I am having trouble fixing this sound. I believe it is being caused by the gear on the inner form roller when it travels over the form roller rack teeth. See the video to hear the sound. This happens in trip or print.
Vandercook SP-15 grinding sound (YouTube)
Here is a photo of the gear on the inner form roller. Is there a specific adjustment, or exact location of this gear? I adjust, and re-adjust but I cannot get it dialled in nicely.
Any tips?
Thank you very much for your prompt replies. It took a week before I could get back printing and trying to diagnose the problem.
It turned out that the roller with the gear was set too high – exactly as Paul Moxon mentioned. The gear was slipping. Also, I had advice that suggested I may not have had enough ink to ensure the rollers were running properly. So, adjusting the height, and putting more ink on solved the problem.
I did verify that the rollers are exactly 2.5″ diameter. Thanks again for helping out. I am very new to printing on an SP-15. (Golding Pearl No. 11 Improved was the press I ran before this)
I think Paul’s second theory is the winner. Have you recently replaced the rollers? I think if you look closely you will see that the gear is too far toward the back of the press and is making light contact with the bearer’s edge. When the gear is correctly in place on the roller core it’s teeth should be perfectly centered on the teeth of the rack. If this is not possible, you may have to trim some rubber from the roller.
DGM
Sounds like the gear is set too high and is skipping along the top of the gear rack instead of meshing. Although, it could also be that the gear is touching the bed bearer next to the rack because the rubber is a bit to far to the right on the core. The video doesn’t show the position of the gear. It also appears that your form rollers are undersized. The diameter should be 2.5″.
It may help to review this recent post and comments: SP-15 Gear Roller Grunt (https://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/2013/10/sp-15-gear-roller-grunt/)