Crooked flywheel?

I recently purchased a #14 golding pearl and have been cleaning, oiling and generally trying to get her up and running smoothly. One thing that is driving me crazy is that the flywheel hits the brake lever once a revolution and makes a scraping sound. If you stand back and look at the flywheel while someone else is running it, it looks as though the flywheel is out of round or something. The shaft appears to be straight and has no distortion when running the press (it looks like it’s turning nice and straight). Can I fix this? If I can’t is it a real problem? Thanks - Leslie

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I’m not familiar with your press but I doubt if the flywheel is bent. Most flywheels are made of cast iron. Cast iron is brittle and it will break, not bend. Can the brake lever be flexed a little to one side to eliminate the scraping? Don’t force anything. It’s better to let it scrape than to break a part.

Without some photos it is hard to say. From your description it sounds like the shaft is slightly bent, perhaps from someone using the flywheel as a handhold when moving the press.

Leaving it alone is not the end of the world, if mildly annoying. I think the easiest “fix” to keep the flywheel from hitting the brake lever is to move the flywheel farther out on the shaft, if there is any room on the shaft to do so. If that isn’t possible, perhaps the lever can be moved though I’m guessing probably not.

If the shaft is bent it can be fixed and there are several ways to do this but post a couple of photos so we can get a look at the situation.

Rich

Front Room Press
Milford, NJ
http://frontroompress.com
http://frontroompress.blogspot.com