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 recently purchased a Vandercook 219 power, and I’m weighing my options on switching it from 3 phase to single phase. Is it possible to switch out the motor to a single phase motor, or should I just go with a rotary converter?

Thanks!

Admittedly, I have no experience with Vandercook or any other flatbed presses. Currently I run a Windmill, C&P and a Golding Jobber, but am looking to expand in size and versatility. I found a Power 219 for sale and was hoping that someone could give me some pointers on what to look for, and more importantly what to avoid! Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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

Last week I was looking at a plain (no frisket) power Universal I AB which was running erratically; turns out the driving gear had loosened and was binding against the housing that covers it. Then we tried to readjust the clutch according to the manual. But when there is just enough clutch friction to pass the trip cam, it isn’t enough to get over the cylinder check cam from the feed board position. Next we’ll disassemble the clutch and clean it and see if that improves the situation.

Then, trying to follow the limit switch cam adjustment instructions, the cylinder stops at 1″, rather than the specified 1 -5/16″, and that difference happens to be the same as the thickness of a bumper leather. There are the mounting holes for bumper leathers behind the cylinder, but they are only present at the front.

So, can anyone tell me if bumper leathers should be present behind the cylinder on this press? Or are they not used in direct contact with the bumper springs?

Last week I was in New York and stayed with Daniel Morris at The Arm who suggested that I should visit Leeds Radio an electronics parts supplier. Leeds is a treasure trove tucked away on a side street that sells many new old stock items including the knobs and switches needed to fix power carriage Vandercooks such as the Universal series. The owner Richard Matthews is helpful and friendly.

Does anyone have a working forward / backward switches for a Universal III they would be willing to sell?
I also need the microswitch that is on the lower backside of the press closest to the feedboard, but this doesn’t seem quite as critical.
Any help would be appreciated.

Ray Nichols / Lead Graffiti

Our machine shop added two gears and linked them together. The link can be seen in the picture with yellow handle (to the right of the handle). The reason for the link is that the cylinder shifts position and gear and the handle needed to shift with it. It takes five and a half rotations on the handle to move the cylinder through one full print cycle. There is a little resistance to get it started, but once it’s going it practically goes on its own.

Chris Manson, proprietor of Crooked Crow Press, in Rockville, Maryland has converted his Universal III Power Vandercook to a hand-cranked press. He had a retired machinist make a collar extension to fit onto the bearing stub on the impression cylinder (photo 3). Onto this new bearing stub Chris attached a crank from a large Poco press. Note the notch that had to be cut out of the handle arm (photo 5). Currently, a set screw is the only means of holding the position of the crank collar on the new bearing stub. Chris still needs to have a hole drilled through the assembly to fit a taper pin.

Chris kept the circuitry intact but removed the carriage motor, which was attached on the carriage. He also removed the form rollers, preferring to ink his forms manually with a roller as is done on an iron handpress.

With this project, and the 232 at Wesleyan, hand-cranked conversion seems to be an idea whose time has come. Fritz Klinke has asked me to assist him in developing a conversion kit to that could be used on most power carriage models including the 219. Together we will study the original Vandercook engineering drawings during my visit to NA Graphics in February.

Chris was fortunate to have found a crank long enough for his press. Additionally to matching length to cylinder and bed size a new handle arm would need to have an outward bend like those on standard equipped hand-cranked Vandercooks.

Wesleyan University Art Professor David Schorr and Studio Tech Kate Ten Eyck have acquired a Vandercook 232P for the Printmaking studio. Kate sent me this photo of the press as it looked in November. Their objective is to convert this power carriage press into a hand-cranked one. The 232 is a big press: maximum form: 31½” x 28” , floor space: 3’9” x 10’6” and weighing 5000 lbs with the power carriage motor and frisket tower installed.

Last week I was in New Haven CT to tune up Vandercooks in three of the college printshops at Yale, and as Wesleyan is only 50 miles away in Middletown, I called Kate who drove down to pick me up. We went directly to the campus machine shop to see a newly cleaned and painted press. The Machinists intend to mount a new gear with a crank handle on the carriage that will mesh with the cylinder gear. This configuration will require two revolutions of the crank handle for the carriage to travel the length of the bed.

Here’s a pic of Kate with machinists Dave Boule and Bruce Strickland. More as the story unfolds.

While traveling in Japan I ran across two of these little vander-like presses. This one was at one of Tokyo’s 6 still-functioning typefoundries, the other was at the Toppan Museum [I can’t post pictures of it because they said so]. Anyways, here’s some pictures for your amusement & edification. Let me know if you have any questions

-Alex

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