Hello! First time poster here so please bear with me if I’m going about anything wrong.
Just to set the scene here: I recently accepted a technician role at the arts university in my hometown and there are a couple Vandercook presses here I’m in charge of. I spent a few years working at Hatch Show Print, so I’m familiar with proof presses, but the maintenance was never really part of my job. I’m being careful and cautious with the presses, and learning as I go.
There’s a Universal 1 that’s in great shape. A little cleaning and oiling, some new packing, and I figured I’d be off to the races. But I encountered what I think is a quirk with this press… issue I haven’t found any info online about it, and my printmaking colleagues were stumped as well. I figured this was the next best step to take.
This press requires a LOT of packing to get an impression. Mechanically, everything checked out. No issues with the trip mechanism or anything like that. I checked the cylinder to look for the number that indicates the undercut height/packing thickness, which I understand should read as 40 or in some cases 70. On this Universal 1 there is a number scratched out that I can’t read, and an additional stamp of 140. Turns out, it does need about 0.140″ of packing to print correctly!
I have two questions, one practical and one just purely out of curiosity.
First off: What would the recommended packing setup be for such a deep undercut? .14″ is a lot of paper…
Second: Why!? haha. What could be the reason for such a deep undercut?
Thank you in advance folks!
Alex