Finally got around to fabricating a hand lever for the No. 3 grippers. Works like a charm and no longer will I be rolling the cylinder back and forth in an attempt to properly grip/register sheets. I can share the specs with anyone interested… just let me know. Brad.

Goudy said: “The old fellows stole all our best ideas.” Proving it again is this No.4 with a custom-made hand activated gripper bar, similar to the idea for a No.3  discussed on this forum Summer ’08 (archive links here and here). The pedal and chain linkage are still intact, but don’t work, I was curious [...]

This post related to Hand gripper lever for a No. 3. –PM: Here’s a quick sketch. I don’t have a #3 around me, but if the Gripper Trip Lever is anything like a #4 or an SP-20, you can undo the top 2 screws and let it swing free, slide the tube over, and reassemble.

Here’s an idea for a hand-activated gripper lever to aid sheet feeding on the No. 3 Vandercook. In the drawing at left, a handle attached to the gripper trip lever is pulled toward the operator, thus moving the push rod against the trip bar which forces the gripper stems to rise. A notable “feature” of [...]

John Horn sent me this photo of his innovative rolling Vandercook work station. John says, “It’s two feet deep and four feet wide. It’s a prototype so it is pretty crude. I love having the furniture cabinet close at hand. I park this work station right behind the operator so that he or she can [...]

Chris Manson, proprietor of Crooked Crow Press, in Rockville, Maryland has converted his Universal III Power Vandercook to a hand-cranked press. He had a retired machinist make a collar extension to fit onto the bearing stub on the impression cylinder (photo 3). Onto this new bearing stub Chris attached a crank from a large Poco [...]