Hello My name is Rob Wilson and I am a student printer at The University of Arizona. Last night durning class we had a few issues with one of our Universal I Vandercooks, First the rear inking roller locked up and would both not freely roll and was not allowing the rollers to be raised. What we did was removed both rollers, the front roller came off very easy but the rear roller took some shimming but eventually came off without and scratching or banging. We realized that the screws on the end of the roller that hold on the piece that the roller fits in. We came to the conclusion that these screws had wiggled out and pinned itself in the carriage. We screwed them back in and replaced the rollers into the press and problem solved. My first question was did we do everything right and secondly why what would make these screws come out and how can we prevent it from happening, I dont want a younger student to be printing when this happens and possible damage the press.
Secondly upon working with our roller issue we noticed that the track in which the carriage gears sit on (the geared ones) were moving the ever so slightest bit (maybe 1/8 “) We could carefully tighten the track on the operator side because the screws were exposed but on the non-operator side the screws are covered by the track that the roller gear sits on. We didn’t want to remove anything because I remember during a masterclass that issues dealing with the track are a big deal, so I’d rather wait till fall semester when we can get a tech to come in and fix it for good and, you know, be paid by the univ for it. But my question is, is there a way to tighten the track on the non-operator side of the bed while not removing the smaller track, and if not is our press still operational, as of now we temporarily decommissioned the press to be safe of any possible damages until we get further information, even though the movement is not noticable when running the press at all, just the visual evidence of the track moving (we have a second universal I and its tracks don’t move at all) is alarming to us.
Thanks in Advance
Rob Wilson
Thanks for all of the input. We tightened the roller allen key slightly and it solved that problem, and as far as the floating track problem goes, we wanted just a second opinion and thank you Paul Moxon and Fritz Klinke for your input on the proper working of the rail, both sides are moving ever so slightly and the carriage works and feels great, glad to hear this is a good thing.
Best,
Rob Wilson
The Vandercook term for the portion of the rack that moves is a “floating rack.” Also the pin that goes into the end of the X-21012 end screw has a slight taper one one end–the tapered end goes into the screw first and acts as a wedge inside the hole drilled in the screw. We sell a fair number of these after people strong arm the screw out of the core end and strip the threads.
This section of the cylinder racks is called the register rack and was designed to shift laterally to ease the transition of the cylinder gear from trip mode to print mode. There should be a horizontal spring between the two sections. On the other Universal the springs could be missing and the side screws over tightened (the holes are slotted), or they’re just dirty. I worked on these presses in October, but I don’t recall this being a problem. There were numerous issues to address on each of the four Vandys in the room.
Here’s an exploded view of the journal screw. Note the split in the threaded part of the screw. This allows the diameter to expand—and lock against the interior threads of the roller core as the dowel is driven further inward by the set screw. Use a 1/8″ allen wrench (aka hex key) to tighten.
In the center of the screw that holds the bearing on the end of the roller, there is an allen setscrew. It must be tightened, or the drive end screws will work themselves out.