Scratched ink disc

i would ink it up before you freak out. they may look worse than they are…if machining is needed, any competent machine shop can handle it. you will need to consider adjusting the disk mount to make up for anything that is machined off. i am in milwaukee and know of several shops.

try it before you do anything to the disc, some of my presses have some scratches on the disc and they print just fine.

I am also fairly new to this - I have only had my press for a year. When it arrived it also had a lot of scratches on the ink disk (and it still does!), but so far I have had no inking trouble with it at all. Best of luck with yours!

Unless they are deep gouges I would think it won’t be an issue. The scratches will either fill with ink or will not ink at all. In the ater case unless the scratches are long and perfectly straight they will be compensated for by the rest of the ink disk surface. Give it a try and you’ll most likely find it’s not an issue.

I have an 8x12 C&P OS with the split ink table (the inside goes counter clockwise and the outer section goes clockwise) that has a very noticeable gap between the two…probably larger than the scratches you see on your ink table. Never had any problems with inking as a result. Even when I’ve just cleaned out the gap. It does tend to fill up with dried ink.

I’ve also printed with composition rollers that had 1/16” (maybe even larger) pits in them. (on a Kelsey 5x8) Similarly never noticed much impact on the inking. I was more of a beginner then, but was pulling fair prints with these rollers.

Your scratches would have to be crater sized to have any real impact on inking.

I’ve got two 8x5 Adana’s and its a nice press. Scratches - mostly from the edge of ink knives, seem commonplace and its nothing I assure you. The condition of the rollers is more important. They need to be tops! The UK is a happy hunting ground for roller buyers for this press and Poly rollers are very good. Caslon UK do sell very good rubber rollers, I use them too. With good rollers, setting them is next and make sure you have runners or trucks that can be locked to the shaft with a set screw. You may need to pack the tracks so that a setting is obtained but then look forward to some great results.

Many thanks for all the responses, really good to know that I wont have to deal with the scratches.

We have several 8x5s with disk scratches and as other people have said the scratches are ok to have as they will fill. The disk is a very soft alloy so it easily scratches. If you want a shiny disk a quick wipe with CIF oven cleaner removes the ink, don’t leave on as your disk will start to disappear. If you can find duplex trucks (runners to me) then you have two roller heights to work with. The Elli Evans (UK) rollers are nice and soft and tacky but come with single diameter trucks, Caslon has the duplex trucks.

The most important thing to remember is to regularly oil your press with a light oil. The main points are the spindle, I check every time I use a press, and the roller arms - they can stick as the rollers change direction from vertical over to the ink disk. www.thepapertrail.org.uk