I’ve been working on a thorough clean-up of my Uni I which was very grimy and dirty. I’ve already tore down and cleaned the adjustable bed which was frozen. That went smoothly thanks to the fine documentation from previous posts. Currently, I am dealing with a problem of immediately blowing a fuse when I put the power carriage into forward. At this point I don’t really know how to begin to trouble shoot this problem, and I am looking for direction. The rails and bearers are clean and lubricated. I have not cleaned the cylinder/gears at this point, but they aren’t too dirty. I realize that I may need to provide more information (and please let me know), but I appreciate any direction that can be given at this point. Thank you. Serial No. 23002.
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A proof press resource
The carriage wasn’t stuck if you could move it back to the feed board. You may not have pushed hard enough (the motor adds 150 lbs). In print mode, the cam follower (X-2627, aka the trip wheel on the vertical cylinder rack) rolls up the first trip cam (X-19231, aka trip wedge).
The click you heard is probably the limit cam passing over the micro switches.
Sheet 203 of the manual says X-2440 is 4 Amp, but this should be stated on both the fuse box and the fuse itself.
Thank you Paul for directing me back to the manual for a closer reading–and it got me thinking. During the last move of the press, the carriage was manually (by hand) pushed to the center of the press bed. Once set-up in my shop, I manually pushed the carriage back to the feed board. This evening I decided to manually advance the carriage all the way to the end of the press – heard a click. Then moved the carriage back to the feed board–along the way back–I believe I heard another click. I then replaced the fuse, set the selector switch to “cycle” and manual control lever to “forward” and pushed the start button and the carriage fully cycled without blowing the fuse. It also worked in manual. While I’m not sure, and this is what I am interested in confirming, because I never traveled the carriage to the end of the press after the move, that the cylinder needed to be tripped and was jamming? Or is there another explanation? Also, I never actually identified in my original post which fuse was blowing–it was the lower left. Also, how many AMPS should this fuse be? Thank you. Kevin
The manual provides this information:
CAUTION:
When using Power Grippers, it is essential that Manual Control Lever (J), or Selector Switch (K), are not moved when the cylinder is at the feed board, without waiting three seconds after the cylinder reaches the feed board. If Lever or Selector Switch are moved within the three-second period, the fuse may blow in the Power Grippers Circuit.
Thank you Ray. I am in Indiana, and I see that Dave Seat is located in Tennessee – and quite in demand. I appreciate your recommendation and I’ll try to follow up with him. In the meanwhile, I wonder if there are some basic things I could look into? Thanks again,
Kevin
I don’t know where you are but I would consider contacting Dave Seat who travels the country and works on Vandercooks. We had trouble with our automatic Universal III and he helped figure out where the problem was in the reverse/off/forward switch and then to change it out. I bought the part from NA Graphics.
I highly recommend his work.
http://www.hotmetalservices.com/Service_Trips.htm