Hello, I am hoping someone will have an idea of why my press has developed an extremely loud, shrill squeak that is emanating from the ink drum/vibrator assembly. The noise occurs each time the drum [oscillator] travels away from the operator’s side of the press, primarily when the rollers are engaged at feedboard position. The squeal is much less apparent and mostly does not happen when the carriage is being rolled down the bed and back. The noise is consistent from the time I begin printing until the end of the day’s session. I have repeatedly lubricated the shaft with vaseline with no improvement. The room temp. is about 67 degrees and I have a space heater pointed directly at the rollers, so I don’t think temp. is the issue. The press is printing fine otherwise. Thanks very much for any ideas.
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Side play should be limited on an SP-15 by fittings at the end of the form rollers. Some rollers have a threaded hole and receive a large-headed retaining screw; others have a groove and use an exterior retaining clip. In either case if there is wear on the roller bearing block side-play can increase.
After further investigation, I found that the squeal is indeed coming from the front form roller, due to the excess of side to side play, and not the oscillator as I’d thought. I tried a bit of WD-40 between the collar and block, which helped enough to get me through the day’s printing, but I will work on getting the problem fixed properly. I’m relieved it is only this; the sound was so ear-splitting that I was sure it was something dire. Thank you for your help Paul!
Paul, thanks for your comments. I don’t have ink on the press today, but I did as you suggest, lifted rollers and spun the oscillator by hand and there was no squeak. Then I engaged the rollers and let the press run for several minutes– again no squeak. I hadn’t thought before to run the press without ink to compare; I will be printing again tomorrow or the next day so will then be able to confirm if there is squeaking only when the press is inked up.
I checked the form rollers and The front one definitely has alot of side to side play. Nyliners are present. The end screws are at maximum tightness. I will try to get the collar to move closer to the bearing block; so far it isn’t budging.
67 degrees is not that cold. I trust that the worm gear is lubricated, but perhaps the squeak is coming from the rider and not the oscillator.
Or it may be the rollers: lift the roller lever to disengage the oscillator and shut off the motor. Spin the oscillator by hand. If no squeak, then look for side-to-side play in the form roller cores. Tighten roller core end screws if present or move collar closer to bearing block and tighten. Make sure nyliner is present where screw and/or collar contacts block or either will grind into block.
Other possibilities:
1) buildup of dried ink and grime at the hole in the tube.
2) worm gear and crescent need to be cleaned.
a. move oscillator toward operator.
b. loosen set screw on side of tube,
c. remove holder screw on oscillator face
d. push tube to far side to reveal worm crescent.
3) oscillator tube contacts the arm, because worm gear has loosened and slipped on the shaft toward the dar side. Move toward operator and tightened set screw on shaft.(I trust that the worm has Vaseline.)