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

My Universal I Power carriage motor has been leaking oil for the three years I have owned it so I finally took it apart and fixed the leak. After reassembling the motor I filled it with oil but I am unsure how high the oil should be. Should I fill it to the screw on the front middle, #1, or the screw on the upper right, #2. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi all,
I have been talking to Fritz and trying to figure out why the Universal 1 hand press I own always wants to flip back to Print and not stay on Trip. I can hold the Trip/Print handle on Trip and it will stay in Trip mode, but as soon as I let go it goes back to Print. This press has had this issue since I bought it- I didn’t think it was that big of a problem but I also have only printed on it maybe five times. Do you think it could be the BR7 spring? I am wondering if the press has a wrong replacement spring on it that is too long and is pushing out too much. The serial number of the press is 21838. Thanks.

My Universal II has all of a sudden stopped locking when it returns to the feedboard. Therefore when I press the trip pedal nothing happens (grippers don’t move) and it makes a sharp ‘bang’ noise releasing the tension of the pedal…
Thoughts? Trip spring?
Please help. Thanks,
Adrian

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 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.

folks -

We have a Vandercook Universal-1 with a powered carriage. I am having a little trouble getting the drive clutch adjusted properly and I was hoping that I could get some help from other powered-carriage Vandercook owners out there.

The clutch is attached (as you might expect) between the drive motor and gear that drives the carriage back and forth to print. As I understand the Drive Clutch Adjustment information on the housing, there is a collar on the motor-end of the clutch that is used to tighten and loosen the clutch. This seems straightforward. I can loosen the set screws in the collar and then use an allen wrench (for leverage) in the holes of the collar to rotate it back and forth to tighten and loosen the clutch.

The confusing part is that in the bed-end of the clutch (at the end of the gear which turns to power the carriage), there is a round plate and an allen-headed screw in the middle. That screw seems to move the gear back and forth so that it makes cood contact with the gear on the print cylinder. But, that screw wiggles loose during operation to the point that the round plate is very loose, the clutch is looser than it should be, and it just doesn’t seem right. It even fell out once. On the other hand, if I tighten that screw down all the way, the clutch doesn’t seem to be active. That is, the cylinder starts and stops sharply with no clutch give at all.

So, my questions are – what is the deal with this screw and how does it work with the clutch? Should I tighten that screw all the way down so it doesn’t jiggle loose, and then adjust the clutch to be looser? Should I tighten/loosen the clutch and then use that screw to adjust the gear to mesh with the cylinder propserly, but then have to keep readjusting that loose screw every so often? Am I missing the point completetly? Help!

I’m including a picture to show what I’m talking about.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

-Erik Brunvand, Saltgrass Printmakers
www.SaltgrassPrintmakers.org