Thanks to Paul’s recent post regarding trip spring replacement, I was able to discern that my SP-15’s trip/print problem is that both springs are broken. I spoke with Fritz today for advice and ordered new ones. I know there was a photo recently posted by John Cristopher showing a carriage off the press with the trip spring in place. John, if you (or anyone else) has any other close up photos of the spring in place which I could use for additional reference, would you mind posting them or emailing them to me? I will be attempting to thread the springs in without removing the carriage or side plates, and it’s very difficult to see up inside. I don’t have a working press anywhere near for comparison, so any/all reference materials would be helpful. Thank you!
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John, Many thanks! I think these will be extremely helpful.
Hi Sylvia
I’ve posted a couple of pictures on flickr: hope this helps…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8286330@N03/612364085/in/photostream/
Thanks John, for any other close ups you can supply. I do have the drawing in the manual, but something 3-dimensional would be even better. I would like to make sure that I don’t thread through the wrong dowels (would like to avoid a terrible crunching sound the first time I try rolling the carriage after inserting the new springs!). Eric, the mirror is a great idea, I’ll get one. I too was wondering about which position the trip mechanism should be in when replacing the spring; I asked Fritz about it but he wasn’t certain. I just bought some tiny, flexible LED lights with magnetized bases which should help me to see better what’s going on.
It has been a long time since I did this, but you will probably need to insert the spring with both sides of the cylinder in a specific position, forget if it is up or down, whichever would put the least tension on the spring.
One helpful tool, beside a flashlight, is an extension mirror so you can study the area in question from different angles.
Hi Sylvia
I’m sure I can supply a closer image of the trip spring in position – watch this space… You might wish to ask Fritz for a copy of the sp-15 manual he supplies – sheet 302 has a very simple clear diagram of the procedure.
Good luck – it looks very fiddley to thread it through – in fact sheet 302 shows an assembly tool j-19953 being used to replace the spring, maybe it’s possible make a simplified assembly tool to do the job – it looks like firstly the spring has to be threaded through into the correct position and then the coiled part thrust onto the dowel. I’ll let you know how I get on.
best wishes
John