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Vandercook Universal I-P, Power Carriage; Power Inking; Washup Blade; Frisket Tower; Includes a boxcar base for approx. 12x18” form, standard height.
Good rollers, so-so washup blade (but you can replace the blade), and very good condition otherwise. All the electrical components function as intended including speed control.
$14,000.00 OBO loaded out to curb, can assist with loading onto your truck.
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Vandercook Universal II, Power, Adjustable Bed
This is an early Universal II with the clutch drive method of power carriage operation. The bed is adjustable and can accommodate various plate heights. It comes with a Boxcar Base. It has a set of Usable quality rollers which will eventually need to be recovered but are serviceable currently and have been taken good care of. the inking system is intact, but the washup system is missing the washup box that would effect the blade so this machine is hand-washup (never been a problem though).
This is a very very rare press- there are only a handful of them left. Vandercook successfully recalled a lot of them due to a lawsuit, this was an earlier design of the press which was mechanically superior- meaning it has a very, very strong motor and can print from forms of a considerable size. It can print from a 19x25 sheet, longer actually if you use the frisket tower.
$14,000 O.B.O., and you must hire a rigging co to move/crate/load the press (I am willing to supervise this on my end, without issue, if required).
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Victoria “Parallel” Platen.
$8,000 USD OBO, buyer to cover rigging and moving costs.
Press is on SKID for easy removal, however, and can be secured to same for shipment. Crating would be additional but possible, inquire if interested.
These presses are of German descent — made by Rockstroh-Werke AG of Heidenau — but were made in the UK by Frank F Pershke. It’s a “Model B”, which is the 11x14 sheet size model.
This is an older platen- 1890’s vintage! - which was manufactured in england by Frank F. Pershke. however, it still has very advanced features, namely:
Clutch drive, and VFD motor for speed adjustment.
~The clutch which drives the press is such that when the motor starts, it spins a flywheel only and not the entire machine. Once flywheel comes up to speed, a clutch lever is pulled towards the operator to engage the machine and cause the press to come into motion.
The speed is adjustable thanks to a handy VFD control box which makes the operation and feed timing also adjustable; no need to keep up with a press running at an unsafe speed, dial it down to a slow rate to feed the more difficult stocks, or a higher rate to feed the easier stuff if you like.
~Adjustable impression. There is a bolt and nut affixed to the platen which you can loosen and slide to many different positions, so this reduces the amount of packing changing required to fine-tune the impression. This moves the paper bed, not the form bed- which means once you get the ink right you can leave it set and forget about the form.
~The press has a pair of packing rods which fit into clips on the platen and allow one to create a ‘top sheet’ on a hinge which is then fixed in place by simple ‘clips’, but these definitely hold securely enough for excellent register consistency when properly applied.
I have also taken to just backing the impression way off and have taped a piece of .030” stainless steel to the bed of the press kind of like a die jacket, applied my lays/guides to this with adhesive and fed to that setup. You can choose to use the adjustable impression mentioned above to fine tune the pressure of the press, and once you have a note of impression for a particular stock/plate/base/type combination, just note it and repeat the setup with the adjustable impression later.
~Adjustable inking while press is running! There is a small and useful knob on the press which can be turned clockwise or counter clockwise, adjusting the inking rails which the roller trucks ride on- these knobs seem to operate a wedge-like system which allows the rollers to be closer or further from the form as they pass over the forme bed.
~It has an ink train more like a vandrcook or heidelberg, it’s a cylinder drive ink train with an ink duct/fountain, plus a couple of rider/distributor rollers which help to even out the train.
~There are also roller lockouts! The press can be ‘locked out’ so the rollers do not engage the form and this means you can ink the roller train up before you begin passing them over the form, which is quite useful for color changes and all sorts of other reasons. The lockouts don’t necessarily mean you should plan to leave the rollers in for die-cutting, but it does make it easy to disengage them for cleaning purposes.
~Safety lockout fence!
The press has a handy, nice feature that allows you to safely operate it. There is a ‘fence’ which engages at the moment of platen closure, and if the fence is knocked out of the way by anything that shouldn’t be there it causes immediate press stoppage prior to cataclysmic damage/failure. The press runs on a clutch, which means it stops immediately when clutch is thrown off- the safety mechanism knocks the clutch off if the gate is out of position by a couple millimeters. It is not so sensitive that it ever seems to interrupt press running, but it certainly has made my have good piece of mind while using it.
IMAGES TO FOLLOW SHORTLY- Interested buyers please inquire for pictures if you want them sooner than later. Text or email are both fine for pictures, text may be better.
