The Gravity Press census seems like a great idea. I have a Number 0, Serial number 07756, supposedly made in 1953.
But it is my 4T that I need help with. After finally getting all the parts right, new electrical cord and switch, etc., it did not print evenly across the width of the bed. When I checked it with a parallel bar, there was light showing the center section, throughout the bed length. The bed is “dished” to .004 along the centerline. Any ideas on how to remove the cylinder, gripper connection, and so forth so I can have it milled down to flat again? Any ideas are appreciated. Steve S.

I was recently asked about a homemade photopolymer base I use at The Arm and thought it would be of value to post the reply here where it might be of use to others.

“The base you saw at The Arm was an acrylic base with an aluminum surface laminated to it. It works okay, but I must say I really prefer the Boxcar bases we have here. That homemade base doesn’t have the dimensional consistency of their bases. If you can’t afford that Boxcar and are willing to do a bit of work you can also get some plate aluminum from these guys http://stores.ebay.com/FORTAL-Aluminum and then have a good machine shop mill it down to the appropriate base thickness for the photopolymer plate stock you intend to use.
Machinists are often only able to mill to a consistent thickness over a small area so you could take more than one piece of material, have it machined down to your base thickness and puzzle it together on the bed of the press. I personally think it is better to have a base that is in multiple pieces so that you can later decide to use only part of it. This allows you to lock up type with photopolymer and not have to run the same color through the press twice because the plate base has gobbled up too much of the bed.
You won’t get the nice anodized grid as provided on the Boxcar bases, but at least you’ll be printing!”

Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

I am about to have replacement bed plates made up for both of my Vandercook 320Gs and my #3 and will have enough of the .050” cold rolled steel to make one extra bed plate.  Would anyone like to buy one for either of these presses?  The price will be fair.  Contact me for details.

Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

Hello, I posted once previously regarding the SP-15 I recently bought and have been cleaning up. This is taking longer than I thought but it is looking better! Meanwhile I’ve been reading and enjoying learning about the press. I am somewhat confused, however, about the maximum sheet size which is listed as 14-3/4×20 inches in the specs chart. Measuring from the end of the deadline at top of the bed to the deadline at the bottom, I come up a space of approx. 17-3/4 inches. I would like to understand the reason for this discrepancy as I’m considering purchasing a boxcar base for photopolymer work and the length recommended to me by the manufacturer is 19 inches. I am concerned about the grippers hitting it as it will extend past the deadline. The manufacturer assures me he’s sold this size to other owners of SP-15’s and has had no reported problems so there must be something I’m not getting here.

Also, I’ve posted a few photos of the press at the below address and would appreciate any general comments about it’s condition you might have, thanks!:
http://www.scdesign.net/press_images.htm

I recently purchased a Vandercook #3. I have used Vandercooks in the past but it has been some time. I was struck by the phrase “galley height” and was wondering what it means exactly. The information that I have found on this press refers to a bed plate that comes with the press. I will be picking the press up next week and I am wondering if there is something specific I should be looking for. Also, and I must mention that I have emailed NA Graphics just now, I am looking for any and all information regarding my new press. Manuals, ads, etc. Thank you in advance.

Chris

I am about to have a replacement dead bar made up for one of my Universal IIIs and the original I am using as a pattern has a raised center block.  Does this block serve any function?  Should I include it in the reproduction or would I be wasting time and money?

Does anyone else need a dead bar for a Universal III while I am having this one made up?

After reading the previous discussion about a misaligned cylinder causing the grippers to smash the form, I thought about the SP20 I’m currently going over (and on which we have not yet printed) and noted that when I received it, the gripper bar was not at 12 oclock when the cylinder was home at the feedboard. I had assumed this was an error, so I rotated the cylinder by one tooth (counterclockwise) to get to 90 degrees, which is (seemingly) the proper position of the gripper bar on my SP15 when the cylinder is parked (never smashed anything on it). There were myriad other odd problems on this press when I received it, so I just assumed this reflected the previous owners idiosyncratic maintenance regime.

But a quick check with a piece of type and a peak under the cylinder, on trip, revealed that the grippers would smash type if used in this (now “fixed”, 12 oclock) position. So last night I reset the cylinder, took another peak—looks proper after all. Two questions: what is the spec on the proper angle of the gripper bar mounting surface on an SP20 when the cylinder is home? And why would this offset (one tooth off from 90) be designed into the cylinder—why not 90, which seems to me to allow for easier feeding to the grippers?

Hope that was clear, and thanks in advance for clarifying.

One more thing: Maybe this is old news, but to adjust the cylinder gear, I simply removed the mid sections of gear rack (which I had just been cleaning) on both sides of the bed and eased the cylinder foward on trip until the last tooth just cleared, rotated carefully, and then remeshed the teeth/rack and reversed. I did this adjustment once on my SP15 and removed the entire cylinder from the bed to do it. Now I know. Don’t know if this is inadvisable, or even applicable, to other models and their specific rack arrangements.

Duncan Dempster
University of Hawaii
Department of Art

[Some comments in response to this post concern repair of the Adjustable Bed on Universal I -PM]

I have what seems to be an older model SP-15. It looks exactly like the photos of Vivian Leung’s SP-15, which I have swiped from Briar Press and posted below. It only has four grippers, and the roller height adjustment is a bit less evolved than the later models, which have a pin that intersects the roller height adjustment knob.

Simply put, I cannot get my rollers to adjust high enough. The best I can do is a quarter inch stripe on the roller adjustment guage. And when I have the rear form roller adjusted to its highest point, it no longer makes contact with the drum, so not only are they too low, but they seem too high as well! I spoke on the phone to Fritz about the knob problems, and he conjectured that perhaps someone had drilled into the well that the knobs sit in because perhaps at one point, the bed was missing the extra plate, and someone couldn’t think of any other way to get the rollers low enough. He thought a quick and dirty solution might be to stick something in the holes to raise the knob a bit higher to give it the range of play I need. Fritz, you were so generous with your time on the phone, I’d hate to bother you again, but I neglected to mention the drum issue when we spoke. Maybe this is a significant clue. I wonder if some adjustment to the carriage would fix both problems.

One last problem, which Fritz had a solution for, but since it’s such a common problem with SP15s, perhaps there is another solution out there: when I tighten the allen screws of the roller adjustment knobs, it does nothing to keep the knobs from slipping. Fritz thought the threads were stripped, and advised plumber’s tape. I haven’t tried it yet, but will the next time I feel brave enough to tackle printing on this press again.

And I am absolutely hiring you to work on this press, Paul, when you come up to Seattle in October.

Thanks,
Jenny Wilkson

Happy 9-18 Day. The owner of a No. 4T wants to know whether his press has a galley height bed. He mentions that the undercut is .070” and also wants to know the dimensions of the leveler feet, one of which is apparently missing.

The simpliest way to find out the height-to-paper of the press bed is to place a metal type sort on the bed against the bed bearer. If the face of the sort is level with the bearer then the press has either a .918” height-to-paper bed or it is a .968” bed with a .050” galley plate in place. This method will also work to calibrate an adjustable bed presses when the gauge is misaligned or otherwise damaged (e.g. Universal I).

The 4T was designed to pull transparency proofs in addition to standard repro proofs. It is my understanding that all of them have .070” cylinder undercuts.

The leveler feet, are simply large bolts fitted into the feet of the press and are only necessary when a press is installed on an uneven floor. The bolt is 3/4-10, meaning the diameter is 3/4” and the thread pitch is 10 to-the-inch. The length is 2” (excluding the head). A suitable bolt can be purchased at a hardware store, but the head and nut will have six sides instead of four.-PM