I have a problem with the large power carriage motor gear touching the edge of the carriage. Not sure I’m using the correct terminology but I have attached a photo. I had this problem once before and was able to correct it but now I can’t remember what I did. (I took off the cap […]
MoreCategory: Cylinder gears/racks
Shims under cylinder and ink racks, Uni I
Our Uni I originally had red shims under the geared racks for the cylinder and ink racks. As it was disintegrating and falling out, we removed it on cleanup but haven’t found a source for replacement. Does anyone have a resource for this or a recommendation for an alternate material?
MoreFabricating Replacement SP-15 Impression Cylinder
I’m considering grabbing an SP-15 press but, like many presses out there, getting it into running order will require some TLC. The press bed, cylinder rack, bed bearers, under rails, gripper pedal, trip latch & rail along the bed, steel cabinet, and feed table all check out and seem to need nothing more than heavy […]
MoreSP25 Carriage Misalignment
I am in the process of getting our SP25 up and running and the first order of business is realigning the cylinder carriage so that the grippers are at the “12 o’clock” position when at the feed board. Does anyone have any suggestions of the best way to adjust this? During a class with Paul […]
MoreAligning Vandercook No. 4 Cylinder Carriage
Hello Vanderblog, I am working on getting my recently acquired No. 4 (Serial No. 14509) working and have a couple of questions about how to go about removing the cylinder carriage and getting the gears to line up correctly again. To give you a little backstory, as far as I know, this press belonged to […]
MoreUniversal I Press Track Moving and a roller issue
Hello My name is Rob Wilson and I am a student printer at The University of Arizona. Last night durning class we had a few issues with one of our Universal I Vandercooks, First the rear inking roller locked up and would both not freely roll and was not allowing the rollers to be raised. What we did […]
MoreUniversal III Register Rack Question
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 […]
MoreA Question about Cylinder Rack Shims
I’m having some issues with low ink distribution in the first inch or so of my form. I noticed that the area coincides with the first few inches of the cylinder rack which is separate from the rest of the rack and slightly raised with some plastic shims. Does anyone know the reason for that […]
MoreNo. 4 Cylinder stuck
Hey everyone, I co-run a community print shop in Saint Louis, MO. We have facilities for letterpress, intaglio, and screen printing. We were recently given a vandercook no. 4 to add to our lettepress equipment. When we showed up to pick up the press, it was being moved out of a basement with a backhoe […]
More325 Cylinder rack trip/print positions
Vanderblog stalwart Eric Holub sent these photos of the cylinder trip rack on his 325G to help Kyle van Horn solve his alignment problem. The first pair shows the rack in trip (whole assembly, then close-up) and the second pair shows it in print (whole assembly, then close-up).
More325 Mis-alignment question
Happy New Year all — I have a question for the masses – I’ll try to keep this concise. The shop I work in has a 325 that has forever seemed to have issues. We solved it various ways – extra packing being one, realizing it needed a bed plate was another (that helped!). We […]
MoreLubricating the gear teeth on the Vandercook No. 4 impression cylinder
Hello. I am a newbie in the process of restoring a Vandercook No. 4, SN 18794. My husband, who was in aerospace mechanical engineering for many years, is providing advice and much moral support. He was surprised when I told him that the procedure for lubricating the impression cylinder gear teeth was to apply a […]
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