Hooked up the treadle but now there’s a problem…

Jen -

As with any flywheel-operated machine, there are two “dead spots” in the rotation of the press. There is a moment of top-dead-center and bottom-dead-center, where no matter what you do, the treadle simply will not move the flywheel. It’s a basic fact of physics. There is no leverage at dead center. ever.

You must always get past the dead spot by moving the flywheel a bit. The best practice is to push the flywheel away from you as you begin to press down on the treadle, then sense the rhythmn of the press and let the treadle raise your foot back up to just after tdc, then press down again, ride up, press down, ride up, etc…

It’s easy to get the rhythmn and ‘get the hang of it’ (literally). It just takes a few tries. Visitors to my shop always enjoy pumping the treadle and almost always hit tdc and are stuck at least once before they get the sense of how a treadle-powered press works.

What usually happens is that I walk over to the press, and without even thinking, push the wheel a little bit to get the treadle to just after tdc, then press down, relase and let my foot be raised by the treadle. “See how easy it is?” It sure looks easy enough, but then, when they try it, they push down once and stop the whole thing like pressing a brake.

So, I chuckle a bit, lean over and shove the flywheel 1/4 turn and say “watch”. They still don’t always get it the first time, but within seconds, and with a brief explanation of how to ‘ride’ a treadle (let it raise your foot back up after bottom dead center), they get the hang of it.

The main trick is to push down only for the first 1/2 of the cycle, and let the treadle raise your foot back up again.

If you haven’t experienced this on other treadle presses before, it was just a matter of luck.

Ah, you kids make me enjoy being an old man who’s “been there and done that” for so many years…

;)

- Alan
http://ExcelsiorPress.org

Thanks again for the great reply!! I went through and cleaned all the oil holes with WD-40 and then thoroughly with oil and the press is running MUCH smoother!! Plus I realized after downloading the oil sheet that I was missing a couple holes I hadn’t noticed before!

Jen

It is always a good idea to give the flywheel a push whether treadle or electric - a lot less strain all around. I never knew a pressman that didn’t.

Dick - Your comment makes me think about some feelings I experience while hand-feeding a flywheel-driven hand-fed.

“Lean forward and give the flywheel a push”.

To me, it’s part of the ritual and rhythm of hand-feeding a platen press… fanning the paper out for easy feeding, then inserting the first sheet onto the pins and reaching out to pull back the impression throw-off lever to make the first print…

It’s all done with timing and rhythm. The press sets the rhythm, and the pressman matches the press’s rhythm and becomes part of the process.

Things you never get to do on a table-top…

And then, I look at the press as it begins to work its way up to speed, and I think about the first young printer to hand-feed my old C&P in 1914… And all the others who had fed this same press this same way over the last 90-plus years…

These are the things that link us to the letterpress printers of the past - the same motions, the same techniques, (many of the same problems) and the same machines that they used a hundred years ago…

-old printer Al
http://excelsiorpress.org/index.inner.html#video

Yes Al, it set me thinking also. As you wrote about fanning the stock, I thought yes, and maybe some glycerin on a cotton swab to periodically moisten my fingers if it was a difficult stock to handle, and sandpaper finger stalls for some of my left fingers if smearing was a problem. Ah sweet reverie!
BTW: Another very good reason for giving the flywheel a push when using a treadle is that depending on the position of the crank-throw there is a chance the flywheel will want to start towards you.