Me and My Challenge 8x12
Long story short after having spent the last 15 years in the offset sheet fed printing world I know have a 8x12 Challenge letterpress I look forward to operating.
I was lucky enough to find it locally and only a few parts missing. I have already sourced the rollers and trucks and should have them soon. Treadle was missing but the V belt to conical pulley came with it so I should be able to get away with a .5hp 115v motor to drive a flat belt on the flywheel. I figure it will need to be bump started but that is no big deal.
After some scrubbing she has cleaned up fairly well. I am not going for a restoration. I just want a functioning machine I can produce some prints on for fun.
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr123/JeffS399/imagejpg1_zps03d7d713....
I should add this picture of as it was found. Ink disc still inked up and a light coating of rust on anything not painted..luckily it has a big of grease and grime on it that seemed to keep everything in fairly good shape. It seems to cycle really smooth.
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr123/JeffS399/imagejpg1_zpsdcebbf3a....
And here is the drive set up for the motor. It appears somebody set it up to use 4 pullies to adjust speed ?
But my question is…Is it safe to just wire a rheostat in line with the motor for speed control ? It is 115v single phase..my guess is no ?
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr123/JeffS399/imagejpg1_zps39b2a1fc....
I don’t think a rheostat will work with an AC motor — they were meant for use with direct current (DC). But you can probably find an electronic motor speed controller for small electric motors at a good hardware store or someplace like Grainger.
Bob
JeffS77, if you call up, on B.P. the entries for 26th, March, 2013 >Michelle_S C.& P. 22 x14, needs Motor etc<. very comprehensive breakdown of Motors and speed controllers, including humble effort from myself,! but shots and info of Coned Pulley arrangements, inc. H/berg Platen down to smaller *A* section *V* belts, as you imply you already have partial V belt system, The expanding pulley, One of, only, is so simple, if Stateside,your suppliers are up to speed, (no pun intended) source a motor of the correct fixed speed, & phase configuration, no electrical speed variation needed, coned pulley, with (hopefully if U.S.A. is on a par with U.K. suppliers) *Slave* adaptor on to output shaft from the motor, metric or imperial shaft size, with coned pulley atop, impressive speed variation, purely mechanical, and good possibility of Second Hand coned pulley from redundant (parted out seems to be your terminology) Multilith, Gestelith, Hamada, etc.etc. Litho Machine,s.
Just scrapped, parted out, for spare,s 14 Station, collating Machine, with exactly that motor and drive system, i.e. 3/4 H.P. Motor runing at 1,425 R.P.M. with single coned pulley, the collator would go from *crawling* to *flying* according to the stock, but 5 to 6,000 miles would be a long way to ship.??? and the wrong voltage and frequency, anyway, 50 cycles per second as opposed to 60 cycles per second @ 240 V. Single phase, Sorry. Apologies if this be rubbish, but may present possible alternatives, Good Luck.
Wow information overload j/k
I will look into the recomended thread.
Mick my last post has a link to my drive set up.
I think with the 4 pullies on it for the motor and a little calculation I have enough options to get the rpm running right.