10X15 Windmill - Broken Suction Control Pivot
I brought in an old Windmill on Sunday and upon hooking up the press to power I rolled it over a few times - say four to five revolutions, on the sixth revolution the pivot for the air control snapped (CRACK!). I am now debating what to do… Is this part available or should I drive to the machine shop? I would prefer to have a nice smooth and aligned part and am worried that something may be a little off if I have it repaired. Also, does anyone have any ideas as to why this happened? I don’t have any experience running a Windmill yet, but all that I did was roll the press over, I didn’t adjust or tug on anything while it was running.
Thanks,
Dan
Dan,
the part is likely available, probably not cheap. Check www.printersrepairparts.com or google search for parts sellers. There are suppliers out there. Check you manual for the parts number.
I don’t think a machine shop weld or whatever would do it, unless they can completely machine a custom part.
I would guess that the part broke because the two pieces had been sitting and rusting for however long, and when you ran the press, rather then the parts gliding smoothly, they were stuck together and just snapped. From the picture it looks like you have a fair amount o surface rust, etc. Before running your press again, i would spend a bunch of time cleaning and examining the whole press, and applying lubrication to all moving parts. Grime and rust could be all over, and you don’t want to snap anything else. Try advancing the press manually with out the power on at first to watch things running smoothly, and listen carefully for funny sounds. Do you have access to a well running windmill? If so watch it and listen to note how it should be running.
good luck
I forgot to mention that I probably hand turned the press 15 or 20 times with no indication of resistance or noise, though I did intend to hit everything good with oil, I got excited and thought I could turn it over a few times with the motor - so that was definitely not the correct thing to do. Is it possible to over adjust the auto stop paper trip into stressing this part - is there anything an operator could have done to cause this (I’m even thinking of the previous owner)?
Thanks for the info.
I have no advice, but I just went and oiled the hell out of mine.
Increasing the contrast on your second photo, and zooming in shows dark and light areas of the crack, which points to it having been partially cracked for sometime.
Stress should not be a problem on this part as it only has to lift the sucker bar assembly, and this can easily be lifted by hand.
From the photos, the press needs dismantling and given a thorough clean and oiling before any other effort is made to commence printing.
If a spare is not available (part no. T1603 guide block for sucker bar rod) a good engineering shop should be able to re-manufacture the spigot and reinstall in the guide,
I will proceed by drowning this press in oil - also, the part has been ordered for $238.00… wow.
Thanks again.