Base Not Inking Up Consistently

Hello! I recently purchased a C&P 10x15 press. Today I ran my first job. I started by taping the press rails, and making sure the rollers were at the correct height.

Everything was running just fine, when all of the sudden the form on the base (boxcar with polymer plates) stopped inking in certain areas. (I have included images below). I am not sure what it could be — can anyone make any suggestions? I am totally baffled. Thank you so much for your help!
Ashley

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Photos are below.

image: 2013.43.jpg

2013.43.jpg

image: 2013.08.jpg

2013.08.jpg

I would check If I had the same width of Ink on the tool to set the Form rollers all the length of the bed.
It looks like you may have needed no tape in the lower parts of the chase, but check first as described above.

Are the rollers new?

@The Arm NYC - Yes. New rollers and trucks.

@German Nazitsa - I pull the same measurements over all points before I began, I suspect it may be my chase, but I am not sure how I would even begin to fix it. I read another post where the chase could be moving, because it is locked up too tight. It is just baffling because in the beginning the run looked good and then after about 30 impressions before it stopped inking the salutation section.

Is the under-inked area staying in the same place?

It could also be that the tape on the bearers has changed a bit. Some of the folks here seem to prefer taping around the trucks instead of the bearers- you might want to try that.

DGM

I’m not a fan of rail taping, i’d rather tape the trucks. You might try removing a little tape so the rollers hit the form a little harder. Make sure the rollers are turning and not sliding over the whole form. Also rollers and ink don’t like to be cold, if you are in an unheated space you will have problems like this. Your 10x15 C&P is a great press that should handle this just fine.

I would check the lock up of the base. Re-seat it and make sure it is flat and even on all 4 corners. It you chase is just the slightest bit warped, this can happen.

Thank you so much everyone for the input. The inking spots have moved around a bit. It was warmer this morning when I started but the temps did drop when a rainstorm moved in, so It may be temps.

I will also lock up the chase again to double check the lock-up. Does anyone use aluminum when they lock-up? I didn’t have the right sized furniture when I was locking up, so I purchased some aluminum flat bar— do you this could cause something like this? Maybe make the base lock up flex and warp?

How about your tympan or packing? If you’ve printed a job before with any pressure your tympan and packing may have indents from the pressure of a prior job. If so the it’s possible that there is little contact in those areas.

Thank you so much everyone for your help! I decided to relock-up again, and upon closer inspection of my chase, it looks as if it was once damaged, and was not sitting flat. I taped the edges that were rocking, and locked up again. I am now getting an evenly inked form, and beautiful impressions!

Thank you again!

Ashley
Good troubleshooting (with a good tip from longdaypress)
and all in one day.
One must be a little smarter than the press. Not a lot, but at least a little. That means to think how the press is supposed to operate and what it needs from you to do that.
Troubleshooting is to be done one change at a time and test to see results if any This craft is certainly not plug and play like your ink jet computer printer.