C&P 10x15 - remove platen

You have to remove the cam roller first. It is held on to its arm by its shaft. You remove the nut on the end of the shaft and the shaft can in theory be removed from the arm by being pushed through the hole in the bull gear that lines up with it. The cam wheel stays behind during this process and then drops free once the shaft comes all the way out.

I say that in theory the shaft can be removed because I’ve found this to be impossible on the presses I’ve worked on without exerting more force that I would be comfortable with on the cast iron arm. I may have been doing something wrong or it may just have been stuck real good after all those years.

While I probably could have gotten it out eventually, since I didn’t consider removal of the platen shaft essential I left the cam roller alone after cleaning and lubricating. I cleaned the platen rocker shaft the best I could after removing the bearing covers. I did however remove the platen from the rocker shaft including the impression bolts. That allowed better access and cleaning overall. I was not going to trust the original platen adjustment in any case.

Rich

Front Room Press
Milford, NJ
http://frontroompress.com
http://frontroompress.blogspot.com

The cam roller stud is usually fairly stubborn from years of sitting in the same place. A bit of persuasion in the form of indirect percussion with a hammer and wooden dowel will get it loose if the hole in the large gear is lined up exactly. It’ll likely give way all of a sudden and go shooting out of the hole if you don’t make arrangements to catch it prior to “persuading”. The cam and stud are very closely matched and there are very tight tolerances involved any sort of a drop to an unprotected hard floor will make it that much harder to put back together. Similarly, you don’t want the cam to drop to the floor.

Putting this all together again has been one of the more interesting challenges of putting C&P presses back together for me . You have to hold the platen at just the right position while holding the cam in just the right spot all the while lining up the hole in the gear, the cam, and the screw hole for the stud perfectly. The stud just won’t go in at any angle other than straight on; even then it needs to be well lubricated to go into the cam at all.

Great insight, Rich and Arie. Thank you. I tried several attempts with “indirect percussion” :) and didn’t have success. Like you, Rich, it seemed to need more force than I felt comfortable with. I’ll continue my efforts with this over the next few days.

While I’m here, I thought I’d mention this too. I was recently successful removing the flywheel shaft key on another press (not mine). I’ve yet to remove the key on my press though and am curious about a thin, metallic coil (curved upwards) that was loosely attached on the top of the key where the key meets the gear. This broke off very easily as I inspected it. It seems that it is some kind of flat pin that secured the key in place. Have you seen this before? I’m not sure if this is affecting my ability to remove the key. I am unable to remove this as there is nothing to grab onto. Any ideas on this? Now, I’m just getting greedy. :)

Thank you!

Try some penetrating oil (like Kroil) on the cam stud and cam on the theory there is some rust inside the arm of the platen. Let it sit overnight and then try again.

Thanks, Arie. I just realized that I never responded to this thread. I had removal success with a wood piece and a small sledge. It removed quite easily after I gave it a little more force.

Now, as I’m in the homestretch of my restoration, I am facing reassembling the cam roller/stud assembly. I’ve been looking forward to it (insert sarcasm here). :)

I posted another new comment to ask the group for any tips on this.