Hi All,
I just received two newly recovered rubber rollers for a #4, done by Rotadyne. I measured the rollers and one is bigger than the other in diameter by 1/32″. One roller is 2 1/2″ and one is 2 1/2 plus 1/32. I asked the roller company to make them 2.515″ in diameter. Should I send the rollers back to be remade? The difference in diameter- between the two rollers- if I did the math right is .03125. I think that is probably too much. What do you think?
Thanks,
Martha

Continued thanks to everyone who has the patience and takes the time to answer the many questions that we relatively new printers come up with. I recently asked for step-by-step instructions for installing new form rollers on my No. 4, and the replies I got were extremely helpful.

I put together a Flickr set on what I did, for the benefit of other newbies. If you see anything that needs to be corrected, please leave a comment. Thanks!

Barbara

Hello Vanderfolks,

I just had the form rollers on my No. 4 recovered. A very nice gentleman from RotaDyne came to my house to pick up the old ones. He took the whole assembly with him, and they shipped everything back disassembled. I’ve looked through the archives for instructions on putting things back together, but I couldn’t find anything elementary enough for me. I have Sheets 103 and 182B from the manual, but I was hoping to find some step-by-step instructions, or even an exploded view. Is there anything like that out there?

I have one question about Sheet 182B. It says, “4 nyliners are required per bearing bar. 8 per machine….” All I ever had on the form roller assembly was 2 nyliners. Is there something wrong?

Also, I would appreciate your feedback on RotaDyne’s assessment of my roller situation. The rep said that my old rollers had hardness ratings of 32 and 34, and that the new rollers would be 25. He also said that the diameter of my old rollers was 2.480″, that the spec was 2.500″, and that my new rollers would be 2.520″. Did I really need new rollers? I’m aiming for the best print quality possible.

Thanks so much for your help,

Barbara

I recently had my second set of cores recast. In switching out the hardware I cannot for the life of me get the retaining screw to grab and screw in to the new core. I have tried solvents, wd40, a wire brush, an awl and curses, but to no avail. I’ve tried all 4 ends of the 2 cores, and none of the screws want to go in. Is there an ever-so-slightly-smaller version of this screw? Please help!!

I’m sorry for having problems two days in a row, but here’s another phenomenon that I’m not understanding. These two drop caps (48-point Rondo) were printed one after the other – same lockup, same ink, same paper, same packing, same everything – yet the print quality is markedly different. What could have made the difference? Are my form rollers out of round? How do you know when they need replacing? When I adjust the roller height, there is a bit of difference (maybe 2 points) between the height at the ends and the height in the center of both form rollers.

This was printed on a Vandercook No. 4 with packing consisting of 0.021″ Kimlon, 1 sheet of 0.006″ oiled tympan paper, and a 0.007″ Mylar drawsheet. The paper was Epson Velvet Fine Art, which is 100% cotton with a coating for inkjet printing. It is 0.019″ thick, for a total thickness of packing plus paper of 0.053″. I do try to feed the paper and turn the cylinder in the exact same way.

A closeup of the photograph is available on Flickr.

Thanks again for your always helpful comments.

Barbara

I was using a friend’s Universal I press today when I noticed I was getting a lot of slurring and that the rollers weren’t rotating at all when I was printing or tripping. They were dragging across the surface of the plate without rotating.
I looked up the manual and am wondering now if the back roller might be on backwards. The roller gear is on the left side (see picture) with nowhere to go and the adjusting knobs are facing into each other. This isn’t my press and I haven’t printed much with Universals so I didn’t want to try to move/adjust anything because the owner wasn’t there. Am I nuts or is it backwards? Thank you for your help.

Hi List– I sent my rollers out to be recovered. They’re back, and I don’t remember how they’re supposed to be re-installed! Yeh, I know… it seemed so obvious at the time.

I saved all the parts I removed, carefully differentiating between rights and lefts. I soaked them in solvent to clean them. But it just isn’t obvious to me how it all goes back. I was hoping for a PHOTO of properly installed rollers.

The scant parts diagrams I have are not very helpful.

thanks for any and ALL help– I have to use this on Sunday, and here it is late Friday afternoon and I’ll be away tomorrow.

Sure would appreciate a hint or three!  ==Marjorie

I have had a continuous problem with the Vandercook 215 form rollers dropping down too low due to the hex bolts working themselves loose. We tighten these by hand because with a wrench, they get too tight and the rollers won’t turn freely. Is this an indication that there is something wrong with the bearing blocks? We have nyliners in place, too. For years I have just accepted this as press aging, something to be watched from time to time, but I’m hoping there might just be a cure. Any help appreciated. I have photos if that would be helpful.

hello everyone,

i have a 215 ready to print – soon as i figure out how to adjust the height of these rollers. i don’t have a manual, any other press i’d used have knobs at the ends of the rollers but this model doesn’t have anything so obvious. looks like maybe a hex key at each end of the rubber rollers? anyone know?

thank you,

sallie

Hello! I recently had my rollers recovered for the first time, and am having trouble screwing in the retaining screws in the shaft. The screws worked fine previously. Any thoughts?

Hi Folks,

I have a question about the roller-gear for a Universal-I. I recently purchased a pair of new cores/rollers for a Uni-I. However, when they arrived I noticed the new cores are different from the existing cores/rollers, and thus the old roller-gear cannot fit to the new cores. The old core is hollow and has a inner small rod, while the new core is completely solid. Here is a comparative photo (with a larger version on Flickr).

- Roller (A) is the old back roller with the gear removed.
- Roller (B) is the old front roller with the bearing block removed.
- Roller © is a spare that shows a hollow core. (Same as A and B).
- Roller (D) is the new core/roller (solid metal core).

Here is the old/original roller-gear:

Here is a photo of the complete old core and gear:

My question: I’m now looking for a roller-gear that would fit the new solid core (D). Should I be looking for a Uni-III roller-gear that has a larger hole compared to the original Uni-I roller-gear?

Any advice/guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Regards.

/thomas/

Would like to know if anyone as a similar press. I am ready to get the rollers recasted and i am a bit anxious about the proper diameter. My guess is 2 1/4 or 2 1/2.

The carriage set at the lowest setting is approx.: 1.9375 (height from the bed to the middle of the roller core).
The carriage set at the highest setting is approx.:
2.5 (height from the bed to the middle of the roller core).

The diameter of the ocillating roller is 1 5/16 a bit different from the 2 inches of the pre-1928-Composing Room Cylinders brochure.

Any ideas or infomation would be welcomed.

Alain