Roller Height Help

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out, I was testing out the roller height on my Cropper Charlton & Co Peerless No.1 platen press tonight with a roller gauge and found that some areas were too high and leaving a thick strip whilst some areas were not picking up any ink at all leaving the gauge dry.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141670721@N06/52913317238/in/dateposted-pu...

Here is a link to a sketch of where the gauge was picking up ink with ticks being thin lines, ticks with T above being thick lines and crosses being no ink.

I got new rollers made and roller trucks 3D printed so they shouldn’t be the issue.

Would the only way to fix this be taping up the chase bed and the rails in the problem areas, or slightly push the chase bed forward by putting some lead strips behind the bed at the back?

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Kris

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Kris
If you can fix your problem with taping the rails, i would do that, declare victory, and print. Lots of old press need taping to print property. Taping is easy and is easily removed if need be. I have an old kelsey 8x5 and tape the rails. Metal tape last longer, but plain old masking tape works fine, just need retaping every so often.
LD

double post deleted.

Taping the rails should suffice, but I would check your trucks for round. As nice as it is to trust a 3d printer to be true, I have struggled with the cooling/shrinking of the plastics. Run the rollers with trucks on a glass table, (or similar verifiable flat surface) and see if you can slip paper or shims more or less as you roll across the surface. If a problem, it is possible to find a machinist who could cut cut delrin or similar down on a lathe to proper dimension. I have had this done before.

I’d check the rails with a straightedge, if they are straight that isnt the problem. I’d bet on the trucks.

My main concern is the fact the mid section of the chase bed is not roller height at all, there isn’t a dip in the bed as a ruler sits flush against it.

My 3D printed trucks are based off measurements of the original trucks which I had to replace as there was dips in the middle of the trucks from being worn down.

A piece or 2 of masking tape in the middle of the chase bed brings it to inking height but I have been advised not to tape the chase bed as it could create more problems, I was wondering whether attaching a thin metal plate the same size as the chase bed on top of the chase bed would raise it enough to meet the rollers and I could tape the rails to fix the other areas?