10x15 windmill guides
I am having issues getting the guides to work on our windmill. I snap them on in the correct position according to the manual and it seems like they dont come up far enough. The sheet falls behind them when the gripper bar drops it. Additionally, the tail of the sheet hits them when the platen opens and the gripper bar takes the sheet.
I havent touched a windmill in 28 years, and im only 42, so this makes me a newbie. I have been reading for a couple of hours here, and the wealth of information is awesome !
I am die cutting and creasing now, without the guides, but the boss man wants to start printing.
Any ideas ?
Brian
you say that they don’t seem to be coming up far enough. Be sure to manually check the gripper bar action by moving the knurled knob that is at the bottom left hand side of the platen. this knob has a position where it is engaged, when the knurled knob is midway on its little arc, and the pin within in the knob is snapped into place. The knob can also be disengaged, when the pin has been lifted out and the knob, along with the guide bar, leans forward.
It is the dis-engaged position that is run when you are not using guides, so this may be where it has lived for a while, just snap it into position and you should be in action. If it has been along time since this mechanism has been in use, give it some patience and cleaning and lubrication to get it running smoothly.
If this is already in action properly, it is tough to say. In fact, I would be surprised that your sheet would be hitting the guides on it way out, if they were not moving up in position. Are you running standard brass guides, or raised nickel guides? If you have nickel guides, they could be sitting higher on the guide bar, but then if the side guide on your sheet delivery tray is still set for brass guides (you will notice there is a little position set screw at the bottom left hand corner of the press where you can make this adjustment) , then you could be having too much contact as the sheet moves through, because the sheet is feeding low, and the guides are riding high.
Difficult to say for sure, but I would check those things first.
Good luck
:)
Thank you for your info. As to the feeder standard position, i put it in the correct position for the guides i am using (at the moment, i cant remember which, but i compared them to the parts book, and the correlation was correct), and it seemed like the sheet was too low (too close to the guides). I made the 3 changes, the gripper head, the feeder standards, and the guide engagement. Maybe there is some wear and stickyness going on, but i cant find it. I will be back on the press next week, so i will pursue this further. Thanks again for your response. I appreciate your time.
Any luck with getting the guides to work?
Anyone having problems with windmill registration should contact me directly. I can provide pictures of correct guide, and left standard placement for both nickel and brass, as well as tips and tricks to get you up and running at a reasonable IPH with guides.
Hello brian, sounds like the shaft that goes through th platten that control the guides might be sticky or even bent, make sure the shaft is free, you can check this by pulling on the chrome thimble knob and moving it up and down, it should move freely……john