Delays

It's been more than a month since my last post. Not that I have been lazy about this, but the money making work comes first, and so the work increments on the press have been smaller and with several week interruptions. Then there was the gib-key fiasco for the pinion gear that I ordered wrong, and had to re-order. Then there was the straight edge that I ordered - and that somewhere during shipment punched a hole through the packaging and escaped into the wild (likely in the back of a UPS truck). That too had to be re-ordered, but now I got it and can finally get to work checking the press bed for straightness.
The last week has been like Christmas. I got packages from the seller of the press, with the feed table (with the cast bracket) and the all important chase. Then I received the mini-furniture cabinet that I bought via briarpress from a printer in Florida, with a bunch of metal furniture (still waiting on the wood furniture). Ah, and I got an impression counter, not really needed, but why not.
And then there was a two week holiday in the sun and several weeks away up north.
A new resolution to throw out more stuff from the garage, so that I can fit the new stuff in place and make more room for working the press.

A list of what is required to complete the reworking of the press and make it ready to print:

• Finish cleaning and painting
• Polish / straighten press bed
• Check & correct siderail elevation to press bed
• Check & correct/adjust platen to pressbed distance
• Define motor size and purchase
• Buy and install VFD
• Buy ink rollers & trucks
• Buy first zinc plate with backing
• Buy tympan & pressboard
• Buy cotton paper
• Buy ink

Well that's it for now - pictures to come...

Shaft Treatment

Yes it has been unbearably cold! So I got done litte with working on the cold cast iron. But there are some new pictures of what I have been concentrating on lately: Polishing shafts. Here are the throw off linkage shafts.

And here is the flywheel shaft after the sequenced emery cloth treatment.

And the back shaft with the side arm still to be done.

And this is what the rear of the press looks like right now. On some of the parts I noticed the old ink remaining here and there seeping through the paint. So I will have to go for another coat.

And this has me considering changing the banner picture for my blog!

Oh and I was able to pull out the key holding in the pinion for the main gear that I talked about in the last posting. Seems every time I even think about leaving something and then get at it I discover more. This time it was that the key was not the right width, but was too high and had been filed to a taper - and then was driven in only one third of the way! Good thing I got it out, now I have a new propper size gib key on order.

Gear Misalignment?

Is this a problem I'm asking anyone who has an opinion - don't hold back.

The main gear and the drive pinion are out of alignment by about 1/4 inch (on the left side). By the corrosion on the main shaft it looks like the pinion did at one time sit about 1/4 inch to the left, which would bring all of the gear-teeth surfaces into full contact. Is that something I should correct? Looks to me like the pinion is shrunk onto the shaft as I don't see any pin or screw holding it.

Main Gear Camwheel Cleanup

I just about overdosed on gasoline vapours. Right now it is -22 degrees F out there, and it is fairly cool in the garage. I removed the right side arm and the large gear cover, and proceded to clean off the grease and junk off the main gear and it's pinion.

That took a lot of gasoline and a lot of rubbing with a terry-cloth rag. But the gear and the pinion are nice and clean now. And then I looked over every tooth, and aside for a little piece of metal that was embedded in the root between a couple of the large gear teeth, everything looks good. The pinion is not aligned very well with the main gear (it's out be about 1/4 inch), and I am wondering if the pinion is deliberately moved towards the press frame to keep the shaft positioned in place. But there is hardly any wear on the gears.

Grippers and Gripper Bar

Last night I thought I'd attack the gripper bars and the rail they mount on to. Turns out the bars are kind of bent and not even. One has definite signs of type embedding into it. And there are a lot of hammer marks from bashing the bottom of the grippers when they were being adjusted.

So I filed the edges for a better appearance. I noticed all the gripper pieces were originally painted black. Because the grippers will have to be moved back and forth for various size work, I don't think the regular paint is a good idea. So I am either going to try a thinner epoxy finish or maybe leave them unpainted. Here the gripper bars are at the first stage of cleaning with a die grinder attack. Next I have to rig up some anvil surface to hammer them straight, and then do the final polish.

Back Shaft Polishing

After most of the week away I decided to spend some time on the back shaft (the one connecting the press bed and the roller frame, and onto which the side arms connect). Now that the items around it have been painted it really looks bad.

