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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

A video… This is the most recent press to cross the threshold at The Arm. It didn’t take too much fiddling to replace the microswitches across the back of the press, clean out the control box and get it cycling back and forth, but it is pausing for a full five second count at the [...]

I have a few extras of the original knobs (complete with insert and set screws) for the control panel on the Universal I and III power carriage presses. If you are missing a knob or have a damaged one let me know. I could sell them, but would prefer to trade for any of these [...]

Here’s the beginning of a sad story. How will it end? I do not know. For how shall I begin my query, how shall I transmit my distress? Our trusty Universal I automatic has lost control of itself. This press’s dilemna has been building up ever so gradually year by year, run by run. I [...]