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