i am working on a vandercook 4 serial nr. 15900 that i bought a couple of weeks ago. when inspectiong the press i realized that there is a strange thing inside the cylinder on the operator side. see pictures. the other other thing was next to rust a broken pin on the foot pedal activator fro the gripper bar. i could take care of this and now i took the handle off and the collar and unscrewed the bolt inside the cylinder. the shaft is connected just by friction with 3 big fender washers to the cylinder. i know this press tipped on the side in his long life. how does the original connection handle shaft to the cylinder look like. i think there should be a square key or a woodruff key.
thanks for your help
ernst
Your English is fine.
Apparently, the machinist did a decent job on your press. Originally, there were no fasteners on the inside of the cylinder casting. I’ve never seen a key on any shaft.
On some models, the shaft is part of the cylinder casting and for others it is bolted on. I don’t have a drawing of the shaft on the No. 4. But attached is a drawing of the similar 15-21 hand crank.
just after posting i looked again. maybe the shaft of the cylinder was bend or broken and a machinist cut on a lathe a hole in the cylinder and made a new shaft aka spindle or axle. sorry for my english but i am german.