osillating rollers on 12 x 18 Kluge
We have recently purchased a 12x18 Kluge for letter press (relief printing) . I have rebuilt the ink fountain and put on new rollers, which was fun not knowing that there is a special tool to do this until I read on old discussion on the subject (thank you Brair Press!). I finally got a small bottle-jack and had a piece of steel weilded on top that would raise and hold the shaft (and saddle) allowing me to use both hands to deal with the rollers. My problem now is the press did not come with the two metal oscillating rollers and the one stationary metal roller. Of all the Kluges I’ve seen for sale none have had these rollers. What happens to them? and can I run my press without them?
You can print okay without them. Once you have used them, you’ll probably not want to print without them. They are built with brass acme threads that are usually worn pretty badly by the time you find one. With a little ingenuity, some acme threaded rod and nuts, tubing, and a lathe, you should be able to build a set.
I don’t know if the vibrating riding rollers were standard equipment or optional. If they were standard they probably just got lost or broken along the way. You can run the press just fine without them. I’d think you’d need to be running a pretty large form for the 4 form rollers to be inadequate or for ghosting to be an issue.
every press i built went out with them. but, as stated above they were not really needed. they turned out to be just something else that would fly off. for very large area they helped. make sure you double, triple check your roller installation each time, as even at low speeds these things can get dangerous when left to the laws of physics
They are not often needed for type forms. When we did have a form with gohsting problems, we would start with one ‘rider’ roller on the dist. rollers, if more help was needed, we would add one on the form rollers.