I undertook the arduous task of adjusting the 6 cylinder carriage bearings on my SP15, after still experiencing uneven inking and impression with newly recovered rollers. Thanks especially to Gerald’s comprehensive “Adjusting Cylinder Carriage Bearings” article, without which I never would have undertaken the ordeal: http://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/articles/lange-adj/ And with Fritz’s recently found comments within Paul’s “Common [...]

I am wondering about the impression roller (I don’t know if this is the right name) on this press. I’ve noticed that mine is a bit damaged, with some traces of scoring. I am worried this might cause uneven impression. Is this a roller that can be recovered or is this not a replaceable part? I [...]

I’m getting the impression cylinder recovered on my 05 proof press and am hoping to find the original Vandercook specification for the durometer on the Vulcanized rubber coating. Mine is probably still sporting the original rubber which is very hard and not very pliable at the moment. I heard durometer 70 somewhere… Can anyone provide [...]

Okay, so it a simple 2 color business cards. A newbie could do this is an hour. But Nooooo. Using polymer plates, we ran the black, then matched up the red plate PERFECTLY on the Boxcar Press base. And guess what? Nothing lines up. So we adjust the plate on the base and run another [...]

Is anyone familiar with balancing the cylinder on an SP-20?  Our 20 never seems to print well and we’ve balanced the base & made sure the rollers are seated properly to no avail.  I’ve asked around locally & balancing the cylinder came up.  Any instruction would be greatly appreciated–a step-by-step breakdown would be even more so. [...]

I have a No. 1 proof press, serial # 6327 that I picked up a while ago to print woodblock and linocuts on, plus I would love to do some small edition work, as I learn. Two questions- In reading through some posts and books, I see the impression cylinder has an under-cut. How do [...]

I recently acquired a Vandercook No. 3. There is still a tremendous amount of cleaning to do, but I have it to a point where at least all the oil holes are un-clogged and the parts that are supposed to move, do so smoothly. I also have brand new rollers on the press. (Polishing all [...]

After much successful use, I had to move my Vandercook 4 proof press. In putting everything back where it is supposed to be, I have encountered a problem (actually several problems, but I fixed the sheared drift pin on the gripper foot lever as well as the sticking and bent grippers). After much scouring, I [...]

I just replaced the rollers on my SP-15 and am having trouble printing the first time out. The rollers were purchased from another press owner, but were new and unused, still in original NA Graphics packing and boxes. This was the first time I’d changed the rollers but didn’t encounter any difficulties with changing over [...]

Vanderblog stalwart Eric Holub sent these photos of the cylinder trip rack on his 325G to help Kyle van Horn solve his alignment problem. The first pair shows the rack in trip (whole assembly, then close-up) and the second pair shows it in print (whole assembly, then close-up).

Happy New Year all – I have a question for the masses – I’ll try to keep this concise. The shop I work in has a 325 that has forever seemed to have issues. We solved it various ways – extra packing being one, realizing it needed a bed plate was another (that helped!). We [...]

Hello! I’m new to the wild world of Vandercook ownership…and am hesitant to take apart the cylinder without first getting advice. Here are the details: (1) I bought the press a little over a month ago, and noticed that the carriage was getting hung up (as if it had to scale a small hill) about [...]