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 [...]

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 [...]

I have a problem with sticky grippers on my SP-15. Everything was working fine, then they became stiffer and stiffer until they didn’t want to open at all. As far as I can tell the foot pedal assembly is fine. I’ve taken apart the gripper assembly, cleaned and lubricated it. While it seems to work [...]

I understand that there is an option for the powered Universal series presses in which the powered grippers would raise and close without having to press on the foot pedal. How is it activated? Where can I find blueprints or technical operating manuals (more detailed) of the Uni presses? Thank you once again!

The 219 OS I’ve been using has developed a terrible problem, which started about 6 months ago, and nothing I do seems to help. The grippers raise fine, but when depressed into the paper to HOLD the paper,the grippers clamp down very hard, MUCH harder than is needed to just hold the paper in position [...]

Last week I was in New York to teach workshops at the “Center for Book Arts”:http://centerforbookarts.org/, and also visited a couple of printshops including Daniel Morris’s “The Arm Letterpress”:http://www.thearmnyc.com/information/letterpress in Brooklyn. Some readers may know that has several Vandercooks including this rather unusual SP15 that has a hand lever mechanism to raise the paper grippers [...]

I have recently taken two Universal I presses out of storage and am getting them going for the first time so  I’ll be making quite a few postings here in the next few weeks. My first question is regarding the gripper assembly. One of my presses is a later model Illinois Tool Works press, serial [...]

I’m having some troubles with a Vandercook #4, and I’m more or less completely inexperienced with it. The trip mechanism is not connecting enough when the foot pedal is depressed. There is about a centimeter of space between the trip assembly and the rod when not engaged, so when you hit the pedal, it just [...]

A video… This is the most recent press to cross the threshold at The Arm. It didn’t take too much fiddling to replace the microswitches across the back of the press, clean out the control box and get it cycling back and forth, but it is pausing for a full five second count at the [...]

The grippers work fine on our SP-15 when we use the foot pedal to insert the paper, but they do not properly release the paper at the end of the print. Other than adding some shims behind the bracket that activates the gripper lever at the end of the print action, is there another method [...]

I am trying to fix up a Vandercook 4T. When I press on the foot pedal, the pedal moves but the grippers don’t. At first I thought that the chain had stretched but when i look at the joint where the bar from the foot pedal connects to the bar that moves the chain, I [...]