8x12 C&P Frame

Hello all! Another press disassembly/moving inquiry. I have recently moved my press, a C&P 8x12 old style, out from my in-laws basement and was curious if any have had experience taking the frame and rocker apart as I do not trust my stairs and it would be much more easy to manage it in separate pieces, I also would like to clean some gunk off that is not it is some hard to reach places :)… I know gunk is good sometimes… but like to get a lot ad some of it s innards ;). I realize did know if there was a way to remove the gear cam and head cam reality easily without damaging the press to remove the main shaft to separate it.

Any help is much appreciated! Thank you!

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An 8x12 OS only weighs a bit more than a few friends. I’d just take it down the stairs with a come-along and skids.

But…
Removing the inking system, sidearms and bed isn’t particularly hard. The bed will not go down all the way to the floor on its hinge, be prepared to prop it up. The internal frame is held in place with 4 bolts…very easy to remove. The platen and rocker are a bit trickier to remove. The bottom two bolts holding the platen to the rocker are hard to reach even with the internal frame gone, but patience and a bit of jockeying with the wrench will get it done. The rocker is held on with the two rocker boxes AND the cam follower stud inside the large gear. The cam follower stud needs to come out first through the hole in the large gear. Take off the nut and gently tap the stud while the hole is aligned with it. Try not to let the cam follower fall to the floor, it is very precisely machined and dings easily on a concrete floor. Then the two rocker boxes can be removed. The rocker is not stable without the rocker boxes, so have a friend hold it in place or strap it in place until you can carry it off to some place safe.

I’ve never managed to get the small head and large gear off the main shaft. It’s probably not worth it for weight reduction on shaky stairs. By this point it doesn’t weigh much more than a heavy friend.

Putting it all back together is fairly straightforward, except the cam follower and stud. Getting everything to line up is hard, tolerances are very tight and it helps to have a couple of friends holding things still. Even so, be prepared to be frustrated.

I have nothing to mechanically contribute, but I’d say some boards running up and down plus some timbers bracing the stairs at different points might well do the trick to pull it up/down on some skids. It might take a lot less time than disassembly.