Hi friends, I’m having trouble with our vandercook 4, the carriage latch is hindering the carriage from rolling forward smoothly, and also i’m concerned about it wearing on the rod that it comes in contact with. (unsure the part name/number for the rod?)
We oil it regularly- but there’s been a black powder consistently lately while we’ve been having this issue. I’m assuming its from the rod.
I’ve tightened the carriage latch and i’ve repositioned it, thinking it was at a slight angle. I replaced the spring a few years ago- but maybe its time for another? spring is not broken.
I notice it gets tougher to roll the carriage over the latch over the course of a press run- tightening makes it better temporarily.
pics attached.
-Is there a fix besides consistently tightening?
-is the latch wearing down on the top angles too much?
-should i worry about the rod and the groove that the latch has created?
Thank you!
Is there a groove machined into the tie rod originally? or does that just wear down over time?
I did rotate the rod, but it started wearing so quickly that i rotated it back for fear it would wear right through:/
And cutting the coil- ok!
why would this start happening after so long?
Have you rotated the tie rod? Maybe cut one coil from the spring.