I’ve been working on a thorough clean-up of my Uni I which was very grimy and dirty. I’ve already tore down and cleaned the adjustable bed which was frozen. That went smoothly thanks to the fine documentation from previous posts. Currently, I am dealing with a problem of immediately blowing a fuse when I put the power carriage into forward. At this point I don’t really know how to begin to trouble shoot this problem, and I am looking for direction. The rails and bearers are clean and lubricated. I have not cleaned the cylinder/gears at this point, but they aren’t too dirty. I realize that I may need to provide more information (and please let me know), but I appreciate any direction that can be given at this point. Thank you. Serial No. 23002.

Hi all,

Does anyone have, or now where I can track down a decal/sticker for my Uni I AB. The one I ma after is the oval one on the front left of the cabinet. Failing that has anyone evr produce a good high res bitmap or vector file of this decal that I can purchase or share? Any help appreciated.

Ron

hi today i bought a vandercook universal II, serial no. 19742, im looking for the user manual , thepress is in very good condition .
does this press have an adjustible hight, or should the hight for printing be adjusted in an other way

documentation can be sent to

mgerene@skynet.be

first reaction i got from NA Graphics showing the first owner and answering one of my questions the press is machined for type with French hight

This Vandercook Universal III tower assembly is complete and in excellent condition. We have removed it to convert the press to hand cranked. This would be best used on a press which once had a tower but has had it removed, otherwise you will need to make slight modifications to your press to allow it to fit.

The price is $950 or best offer. Please feel free to email if you have questions or need images. thearmnyc.com/

I was using a friend’s Universal I press today when I noticed I was getting a lot of slurring and that the rollers weren’t rotating at all when I was printing or tripping. They were dragging across the surface of the plate without rotating.
I looked up the manual and am wondering now if the back roller might be on backwards. The roller gear is on the left side (see picture) with nowhere to go and the adjusting knobs are facing into each other. This isn’t my press and I haven’t printed much with Universals so I didn’t want to try to move/adjust anything because the owner wasn’t there. Am I nuts or is it backwards? Thank you for your help.

I think this one set a new Vandercook record.

$10,100.53

Looks like a nice press. I’d love to have that adjustable bed.

I am having an issue with our Uni I—it has a squeaky rider roller.  I took a look at an old post, ‘Inking Roller Squeal,’ and that was helpful, but I have an additional question.  The black knob at the end of the rider is loose, but when it is held in place, the squealing stops–Is there a way to tighten this?  I don’t see a set screw, so does the whole rider roller have to be removed to examine the handle?

Thanks!

Sara P

Dear Vandekin

I am in Memphis cleaning & repairing two Vandercooks, a 4 and a Uni III. The operator of the III tells me the motor jumps (or rather jolts) itself randomly during a press run and there appears to be a little bit of slack in the chain. I tested it out and sure enough it happened for me while I had the press on cycle & run modes. Having experience this problem myself while similar presses power Universals I always lessened the problem (if not got rid of it entirely) by adjusting the carriage speed and/or making sure my ink wasn’t drying out on press.

Since there’s a wee bit of slack in the chain this Uni’s operator is suggesting that I shorten the chain. My feeling is it has something to do with the clutch and that shorten the chain will be a headache and a waste of time, or worse . . . it’ll do some damage to the press. Anyhow . . . is there anyone out there with some experience with these Universal clutch adjustments and/or jumpy, jolty motors? I’d appreciate any input as I have a couple more days of work here cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Also, while I have your attention . . . the 4 is in need of a few parts. I’ve identified all the parts this school will need, but I am without a good reference to the small parts inside the inking rollers (the thin tubes in front and behind the oscillating cylinder). These are small collars (wood? plastic? I’ve never been sure. I had two pair made a local machine shop for m old 4 years ago.) that fit around the inking system roller frame and keep the inking rollers from slopping around and hurting themselves. Anyone have a good reference for these parts?

Terry Chouinard

reporting live from the Bluff City of W.C. Handy, Gus Cannon, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and Prince Mongo.

I scanned the assembly print for the Universal IV paper tower the other day for a customer and thought it may be of some interest. Though for the IV, it applies to the other Universals except for such things as tube length, shaft length, and the main spring (same in III and IV). These assembly prints show every part, spring, screw, and special instructions for assembly, many of which will read “file to fit” as a general instruction to the fabricating floor. These are in much greater detail than the drawings in the manuals and we generally have them for all the Vandercook presses and their various assemblies. The original drawing is done by hand in pencil on drafting vellum, and all the callouts are typed in–that’s a typewriter I’d like to have seen that would handle a 17×22 sheet of paper. These vellums could then be run through a Diazo (blueprint) machine to make copies. These are higher resolution scans, so they are on my flickr site at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53177163@N00/sets/72157622951804856/

Fritz

Hi Folks,

I have a question about the roller-gear for a Universal-I. I recently purchased a pair of new cores/rollers for a Uni-I. However, when they arrived I noticed the new cores are different from the existing cores/rollers, and thus the old roller-gear cannot fit to the new cores. The old core is hollow and has a inner small rod, while the new core is completely solid. Here is a comparative photo (with a larger version on Flickr).

- Roller (A) is the old back roller with the gear removed.
- Roller (B) is the old front roller with the bearing block removed.
- Roller © is a spare that shows a hollow core. (Same as A and B).
- Roller (D) is the new core/roller (solid metal core).

Here is the old/original roller-gear:

Here is a photo of the complete old core and gear:

My question: I’m now looking for a roller-gear that would fit the new solid core (D). Should I be looking for a Uni-III roller-gear that has a larger hole compared to the original Uni-I roller-gear?

Any advice/guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Regards.

/thomas/

I had my motor rebuilt and put it in the press today, however, like an idiot I didn’t take a photo of the wiring. I need help with wiring this back up. I have attached photos of the wiring. If anyone can help please contact me here or offline at casey@inkylipspress.com.

The pink circles are wires that are on the press. The yellow circles come from the motor