ink disc

Interesting. I suspect something else is going on, but, I guess it’s not impossible. I would be looking at the interaction of the pawl and the ridges on the back of the disk while you slowly cycle the press. Watching it may reveal something else. Also, If the disk moves really freely, you could manually hold the pawl away from the disk and spin the disk slowly and see if it ever reverse direction even a bit when it stops. Another simple test is if you have one of the 11’s that has a double ended pawl, try swinging it the other way to reverse the direction of the ink disk. Golding castings were pretty accurate. If there isn’t something visibly wrong on the back of the disk, it’s hard to believe the casting is so out of balance to exhibit the problem you describe.

I have this phenomenon to some degree on my Golding Jobber #6. After a dozen impressions I’ll get the ding-ding-ding of the over rotation. I also think it is a disk unbalance issue. But the ink seems uniform on both the disk and rollers so I’ve never felt the need to correct it.

I have a similar problem with my Sigwalt Nonpareil, and I have alleviated it a bit with a flat “refrigerator”-type magnet. Unfortunately I only had one but it seems to do the job.

Bob

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I saw a video of this press running online. I see the pawl moving the ink disk. At the center of the disk is a shaft that is held by an arm. I’m thinking that the shaft in it’s holder should be introducing some friction to keep the disk from spinning too freely. Is there a set screw holding the disk to this shaft that might be loose so that the friction is lost? Or some other source of friction adjustment at the holder?
Just a thought.

thanks everyone for chiming in about this.

john, i did both things you mentioned. when i hold the pawl away, the X at 12 o’clock, nudge it either direction, X falls to the bottom, 6 o’clock. i also switched the pawl to the opposite direction and it was the same thing. watching from the back, when the pawl moves backward to grab a new ridge, the entire disc moves backward once the pawl stops pushing forward.
i think, like ken says, it might be unbalanced. mine is probably more unbalanced than either ken’s or bob’s because i get no rotation when the X is trying to make it back up to the top.
bob, i bought some heavy magnets and tried attaching them, but it’s still really tricky to get it to work all the way around. i’m also worried it’s a little too much weight, but maybe that’s not something i should worry about? i’ve got about 150 grams on there right now.
bruce, there doesn’t seem to be a spot for a set screw, but there is this little notch. i have no idea if something is supposed to go in there, but mine is empty. i’ve attached a picture.

edit: i’m having trouble uploading the picture. my bad.

My magnet is placed near the hub because that seems to work. But you might try placing them out near the rim, where they will have more effect. I would start with one on the edge opposite the bottom when the disc is at its preferred position (X at the bottom) outside (nearer the edge) of the ring of ridges that the pawl catches to move it. Give the ink disc a spin and watch where it stops. If the X is still seeking bottom add a magnet beside the first. You should achieve balance without much more weight unless there is something stuck to the disc weighting it, or broken off it. Once you achieve a reasonable semblance of balance mark the location of the magnets with paint. The weight of the magnets should not cause any problems other than balancing the disc rotation.

If you have any galley magnets try one of them — that will probably push things out of balance the other way!

Bob

I have a similar ink disk wobble problem on my Sigwalt No. 5. The shaft on the ink disk doesn’t match perfectly with the bore/inner race (not sure what you call it) that holds it on the press - there is a bit of play between the two pieces but it’s still too tight to shim. Packing in enough bearing grease reduces the wobble significantly though.

I also have a similar issue on my Golding Jobber #6. It gets stuck in the same spot. I give it a little nudge to get it going and it spins quickly about a quarter of the way before everything engages and starts working….until it gets to “sticking” spot again. I’ve just been managing it with the nudge, but I’m excited to try the magnet to see if that will help. Great advice!

i tried the magnets, and while not perfect, the ink disc is spinning much better now. i used the heaviest magnets i could find at the big box hardware store.

thanks everyone for your help!

Glad to hear you made good progress. Bob’s magnet idea was a good one. It obviously was the problem. I am still curious how it was off so much as to not work properly. My experience with restoring Golding presses has made me so impressed with the fit and finish of what came out of the factory. I cannot imagine a press leaving the factory in this condition. You are certain this is the original Golding disk?

i am not sure if it is the original disc. i bought the press last fall from mike in stl. he hadn’t done much to it at that point and didn’t mention whether or not the disc was original.
i will say that until doing this current project, the problem didn’t seem as bad. we did a run of about 600 coffee bags in the fall, maybe 100 xmas cards, and some other assorted coasters and junk through the winter without having to resort to hand spinning the disc. i’m not sure if it actually got worse or if i wasn’t paying enough attention before.

I agree with Bruce that this is one of the rare situations where you actually need *more* friction.

Have you tried putting masking tape (as an experiment) on these two surfaces? If it works, you can try a more durable solution, such as cutting out a ‘washer’ from pressboard or similar. That should prevent the disk from rotating undesirably.

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After hearing everything, me too Ken. Just providing a little friction should allow the pawl to rotate the disk without it falling back. It would also solve my dilemma of Golding not letting a press go out with this problem. The disk may have gotten worn over the years which would make the problem appear and then worsen as it moved more and more freely.

thanks again to everyone for your advice! i had the disc loaded up with magnets before i tried the friction idea. it worked, but sometimes seemed really hesitant to move, sluggish. i’m guessing i had it loaded a little too much. today i tried a washer made of red pressboard and took off about half the weight in magnets. it worked like a charm!