Daughaday Model 3 Roller Dimensions
My husband and I were saving money for a small C&P but this summer my uncle surprised us with a salvaged Daughaday Model 3 Improved press that he found in a friend’s junkyard. It needs work and a good cleaning but still looks workable. It, of course, has no rollers, and I’m not sure how to go about finding the correct roller dimensions for it. Does anyone out there have one of these little presses? Any advice?
the place to start would be a roller company, they usually have all the specs for different presses.
thanks!
You could also ignore the “specs” and just measure the press. If you have four roller trucks you have one dimension for the rollers, and the press provides the others.
Bob
Ark -
I’ll go with Bob on this one. I have in my hands 15 file cards from the Kelsey Company archives. These cards were used by Kelsey Co as reference to cast rollers for Daughday presses over their 100-year history.
Although many are marked Model 1, Model 2 and Model 4, none are marked Model 3. However, multiple cards referring to the Daughday “5x8” show diameters ranging from 1 1/8” to 1 3/8”.
These records are not terribly precise.
But they don’t need to be. I make rollers to fit the presses I work on. The important thing is that they work for your press and that’s pretty easy to figure out.
So, following on Bob’s advice to measure the press, I concur.
If you have roller trucks, they can be a guide to original roller shaft and diameter. Otherwise, if you don’t have trucks, or old rollers, both can be custom made for you. I now use Delrin trucks and turn my own on a small lathe I got just for this purpose.
You may also be able to buy some stock rollers and trucks and simply cut the down to the length you need. The shaft can be quickly cut to length using a hack saw and the rubber trims easily on a wood lathe using an exacto knife. That’s how I do it.
If you go for custom-cast rollers, 3/8” rod makes a good shaft and 1 1/4” is a good diameter for the rubber on a small press.
The length of the rubber needs to be enough to cover your form - or ink disk - but with room enough for the trucks to ride on the rails.
The length of the shaft must be long enough to span the roller hooks’ width - but not so long that they interfere with any other parts (side arms, etc) they may encounter during their travel over the form and ink disk.
The diameter should be over 1” but not so large that they rub against the grippers.
The trucks should be a bit smaller in diameter than the rollers. Black vinyl electrical tape can be used to increase their diameter - see: http://excelsiorpress.org/reference/presswork/smallpresswork.html#taping...
But nothing can be done if they’re too large to begin with - and not all presses have rails that are exactly type high, so heed this caution. If you will have custom rollers cast and custom trucks turned, be sure that they will fit your press.
Measure your rail height - and inner (width) dimension of your chase bed. Measure the overall length to the outside of your roller hooks. Measure the distance from the bed to the grippers, subtract .918” and you’ll have the max diameter that will work on your press.
I usually figure the maximum practical diameter for the rollers is about 1/8 inch less than the center-to-center distance between the roller hooks on one side of the press (when the hooks are facing the same direction and retracted all the way). The diameter of the cores should be the width of the hook openings assuming they are not bent closed or open. Measure across the press from outside to outside of the hooks, as Alan suggests, and add a little, maybe 1/4 inch, for the core length. If you don’t have trucks, I’d go with an even increment for the diameter of the rollers, as the manufacturer can match that easiest for cast rollers. Then size your new trucks accordingly.
Bob