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My ink disc is the kind where the center piece is separate from the larger disc. It appears as if when inking the center piece leaves an un inked part on the roller and therefore leaves a streak on the print. Any way to fix this? How do I work around the line separating the 2 discs.
What kind and size of press do you have?
I had a C&P 8X12 with a two part ink disc and don’t recall having that problem.
You refer to “the roller.” Do you have only one roller? That could be your problem. You need two or, if your press is designed for them, preferably 3 rollers, so the different rollers will cover any uninked areas.
Are both parts of the ink disc at exactly the same height if you put a straightedge across them? If not, I could see where this might cause the rollers to lift slightly off the lower part of the disc, where the two parts meet, and cause an uninked area. If the lower part of the disc is the middle part, perhaps you could shim it up slightly.
Where the two parts of the disc come together, is there a significant gap, or are the edges of the parts worn so that they don’t meet closely?
As a separate but related topic, does the middle part of your disc rotate in the opposite direction as the outside part? This is what they were originally designed to do, to improve ink distribution. However, many older presses today no longer have the gears which caused the parts to counter-rotate, and both parts rotate in the same direction. (In fact, in the newer presses [those manufactured in and after 1911 in the case of C&Ps], the two-part ink disc was discontinued in favor of a one piece disc).
I have a Gordon and have 2 rollers. I just started having the problem so maybe I can check the levelness of the two discs. I am pretty sure they move in the same direction but not 100% on that. Not too sure why it just started. Oh so frustrating :)
Another possible cause is that when you clean the ink disc with solvent, a small amount of the solvent may get down in the circular slit between the two parts of the ink disc. Then, if you ink up the press again, the solvent seeps out and dissolves the ink in the vicinity of the circular slit. To prevent this on my press, I always took out the smaller center part of the ink disc and thoroughly wiped all residual solvent off that piece, as well as wiping the area in the larger, outer part of the disc which the center part fits into.
To get the center part of the ink disc out, on my C&P I had to unscrew and take off one bolt and thick washer on the bottom end of the shaft which was connected to the center part of the ink disc. Then the lower gear which was also on this shaft, just slid off (I had to be careful not to let it drop). Then if I pushed on the bottom end of this shaft, that would push up the center part of the disc so that I could grab hold of it and take it out. (As I recall, while pushing, I also had to spin the inner part of the ink disc to help break the vacuum between it and the outer part of the disc, so that it would come out. It was a tight fit, and the residual solvent acted as a seal, making it even tighter).
If the two parts of your ink disc don’t counter-rotate, they may be tightly stuck together with old ink, etc.