Category: Letterpress for beginners
Later topic: Buying a C&P
Earlier topic: Studio Space

Trucks covered in tape

I was wondering why someone would cover the trucks of the rollers in layers of all sorts of tape? I spent two hours removing the tape but am now thinking maybe I should have left well alone.

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Elaine, assuming that Your 8 x 5, is still work in progress, perhaps refer to Your own post of May 2014, You will hopefully note that the bearer rails are separate from the *bed* and do not have any positive location pegs, and can be fitted and bolted on with just a minute range of adjustment, (for the height of the rollers above the bed)
Is it possible that they (the bearers) have been refitted and bolted up too far back/retarded giving rise to the addition of Tape on the trucks to rectify +/- ?

If You are still with the Adana ! it is a misconception that the TRUCKS & Roller compound HAVE to be the same, with Adana,s across the range (table tops) inc. and especially the 8 x 5, the compound is always less than the diameter of the trucks (give or take 10%) governed and dictated by the construction of the trucks being 2 different heights and REVERSIBLE to suit the condition of the Rollers in service.

By implication making the height adjustment, of the rollers, with the roller gauge, a little more fiddly. !

Apologies if the above be irrelevant.

Good Luck Mick.

Some people set the roller’s relationship to the type height by taping the bearers while others prefer to tape the trucks. Have you tried printing with this press?

DGM

Oops I should have said I am working an a new to me C&P 8x12. So after running the rollers the tape was to elevate them so they would only ink the plate and not the base. I ended up taping the rails with aluminum tape and was able to raise the rollers to the almost perfect height. I am still getting a little ink at the top of my plate not sure how to correct it.

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Are you trimming the plate to just around the text only?

if you’re getting ink on the blank part of the plate, the rollers are probably still too low.

Covering trucks in tape is a bit like madness - if you have to tape anything, tape the bearers, the rollers get a and will likely go out of shape in places and you’ll end up with fluctuations, whereas you can check the flatness of the bearers with a steel rule.