I am in the process of getting our SP25 up and running and the first order of business is realigning the cylinder carriage so that the grippers are at the “12 o’clock” position when at the feed board.
Does anyone have any suggestions of the best way to adjust this?
During a class with Paul Moxon I was told you sometimes have to roll the carriage off the end of the bed in order to rotate the cylinder and realign the cylinder gears on the gear rack. Is this the best method or should I consider removing carriage bearing assembly and bumper-spring blocks (which are below the under rails) in order to lift full carriage and rotate handle to correct orientation?
I found this post about the process for a No. 4 which was able to be done while on the press:
https://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/2012/07/aligning-vandercook-no-4-cylinder-carriage/
Is this also possible on an SP25?
Side Note: once carriage is realigned, will the handle follow the adjustment? When the grippers are at 12 o’clock the handle currently falls a little above 3 o’clock.
I will most likely adjust the handle at some point but as of now it doesn’t seem to pose a problem in printing, besides slight inconvenience in accessing the lever to the inking assembly.
Thanks a lot!
Mason Milani – Morgan Conservatory – Cleveland, Ohio
Sorry that was huge…
A huge thanks to Paul for tackling this issue fast and to the point! I have successfully realigned the cylinder carriage by removing the middle section of the carriage gears from both sides of the press, advancing the carriage into the gap, rotating the handle to desired position and sending it back to the feed. I believe I had to put it into trip in order for it to spin freely*
*note that in addition to 2 horizontal Allen Key bolts securing the middle rail section, there is also a vertical pin about an inch long in the 2nd recess of the gears closest to the feed board, I had to do a little digging to find it*
This turned out to be an amazingly quick and easy adjustment, especially considering the fact that I thought I had to disassemble or hoist up the carriage to realign…
Some SP20 and SP25 have floating sections of the cylinder racks. If so, you can remove the middle stationary section and roll the carriage gears off to retime. The hand crank on some SP20 are at 2 o’clock instead of at four. This may also be true for some SP25. In any event, you already know that the cylinder is correct with the gripper bar at 12 o’clock, or more accurately slightly in advance.