I am having trouble getting the trip rack to raise on my Vandercook 4. I removed the trip rack to access the cylinder eccentric adjustment today. I removed the rack while the carriage was in the middle of the bed. I put the rack back together afterwards and now the rack won’t fully raise when […]
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Vandercook No. 4 Cylinder Trip Rack
Periodically the cylinder trip rack on our No. 4 drops down just before the cylinder gets to the end of the bed. Normally, when the press is in print mode the cylinder trip rack raises as the cylinder leaves the feed table. At the end of the bed and ready to return to the […]
MoreSP15 Roller Height Shift
I’ve just finished adjusting the top bearings on my SP15, and I’m seeing something unexpected. The roller height is now identical in print and trip, but only while the carriage is outbound, i.e., moving away from the feedboard. Once it hits the trip mechanism and I roll it back, the rollers are a touch lower […]
MoreSP 20 chain problem
Today while printing our SP 20 started making a metallic dragging sound. It stops when the motor turns off and gets louder when the carriage is at the feed board with the rollers down, when there is pressure on the ink drum. I suspect that it’s because the chain is stretched or loose and is […]
MorePower Carriage Parts page updated
The Power Carriage Parts page has been updated with a revised data table including new supplier info and notes by Erik Brunvand and a highly detailed pdf of his upgrade to a Universal I.
MoreUniversal 1 – appears to have a much deeper undercut than usual…
Hello! First time poster here so please bear with me if I’m going about anything wrong. Just to set the scene here: I recently accepted a technician role at the arts university in my hometown and there are a couple Vandercook presses here I’m in charge of. I spent a few years working at Hatch […]
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Fabricating a Universal 1 plexiglass dust cover…
We have three Universal I presses in our printshop and a number of the plexiglass dust covers have cracks from use. In the past, I had tried fabricating covers, but they never came out with the correct angle. So, I decided to do it right, and make a ‘buck’ to drape the heated plexiglass over. […]
MoreSP20 Ink Drum/Form Roller Contact Issues
Hello, we recently acquired a refurbished Vandy SP20 at UT Austin and it is having issues. The worst problem we’re having is the form rollers not making contact with the ink drum. We bought two new springs from Fritz for the ink drum and replaced those, so I think that is at the proper height. […]
MoreVandercook Uni I reintroducing past ink; ink drum calibration?
Hi! One of Virginia Book Arts’ Vandercooks (a Universal I AB P that was converted to hand-crank) has always had a difficult-to-clean ink drum* that would appear to be successfully cleaned by a printer post-printing session, but then randomly introduce bits of ink from past print sessions into future printing sessions (e.g. you’re printing with […]
More4T front metal rider roller loud squeaking and uneven inking
Hello! I just purchased my first Vandercook (4T) and all seems well except the front rider roller is very loud, and the side away from the operator doesn’t ink evenly at all. I can’t figure out from the manual if these rider rollers should have Nyliners on them? Attached a video to show the sound […]
MoreSP-20 grippers raising on return to feedboard
Yesterday while printing a plate the press started “clanging” about 3 inches away from the feedboard, the grippers rising correspond with the sound. It seems to be louder on the left side of the press, away from the hand crank. While it doesn’t affect the quality of prints, I am worried that something is wrong […]
MoreLever that holds the top rollers up loose
The top rollers fell on my hand while I was cleaning the rollers the other day because the lever latch (image below) that holds them the oscillator in place when up is loose and does not always click in place. Could someone advise how I go about stabilizing it? Many thanks!
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