Rusty Windmill

Hi, I will be aquiring a Heidelberg Windmill that has a fair bit of rust.

I am confident I will get it off with a lot of elbow grease but I was curious as to how the rust might effect the printing. If anyone here has had experience with a rusty windmill please let me know.

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Hi - I have finally really started getting stuck into cleaning this press. I have attached photos below.

I haven’t started on the rollers, but have started looking at the other parts. I was hoping to get some expert opinions here on the prognosis of the machine based on these photos.

Is it rescuable?

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Does the press run? Is the rust in the gears?
Has the rust into the platen? You might be able to remove the rust with rust removal.

If I was you I would good to a good hardware store or auto supply store and talk to someone that knows how to remove rust with damaging the metal.

You should be able to remove the rust. Be careful that you don’t use too aggressive materials in the job stick with wet/or/dry paper, valve grinding compound, or other less aggressive materials. You want to avoid leaving any deep scratches in the platen or bed.

You do, however, have to wonder if the rust is this bad, what else on the press has not been properly maintained?

What a shame!

The only thing I can suggest you is DO NOT TURN UP IT until you removed the rust. Do not move manually the flywheel too. Remove the rust first, be very patient!

HI thanks for the feedback.

I am working with a couple of old hands who are experts at all sorts of different printing machines. But I wanted to get a few more opinions.

jhenry to your question about how well this press has been maintained, it has been been sitting in the shed for a very long time. There are lots of missing parts, wobbly shafts and its encrusted with daddy long legs.

The plan, however, is to restore this machine with the help of some mentors and in the process learn the ins and outs of the machine from the very beginning. So if(/when) I run into problems with it in the future, I will most likely be able to diagnose the issues and fix them myself!