ink fountain on my C&P

Sounds like you are talking about a Pony fountain for the C & P. First, to set it, put the press on impression and close the press, with the rollers at the top of their travel. Now loosen the mounting bracket and set the whole fountain so the fountain roller contacts the top impression roller with about 1/8” to a 1/4” contact strip At this point adjust the bottom adjusting screw (if present) so the fountain roll hits the top roll square (roller centers are equal). . The back wingnut should move the ink pan inside the unit and set the amount of ink on the fountain ball (varies from job to job).

If the throw rod from the fountain is connected correctly to the roller arm (should be just behind the pivot point) the fountain roll should advance a couple teeth with each cycle and the impression rollers should not touch the fountain roll when the press is off impression.

Since the fountain is floating above the ink disk, there should be no problems with washing up. If you are running the ink disk but not the fountain, just disengage the pawl on the fountain and all that should happen is a stripe of ink on the fountain ball that can be wiped off during washup.

A full fountain works in much the same way, though mine has no provision for vertical adjustment.

Wow thank you so much! I’m running it now and got the general idea…it seems to be working well. I’m a newbie still, and not familiar with half the terms you used, so I can’t be certain I’m doing it right, but it is inking the disk ok, and is advancing two teeth with every cycle.

I’m running a job that I probably should never have taken on, but I’m enjoying the opportunity to learn from it (when I’m not insanely frustrated). It’s coffee bags, which are preconverted kraft brown paper. The paper sucks up ink like nothing I’ve ever seen, not to mention that the paper leaves a lot of junk that I believe is trashing the ink as the job goes along…it just impacts the performance. The client wants a nice black coverage, and I’m struggling to keep enough ink on the press, but not too much to where the plate wants to pull the sheet off after impression.

Aside from the ink issue, the preconverted bag has many different levels to contend with in makeready, because the art goes over various fold points in the bag. Getting a solid impression is nearly impossible. especially when taking into account the margin for error in the bag conversion…not every one is exactly the same.

It’s getting close to time to call it quits for the night, but I’m glad I got the fountain working! thanks for your help!

And where in Montana?

i once had a job to print bags, there were many thicknesses and the type was extra bold, i set it on the ludlow and cast it about 6 times. After 25 bags and a lot of makeready i had smashed 4 forms. So i made a rubber stamp from the form and ran nearly the whole job with little makeready. a softer polymer might also work, or instead of your packing you could try a thin rubber blanket, i use ab dick blankets on my windmills. To get the bag to pull off your plate you can thin the ink just a little, this will help it to print darker also, i use van son tack reducer. Good luck Dick G.

When I am not using my pony fountain I lift the front of the unit slightly an place a reglet between the vertical adjusting screw and the fountain. That way it stays out of the way and doesn’t ink at all. Then I don’t have to remember to clean it or take it out of adjustment.

Paulm

Dick,

Thanks for the blanket idea…I have several times thought to myself that a softer packing might solve some of the issues with the various thicknesses. I didn’t know where to look for that, but a rubber blanket sounds perfect. I’ll look for those.

Your rubber stamp solution; can you explain further? Did you have a rubber stamp made at type height to fit in the chase? That sounds brilliant!

Also the ink thinner you mentioned, this would be used with Van Son rubber based inks? and where do you buy the tack reducer? I have a variety of inks and have run this job with rubber based, oil based, and printers block inks in tubes (also oil based) all with similar results. I couldn’t tell that one was better than another, but did have another printer tell me that although the rubber based inks dry fast for handling, they don’t totally ‘cure’ for a very long time, so might not be a good choice for the use-case of coffee bags. But the client has handled these aggressively and with no complaints of offsetting, so I don’t see a problem using the rubber Van Son inks.

Thanks for your thoughts!

-Kimberly

Kimberly, i make my own rubber stamps, what i did was use my slugs to mount the rubber stamp, i measured the height of the slugs then made the stamp to the thickness to make .918. Don’t go buying a new blanket, go to a small printer near you and ask for an old blanket, printers always have them hanging around, they might not be good for their press but they will work for you. If you’re near xpedix, they sell inks and you probably can get tack reducer from them, or while your in the print shop mooching blankets just ask for a little reducer. Good Luck Dick G.

I have used transparent white to thin black ink and the customer thought the black looked better than before i thinned it.
When you clean your fountain( in case you haven’t already pulled it apart) the resevoir pan will come out by lifting from the bottom. There is a pivot point at the top where it clips into two spring loaded ball bearings.
I had to clean some dried ink to get mine out but clean up is much easier now.
Paulm

i’ve never used transparent white to thin ink but it should work great, maybe even better than tack reducer. Dick G.

are you talking about the little pony fountain that mounts to the top left side of the ink disk?

i actually have one on my press that is brand new never used along with a box with the roller in it.. unused with a set of pristine instructions.

not sure if they’re instructions for the roller or the whole fountain but i’ll pull them out tonight and see if ai can scan them to post.

maybe they’ll be helpful.

nevermind.. i see you got it covered. i’ll still dig that stuff out though.

k.

I did figure out how to take the pony fountain apart to clean it, and get all parts back to their original position. it was actually very easy. And once again I find myself appreciating the engineering that went into how these beautiful machines were built. Genius!

I don’t live near anything (except Canada!)…I’m in a small town in Northern Idaho, so while there are a few printers around who might have old rubber blankets, I’m nowhere near an Xpedex or other store that would have supplies. I order it all online.

I have some transparent extender in a tube…called Tint Base Extender. This one if from Graphic Chemical and Ink Co, and I have black ink from this same company that I can mix it with. I assume this could not be mixed with my rubber-based Van Son inks. Would you all concur?

-Kimberly