C&P old style ink platen (double disk)

I recently watched a YouTube video on a letterpress subject and saw that the press’s ink platen was a double disk type (counter rotating disks). Mine has that but the two disks always went in unison. I took it off my press and found a hidden, small, tapered pin holding them together (see photo with the red circle in case anyone is interested). I punched that out and now they are free of each other, but I am missing the mechanism to make the inside disk move. I don’t know what I need. If someone can pull their inking platen off (If you have a working double disk) and take a picture of what is needed to make it go I would love it!

This isn’t absolutely necessary as it inks up just fine but I would like to see if I can make the double disks work instead of one large disk. Seems like it would make the inking process more random and even.

image: IMG6169.jpg

IMG6169.jpg

image: IMG6172.jpg

IMG6172.jpg

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Counter-rotating ink disks are worthless. They do little to help distribute the ink and are a pain to clean. In every commercial and most hobby operations I’ve worked in or visited, the gears to make the disks have been removed. Such is the case with the four C&Ps that I operate now.

Came here to say the same.

My most prized possessions for my c&ps are the single piece light weight ink discs.

Counter rotating discs were abandoned by most shops for good reason.

John and rmiller021 are correct. The split counter-rotating ink disk does nothing for ink distribution efficiency and is a pain to keep clean.

That said it is absolutely cool to watch ink distribution happen on one of these. I have a Old Series 8x12 that has one of these and I had if restored to a functional state. I get a kick out of watching the patterns that emerge and disappear in the initial stages of spreading out the ink. I was lucky that all the gears were present and it only needed a short pin to engage the bottom gear to make it all work.

I also operate the press with a treadle and John has observed on occasion I’m way too slow a printer. But then I aim not to make any money with printing and have succeeded in this admirably. For me, printing is fun, and slowing things down extends the fun. If you are aiming to make money, things like counter-rotating ink disks and treadles are just costing you time and money. Even if they are cool.

Thanks everyone. I’m in Arie’s camp: slow and fun. But being a mechanical engineer I’m in love with this 100 year-old, very heavy, brilliantly designed gizmo. It is really cool to see those disks spin opposite. Who knows, I may try to figure out how that happens.

Thanks everyone. I’m in Arie’s camp: slow and fun. But being a mechanical engineer I’m in love with this 100 year-old, very heavy, brilliantly designed gizmo. It is really cool to see those disks spin opposite. Who knows, I may try to figure out how that happens.

I like mine, I do think it improves the distribution. Probably not enough to be a big deal though. It is harder to clean up- if you flood it with solvent it will carry ink underneath, so have to take a little more time. It requires a couple of gears that are usually missing. As others mention, a lot of printers just disabled it and either replaced with a single disk, or let them get stuck together.

Just one thing to add, hinted at by others above: operating the press with the counter-rotating function does allow you to print at a very slow speed. Trying to print at this very slow speed without the second gear in place generates insufficient motion to move the ink disk. p.s. It is very interesting to watch the press ink up with the counter-rotating function. I only use it demonstrating the movement of the press and how it relates to the inking.

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secondgear.jpg

Thanks Jim for the photo. To make the two missing gears, this might be a good job for my 3D printer.

I cast the big gear:

https://flic.kr/p/25HtmB5

My press had the smaller gear, maybe this is a candidate for 3D printing if you don’t have this on your machine.

I had both gears cast out of machine bronze by a friend of a friend who casts cannons. I still have a couple of the gears, but these are the really rough ones that will need a lot of filing/cleaning/machining to get into usable shape.

Follow up: I 3D printed the two gears and made a shoulder bolt to hold the smaller one. It works great but I doubt I’ll keep them in the press. They are made from a tough polymer but I don’t think they will last too long.

image: printedgears.jpg

printedgears.jpg

Use the 3Ds as masters and have them cast in bronze! I’m in the middle of having some Gordon gears cast. Also, you probably know that McMaster-Carr sells shoulder bolts.