Rollers Not Inking Plate
I have an old Adana T/P48 that I just aquired, when I went to print my first job the rollers ink the drum and themselves nicely, but do not touch the plate. The roller edges slide along the chase edge but do not touch the polymer, which I have attached to a Boxcar Chase Base. The polymer plate is leaving an impression on the paper, but this is also uneven. Can anyone give me any guidance, there is no info in the manual about altering the rollers. Thank you.
Do you have the right base/plate height combination?
Have you checked your roller height with a lollipop gauge?
It is more common for rollers to be too low than too high unless the press was almost never used.
Thanks for getting back to me! The girl I bought the press from had been using the base with polymer, she sold it all in perfect working condition. I am using 1.52mm plates. Someone has suggested packing the base to raise it a little so I will give that a go.
The TP-48 has moveable roller bearers on each side of the bed. If I remember correctly, they have adjustment bolts behind them which can be used to adjust the roller height, much easier than on most smaller platen presses. Loosen the side bolts, and adjust the bearers then lock the side bolts and test. If you don’t have a “lollipop” roller gauge, you can handhold a large letter and get a feel for how much roller pressure you have on the face of the type by trying to move it under the roller. There is quite a bit on this site and others on roller adjustment. If your roller bearers are indeed adjustable, you can pretty much ignore all you will read about taping the roller truck or bed bearers.
John Henry
As J.H. rightly implies, the T.P. 48 & The T.P. 71, (only cosmetically up-rated) have adjustable roller bearers. but there is an anomaly with both M/c,s in that the Compound of the Rollers and the Trucks are not synonymous in circumference, **** consequently the bearers in normal format are at least .060” lower than normal rail height, the difference is factored in with the trucks and compound.
Has a previous owner inadvertently tried to compensate, by bringing the tracks up to type high, which may well explain the problem.
**** Your own *Tarheel Roller & Brayer Co. out of
Clemmons, N. C.* will almost certainly corroborate this syndrome.
If it has worked ok for the previous owner and no ink is being put on your plate then underlay the base by adding thin card behind until you can see the plate is inked.
The instructions for adjusting the bearer plates starts at the bottom of page 14 of the manual. The track adjustment is very limited, undo the screws on the side, turn the adjuster behind then tighten the screws. You will have a bit of trouble getting a screwdriver on the screw heads. there is a hole in the flywheel for adjusting the left side.
The May 8th posting shows one adjuster.
www.facebook.com/Adana-TP48-1553822484882407/?ref=bookmarks
By uneven I presume you mean between the top and bottom of your job. If the bottom is light make a progressive (paper wedge) that goes under the packing
Thank you so much everyone for such informative info I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out, I will try all that has been mentioned and hopefully find a way to get printing! Thank you again!