Adana 5x8 uneven/very light impression troubleshooting advice?

You might want to start with reading these:
https://drukwerkindemarge.org/download/documentatie/Type-and-Typesetting...
and:
https://drukwerkindemarge.org/download/documentatie/adana_8x5_manual.pdf
Good luck!

sorry, double post.

The adjustment knobs on the rear of the bed need careful adjustment: as mentioned in the previous post, instructions on how to do this should be found in the second link mentioned.

Thank you both so much! I will look into this.

In your photos it is difficult to tell for sure, but it looks like your ink rollers are smaller in diameter than the roller “wheels” or “trucks”. That would hold the rollers higher than the printing surface and cause exactly the problem you are having.

Try this. Using tape on the chase edge, tape a piece of cover-weight paper the size of the base to the BACK of the forme and reinsert the chase and try a print. If it improves but is still not completely even, add a sheet of letter-weight paper and keep trying this until the results are satisfactory. You may need to add a half-sheet at the edge that is lighter, as the difference implies that possibly the base is not absolutely uniform height or the bed is not completely seated on the press frame. But the best solution is probable to make SURE that the roller trucks are EXACTLY the same diameter as the roller covering.

AdLibPress, the smaller diameter of the rollers is a common feature of the Adana presses. All Adana presses came with these trucks.
Adana presses were built to function well when using UK/USA type height. The rails and the trucks are carefully calculated and balanced. Problems arise when you use a superior type height to the UK/USA height, for instance Dutch type height.
So your last remark is not valid here.
See more about it here:
https://drukwerkindemarge.org/download/documentatie/adana_8x5_manual.pdf
Especially page 8 of the PDF.

And, a question for the owner of the press, if you’re based in the UK, check out around you as there are many Adana users and somebody might be able to advice or help you here.

I beg to differ on the question of roller vs truck diameter. If the rollers and trucks are different diameters, their surface speed is slightly different because their radius from the center is different. The result has to be that ink is “smeared” onto the printing surface rather than being transferred solely by contact, and that results in ink accumulating on the shoulders of the letters instead of just on the faces. Of course that may not matter. But it can also result in the owner’s problem if the height to paper is different than the height to roller surface.

AdLibPress, it’s fine with me that you differ on this, but believe all the Adana presses, old and new have these trucks. It’s simply the way that these presses are constructed. I’ve had several of them over the years and even tried to adjust one to print with Dutch type height, but that’s impossible. And, taping the rails will only result that you can’t close the platen anymore. They work perfectly well with UK/USA height, but forget it when your type is higher.
And contrary to most platen presses, where you adjust the platen with the screws, on Adana you adjust the bed of the press.
I’ve got a Kelsey Excelsior 8 x 5 sitting here, that I’m doing up for a friend and that’s a different story all together.

Thomas, I was not aware of the stepped trucks of Adana presses, which make a lot of sense for use of composition rolls in a climate that varies so in humidity from summer to winter. But the illustrations in the Adana book show rollers that are visibly smaller than either step of the trucks, and that is what I was pointing out. In the US there were special roller trucks with expandable rubber tires, Morgan Expansion Trucks, to compensate for the changing diameters of composition rollers, but it was to ensure always that the roller diameter was exactly the same as the roller truck diameter, to avoid slurring. I used them for a number of years.