Oscillating roller on Reprex Jammed at one extreme…Dang!

Is this problem familiar to anyone?

I’ve hit it with Kroil and oil.

Worked it back and worth.

Cleaned everything I can reach.

Next stop a machine shop?

Calvert Guthrie
Ragpicker Press
Kansas City

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It works similar to the Vandercook.

The worm gear inside the cylinder controls the back and forth. It could be dirty or the crescent may have broken. Check the Vandercook site
http://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/
and post the same question there. Or maybe Eric Holumb will have some answers here too.

I’ve never seen a Reprex, but on a Vandercook oscillating roller there are a worm gear and a crescent; the crescent slides in the grooves of the worm. The sharp points in each break off with wear, and eventually the crescent may no longer be guided by the worm and the whole mechanism binds up at one end. Or a point on the crescent may break off and jam. Binding will also happen if one over-tightens the seat in which the crescent pivots. (There is an Allen setscrew on the end of the Vandercook oscillator that locks the seat in place.)
This general kind of mechanism is common in distributors on small offset presses as well as Vandercooks and art platens. You may not be able to find Reprex replacement parts, but perhaps another distributor can be built of parts from other machines.

One difference from Vandercooks on the Reprex models I’ve seen is that the lower distributor drum oscillates via an armature connected to the motor while the top distributor does not move laterally.

More photos and a previous discussion about Reprex presses at:
http://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/2006/12/06/reprex-once-over/

Archives of other Reprex discussions:
http://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/category/other-brands/reprex/

Operator’s manual and model spec sheets:
http://vandercookpress.info/reprex

image: sf_reprex_drum.jpg

sf_reprex_drum.jpg

Thanks, guys. I’ll review that material for a solution.