Here is a shot of my Universal III. I am trying to accomplish 2 things. 1. rollers are maxed out at their lowest point to ink the form I want to be able to have adjustment height. 2. Cylinder picks up ink on the trip back to the feedboard. I want impression without picking up [...]

I’ve been having some inconsistencies with the braking and starting of my Universal I.  Dave Seat was here about a month and a half ago and made some adjustments to the microswitches to prevent the hard hitting at the feed board I was having (and more importantly showed me how to make proper adjustments).  Yesterday [...]

Hi all, Someone at Briar Press suggested that I post here since you are the Vandercook experts! As a new Vandercook Universal III owner, I’ve got a couple of issues going on that I’m hoping some of you can help me out with: 1. The power carriage seems to go out and back just fine [...]

Hello all – In the middle of a big job this weekend, my Universal 1 Power started making a persistent new noise –something between a chatter and a squeak. The noise occurs as the carriage is moving, a little more on the return. The noise occurs whether the motor is driving the carriage or whether [...]

First, I’m looking for someone in the general vicinity of Delaware that can troubleshoot and possibly repair an automatic Vandercook Universal III. Know anyone? If not, is there some kind of electrician I might try contacting. Obviously, I need more than someone to hook up a 3-phase here. We were running our III the other [...]

We are cleaning up a newly acquired UNI IIIP, and have noticed something which is disturbing. Under the register rack (X-2831), is a shim that looks approximately 2pts  thick and resides nearest the feed table. A smaller shim is at the end nearest the floating rack. We are assuming that these have been put in place to solve a [...]

I was running some small posters yesterday on my Uni I AB.  Things were going smoothly until the powered carriage was moving towards the end of the bed and got stuck midway.  It just stopped.  I run it pretty slowly so it wasn’t a very sudden stop it just was rolling along and then wasn’t. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

[This post deserves a second look--PM] I have recently rebuilt a Uni-III Power and was perplexed when I could not satisfactorily adjust the “braking” of the carriage at either end of travel. I adjusted the clutch to book spec, checked the micro switches, contacts and rheostat, all were functioning properly. With no other known adjustment [...]

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 [...]