I recently got an SP 15 and the motor was noisy when running so I checked and no lubricant and added some, less noisy but still makes noise. Seemed like the angle of armiture the motor sits on affects sound so I fiddled with tightening and loosening the bolts on side of carriage to change height and position of ink drum with some results. (Not sure if that’s what they’re for.) Now when I run motor the ink drum makes contact with my back roller even when the ink roller assembly is in the up position. Is this right? It doesn’t seem like the roller should sit on the drum. I do have the rollers adjusted correctly for inking. Any help with how to adjust the ink drum and the noise I’m hearing would be infinitely appreciated, I don’t want to damage anything.
Thanks
Mike
Thanks for the help fellas. I found that the rubber stop on the underside of the carriage had fallen apart so I put a piece of leading in the same thickness and it brought the drum down to your recommended height and seems to run the inking system fine. In regards to the sound, it seems to be coming from the end of the roller assembly where the gear wheel is and the belt is attached. the belt seems like it’s in ok shape although I’ve gotten a little pile of rubber there after running it in the past and the gear piece has two “segments” and the belt is running on the outside segement and the inside segment teeth appear to be worn if that makes any sense. I’m told you should be able to manually rotate your ink drum by hand and I can’t do that. Also the only movement I get by hand on the ink drum is about a 1/2 ” play back to feed tray and forward to bed. I’m told this indicates worn bearings in the ink drum ?
I’ve put some oil in the hex bolts at the end of the ink drum. Any more help would continue to be appreciated.
Mike
Do you know exactly what was making the noise? These run on a belt from what I understand so it shouldn’t be the rattle I’m accustomed to on the SP20. (Do any take a drive chain?)
Presumably the tension you achieved by raising the ink drum could also be achieved by shifting the motor, and I believe all have room to tension.
If yours is belt-driven, is there a chance you need a new belt? I guess a simpler question is, what was the noise?
The ink drum should be some few thousandths above relative type height. So, a straight edge placed on a type high form should should just intersect the circumference of the drum rather than be at a tangent. But your drum is now significantly higher and needs to be lowered.