Roller frames riding too low

Ok, even the experienced need help. I’ve adopted an 8x12 old style and I’m having an issue during reassembly. Everything is going well, except for the roller arms.

The impression lever is tight, which I can attribute to this, I’m sure. It seems that while on impression, the roller arms are dropping down substantially, beyond the point where the rollers are meant to go and cause a decent amount of seizing. I’m worried this may stress things too much. I know it has something to do with the position of the roller and arm cam. However, I’m wondering if there is a certain way to tune this, as all other reassemblies have gone quite smooth without the need to make edits so to speak.

It is on sacrificial boards while in the process of going back together before it is mounted on 4x4s for final placement. I’ve read it could be the level…

A bit confused. Any ideas?

Karl

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I’ll chronicle this here, just in case it may help someone else. I’m going to try leveling first - Simplest solution off the bat. Secondly I’m going to try adjusting the throw arms on the bottom two shafts…

Will post back when I’ve tried this, this evening. Still, if anyone has any ideas, please post them. This is keeping me from sleeping.

Looking through - I believe the back shaft (Part N-69) is not aligned right, and that the throw-off saddle is improperly aligned due to improper oiling.

The press was oiled with what I believe is vegetable oil, as it’s coagulated over everything over the years, and caused much to tighten and stiffen. So I think if I can get all of the throw-off mechanism off and cleaned and properly positioned then PIN the saddle into the proper position instead of screw-locked, it may be a better situation!

I know my 10x15 New Style that I had, had the Throw-Off saddle Pinned in place so it could only go on a total of 4 ways and couldn’t move over time.

Will post back and keep this going. I don’t see anyone else with the issue, but hope it can help someone in the future!

Both the back shaft and the roller saddle can be put back onto the press wrong, causing binding. The shaft can be put in with left and right swapped. The saddle in my experience has screws in two different lengths going into two holes of different depths.

The throw-off saddle was never removed, but the back shaft is quite possibly in wrong. However, according to diagrams it is in the proper position. When taking the press, the last owner did mention how tough it was to use the throw-off lever and that leads me to believe it could be that.

It seems that when the press is fully opened, and on impression, that the roller arm that connects to the left roller frame is where the binding is occurring.

Edit: Scratch that - It looks like the Back shaft is in backwards. Devil is in the details - Will swap that all out and report back this evening when I get that done! Hopefully that will adjust the back-shaft to the proper position and alleviate the issue…

Thank you for making me look back! :)

It was that simple. Flipping the Back-Shaft was indeed the solution. So, if you’re press is binding on fully open with the roller-arm, flip the shaft :)

Thank you everyone who e-mailed and for the posts :)

Do you have trucks on your rollers? With issues like this, photos are always very helpful- it is hard to diagnose press issues with the lights off!

DGM

DGM - I didn’t even have the rollers on yet, and that was a good thing.

What happened what, the roller frame was dipping far below the rails, which was due to the back-shaft being in backwards; and the offset of that back-shaft caused the press to open too far because it was in the wrong position.

Luckily, all is well :)

Karl,
Glad you got it all worked out!

Dan