Craftsmen Imperial rollers and gripper
Hey there, After a long interest in printing -I ran an AB Dick 360 in the early ‘80’s, and did a bunch of linotypes 20 years ago- I got a bee in my bonnet to get inky.
I have two queries regarding this press. I have just recovered it from storage after 25 years, cleaned it up, and got enthused about playing with some type. I contacted Craftsmen machine company about rollers, they do have them available, and though the superiority of OEM equipment was implied, I found replacements available on Ebay for almost 1/2 the price with trucks included, unlike the OEM.
So, first question: for my casual experimentation on a low budget, would the cheaper ones serve me well?
Next: Sherwin Marks at Craftsmen helpfully included a schematic with his response and I see that the paper gripper assembly on my press is missing. I saw in a discussion here a few years back that someone indicated fabricating these could be easily done. again, as the OEM version is quite pricey for a few metal bits, (comes to 165 for the entire assembly.)
Does anyone have more details, pictures or specifications on what these look like or how they are constructed. my first thought was some brass stock? I would attempt fabrication if I had a better sense of the mechanism, the schematic provided was fairly rough on the details.
Thanks!
ImperialPressPartslist.png
it is hard to say if OEM are better, the aftermarket you speak of has hard zink plated cores with locked trucks, with stone ground not cast rubber for perfectly round and balanced roller. you will need for the higher demands of polymer plates.
as for grippers many take them off and just use letterpress gauge pins on small presses.
For the grippers, is the rod below the lower edge of the platen present? There should be a spring on one end of it that causes it to rotate slightly when the platen is closed. If so, I made a perfectly functional pair of grippers by getting some 1/8”x1/2” aluminum bar stock at a local hardware store, bending the end of the aluminum around the rod with enough of the short section extending so a hole could be drilled through the bent “hook” for a small (6-32x3/4”) machine screw with a nut, thus clamping the gripper on the rod with the long end up. Those grippers, on my Sigwalt Nonpareil copy of the Golding Official, have served for about 50 years.
Bob
Well, I went back to look at the Ebay rollers from ‘letterpress rollers’ and it said “one left” (one set) so decided to go for the free shipping and pull the trigger on those…I do have the old roller cores and trucks…presumably original, so one day those could be redone.
The entire gripper assembly is missing, I think it uses a square bar, seems like some holes and threads in some square bar stock, a couple of pieces of flat stock and a length of spring wire in the right place would work. Any details; pictures or drawings with specific tolerances appreciated.
Hey Toddspresstime- that’s you on Ebay! thanks.
I figured i could get away with just gauge pins, but i may tinker.