The shaft rotates only within the limits of the throw-off linkage, so it's mainly stationary, and dirt and stuff built up over the years allowing some serious corrosion to happen on the upper surface of that shaft. Scotch-Brite, air tool and emery cloth were applied vigorously and I worked up a sweat. Tomorrow after some final polish I will apply some clear coat to the shaft. I decided to try out this product I found, to highlight a few of the machined areas of the press. As mentioned before, I am not going to apply pinstriping and a work of art paint-job. But the machine does not have to look boring either. I am aiming for a "serious machine" look.

More Cleaning & Painting

I took off the ink plate support braket, cleaned and painted it. The disk advance leaver as well got the same treatment. As I was working on that I realized that it is easier to shim the whole braket up (to make up for the ink disk machining hight loss), then to make a bronze disk to put on the disk journal. Then I takled the rear of the press bed (under the ink disk), with those deep pockets formed by the web of reinforcing bars. That area is a real trap for dirt and junk and is also the place where I have found the worst scaling (likey from the original casting process).

After yet another night of cleaning and painting the rear and sides of the press bed are painted. For a while now I thought the paint I'm using (Tremclad dark blue) was too soft. But I'm changing my mind on that. The first items I painted more than a week ago now are getting harder every day. I was worried about being able to wipe oil of the surface if it stayed relatively soft. And I'm getting used to the colour as well - I thought that it was too light, but it's nice to be able to see all the parts even when the light is not right on it, and also I'm just getting used to it.

A New Surface on the Ink Disk

Tonight the ink disk got machined. There was significant run-out, although not as bad as it looked when we put the straight edge across it. There is something about the light coming through that little gap formed by the straight edge and the surface being checked that really amplifies any error.

The gap looked huge, but on the lathe with a dial indicator it "only" measured 0.020". In any case, to get a decent cut and a feed rate without chatter resulted in 0.030" being taken off the ink surface.  A big deal was to have secondary support at the ratchet ring to the lathe chuck. Before that the cutting tool action on the disk was just screeming with vibration. The surface is not perfect, but it is perfectly flat and I can polish the rest in position on the press. Now I've got to get myself a machinist straight edge so that I can measure if the disk sits too low, and if I have to make up a bronze washer for the bearing to bring it up the 0.030" that it was sitting higher before.

Finally Moved Inside

After a bunch more moving stuff around, throwing stuff away and recycling - the press is inside! Its mot pretty, and there is a lot more stuff that will have to go, but it's inside before the snow!


And if that is not enough, the first piece has been painted. I took off the ink platter, cleaned it and painted the under side.
The top side will take some more work. When the press was shut down and stored something was left on the platter - it was likely ink - and that has eaten into the surface. The Scotch-Brite pad on the die grinder is cleaning it up but there are quite a few pits left. So I took the sanding disk and tried to get more agressive in polishing the marks out. I'm not happy with the results. I'm going to look for a machine shop to grind the surface on a lathe so as not to remove too much metal. But its a start!
 

I found a machine shop, but that started some real concern: We put a straight edge across the ink surface and discovered either the platter is seriously distorted - or it is supposed to be crowned (the center being sone 3/16" higher than the sides). I will have to wait until it is put on the lathe before we can be sure. In the meantime I'd appreciate if anybody can check their C&P ink platters to see it they are crowned or really flat?

A Better Tool

What a difference a better tool makes! I visited a machinist tool shop and came a way with an air operated die grinder, a disk mandrel and a selection of sanding and cleaning disks. The tool runs at 20,000 RPM and does a real nice job of cutting through surface rust. So far I have only used the polishing disks, I really don't want to take off metal unless I can measure the results.

Now I just have to deal with the fact that my air compressor is waayy too small to power the tool properly. Right now I have to wait 30 seconds, make a pass, wait another 30 seconds and so on.
What I really went there fore is a machinists straight edge, so that I could check the bed and platten for straightness. They did not have those in stock and I got talking with a real helpful guy behind the counter and I came away with this real fine tool. Now I'll have to rent a better air compressor for a few days.