Damaged our Heidelberg Windmill?
Your windmill advice is really greatly needed!
Printing today quite a very heavy pattern which required us to have the impression lever screwed out quite far - out near the number 4. Very bad I know.
Whilst printing about 50 sheets in as the press made an impression it made quite an unusual bang, and now we are not getting any impression to the centre of the impression bed - but does have a slight impression on the outer edge of the bed (but not as heavy as it was previously).
The impression lever now feels like its got a bit of a loose pull when holding it whilst the press is in motion.
And with the press turned off as you pull in and out the lever you can hear a slight metal against metal noise. Don’t know if this is a new noise or not, as we don’t often adjust the impression lever when the motor isn’t running.
So what have we broken, and the question is how do we fix it??
Hello,
it seems to me that you broke the safety shearing collar that ‘prevent coslty damage to the press if maximum impression of the press is ever exceeded”, dixit p.106 of the manual.
I think (and i hope for you), that you just have to change this piece, by removing the six hexagon bolts behind the machine. You will find illustrations on the p.107.
I hope this will help you. I guess Heidelberg is still selling those. Keep us informed !
Sounds like the shear collar has done it’s job and sheared.
See page 106 in the manual, it may help,
Check the centre bolt for lateral movement.
Thanks! After doing some research online we have also come to the same conclusion. Lately the press has been having more impression down lower then up higher which apparently is a sign of shear collar wear/stress? I guess our heavy impression just threw it right off.
So now the question is where can I very urgently find a new one and get it shipped to Australia?
Are they tricky to replace?
It doesn’t seem very tricky to me. You must get the manual of the press if you don’t already have it, it’s all explained with illustrations !
Thanks, Husband has just had a chance to inspect the press. Middle bolt was very loose and as expected collar is fractured into about 8 pieces before we stopped counting. Found instructions in the manual, so hopefully we can get it fixed asap.
Now urgently need to find a new shearing collar - any advice? Google isn’t giving me many leads.
Thanks, Alischa
http://www.au.heidelberg.com/www/html/en/startpage
I bought a shearing collar a couple months back from Presswerx in Texas for $85.00 plus shipping. It’s Heidelberg part no. T0152. People on this site have them cheaper though.
Thanks for all your advice.
Sheer collar has now been replaced thanks to Heidelberg Australia. Not a cheap exercise so also ordering a cheaper part from overseas for “next” time.
Wasn’t too difficult to replace thanks to other posts here on Briar Press. Inserting a block of wood into the press, forced the broken sheer collar to move a little to allow extraction.
Brings me to the thought that if a collar should be replaced every three years - what is happening to the presses which are getting a good old thumping in todays age of letterpress?
Alischa,
Where did you get the idea that a shearibg collar should be replaced every three years?
I operated Heidelbergs 15 x 10 and 12 x 18 platens for over 50 years, and only replaced one shearing collar in that time, and that was due to bad operation by a young apprentice.
It was some one else’s comment here on Briar press. Thanks for the clarification.
> Brings me to the thought that if a collar should be replaced
> every three years - what is happening to the presses which
> are getting a good old thumping in todays age of letterpress?
They’re breaking. Respect your machinery.