder rolls on the bearers (with bearings riding on the under rails), but are not geared, and do not have paper grippers, an inking assembly nor a motor. They also have a different serial number series from the larger, more complex presses. Because of their small size there are still quite a few in letterpress shops. Fritz also tells us that Vandercook built the presses fixed with the Showcard label were until the late 1950s, and has two serial number books for them.

Thanks is due to Alan Runfeldt of Excelsior Press whose enthusiasm for these machines suggested another census was warranted. Only a few are listed right now, but it may be interesting to see how many are added.

I’m having some trouble with my press and I’m wondering if someone out there can help me diagnose the problem. First off, I have a Vandercook SP-15. I purchased it a while ago and just recently got it up and running. I was able to print on it for about 150 impressions when it became difficult to trip, It felt like the trip lever was sticking for a few runs and then it stopped tripping altogether.

Up to that point, the press had been working very well, it gave an excellent impression and it showed no signs of trouble. After it broke, I was able to trip the press, but only by bumping it against the nylon roller that activates the lever much harder than I was comfortable doing.

I looked the press over as best I could and I found a broken trip spring. Assuming this to be the problem, I replaced the offending part. This did not fix the issue. The press felt exactly the same as before I had replaced the broken spring.

I’ve looked at every part that I can see without removing the side plates and everything seems to be intact. I get the impression that the eccentric is sticking for some reason, but I can’t fathom why. I can watch the trip lever mechanism doing what it’s supposed to on both sides, but the eccentric doesn’t seem to want to turn. The nylon roller on the side of the press is fine and everything looks lined up properly.

I already made one attempt to get the side plate off, but it didn’t want to come apart for some reason. I couldn’t tell if it was hanging up on something or if I just had to hit it harder. So, before I go attempting to pull the side plate off again and getting myself into a bigger mess, does anyone have any suggestions of things to check or ideas on what might be broken? If you think I should pull the side plate off, please let me know if there are any common stumbling blocks to doing so that I might have missed the first time through. Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

Roni Gross says that there are only 22 copies of the Vandercook Book left for purchase. The price is $650 plus $25 for insurance and postage. “When we get down to the last 10 it will go up to $750.”
For more information please visit: www.ronigrossdesign.com/thevanderbook or contact Roni directly at rgd6@verizon.net

My SP 15 seemed difficult to get into Trip/Print so, after researching similar posts on this site I drew the conclusion that I was missing the flat spring (x23790) and upon inspection, this seemed to be the case. However, now that I have the springs, I am looking at the trip arm assembly and it seems that perhaps I was incorrect. The illustration on sheet no 287-A of the manual shows part x22998 Roller Stud (x3490?) which according to sheet 302 is positioned under the spring, thus providing the tension. My press however is identical to the mechanism shown on sheet No. 248 in which the roller stud is absent and a spring is built into the trip assembly (BRS-2 Spring). So my questions are:

1. Are there 2 variations for the trip assembly? Did they change the design for later presses in order to overcome the broken spring problem?

2. Did I buy springs that I don’t need?

3. Once they are snapped on, can they be removed intact or do you have to chisel them off?

4. Why is it still difficult to get it to switch from Trip/Print?

Many thanks to the smarter brains out there.

Greg

I have a question about a Universal I hand press. The problem first became noticeable after setting the rollers to the correct height and printing for a while. The back inking roller gear will sometimes jump off the track when in print mode and make a terrible sound. We were able to replicate the problem by raising the roller by the gear and ‘printing’ with no ink on the press. There seems to be some wear on the track by the gear because of this problem. How do you think this could be fixed? Maybe the rollers, because of vibration, change height? Or can the rollers swell and cause this problem? The serial number on the press is 25748.

I recently pulled the electrical box off of my SP-15 and being the clever individual I am I marked all the wires with tape. Unfortunately, as I was cleaning the motor up the tape fell off. I think I have the wiring correct but I want to be sure before I flip the switch and risk burning the motor up. I have attempted to draw a little diagram above with how I think it goes but I would love a second opinion. I seem to recall the ground was connected to the metal of the box itself, but not being 100% worries me.

thanks all.