Letterpress Reassembly
I recently moved a 8x12 C&P Oldstylr to a basement and to make it managable had to disassemble it a bit which included removin the heavy platen. Now I am trying to reassemble it I have hit a rut we cannot seem to get the cam stud to go back into the the rocker. When we disassemble it we just tapped it out through the whole on the large cam gear. Now it seems like the whole on the rocker is too small for the stud we cannot even tap it in. Any help would be apprciated I would love to get this beast up and running again!
Rocker
Gear
Cam and Stud
Here’s a trick I’ve used to install bearings when rebuilding transmissions. Put the stud in the freezer for about an hour, then heat up the hole on the rocker. You can use a torch or put a space heater next to it while the stud is in the freezer. You should be able to tap the cold stud into the hot hole.
The heat causes the metal around the hole to expand and the cold causes the stud to contract.
This is easily the most frustrating part of reassembling a C&P. The tolerances of the stud and cam are very tight. The heat and cold tip Sharecropper Press mentions may help, though I’ve never needed it. I oil up the cam and stud very liberally and have a helper jiggle the platen back and forth in tiny increments. My one hand is holding the stud and the other the cam, so my hands are well into the press as I’m sitting on the floor by the bull gear. The fly wheel may also need tiny adjustments to get everything to line up. Needless to say, your hands are very vulnerable, so your helper has to be very careful in any movements of platen and/or flywheel.