Tips on perfecting register on the Windmill?

Hi Kitty,
Frank here again, glad to hear you have your bottom lays fixed. How about this as a suggestion to try out registration first off. Make sure your packing is perfectly flat and set to the right thickness and using something like 100 to 150 gsm stock run a single colour through the press and then run the same sheets through again for a second time. If that is good then try thicker stock and see how you get on. If you still have problems lets see the results. There are a number of possibilities, one I heard about the other week was a old chase on a later press and the chase was moving sideways. Also on your new lays are you using pins? Only use pins on the left hand lay and be careful it is not too tight on to the sheet and movibg it.
Look forward to hearing your reply.

It looks like you are running 40pt Wild ?. I assume you have changed both setting on the press for running with guides. I assume you are gripping the short side with the long side against the lay guides. From the photo I think you have two issues. One is with the lay guides the other is packing. I use only brass guides. When I start any job I adjust the lay bar adjustment screws to the middle. I screw them all the way down then back up 2 - 3 half turns. I also set the head stop to the middle. If the head stop is backed in or backed out to much it may cause pop when registering. I leave the settings alone and move my photopolymer plate to get it straight on my first color. I make sure the fence adjust is in the middle. I found early on after working with guides that one of my lay guides was twisted. I also put new grippers bars on. I replaced both with new brass guides and the issues went away. Make sure to use a pin on the back guide that is tall enough to insure the paper goes under the pin and thus stays in the guide. Make sure your left side paper fence is not to far in. You do not want the paper to need to fall to far to to reach the lay guides. Make sure you are getting a good clean succer pickup. Your dont want the press to have to reregister the sheet from a bad pickup. Since the grippers let go of the paper, it drops into the guides and is then pushed to register packing is important. Check to see if you have clearance between the packing and the sheet at the point the grippers let go. You can check it by feeding a sheet in and turning feed off. Slowly bump the feed until your bed is also most closed and you find the point the gripper opens, it will match the point on the cam of the main housing. Take flash light and shine it down along the gripper. If you are over packed as the gipper opens it will cause the sheet to be pushed against the gipper bar and not allow it the freedom to drop into place as it drags on the gripper bar(I saw this possibly happening on you samples) but it can be the prior noted issues as well. In closing, I can run perfect register 2 color all day long and then die cut it as well. Try your project again and let it know how it works

Repeating what has been posted but abridged.
Print 10 - 20 sheets. Put them back in and imprint on them. They should look perfect except darker in color.
Use brass lays, not the nickel ones (for beginners).
With the press open, pull up on the side lay and set your sheet onto it with the left lay as far back as possible.

As for loading the paper, slide the left paper standard all the way to the left and I then move it 3-4 mm right.
Of my two machines, one does better (perfect) using cheaters.

kittyj-

Your JPEG photo link doesn’t work.
Post a couple photos of the way you have the brass lays set up, with and without your paper/card stock in place on them.

This will help getting you squared away.

I run multiple colors on all kinds of stock and envelopes in perfect register routinely on the 10x15 Heidelberg without issues.

Michael
www.nickel-plate-press.com

I just looked in the two manuals I have but couldn’t find reference to the rubber strip on the two gripper bars which hold the sheet in position when held by the grippers. If that strip is missing or in bad shape, then I’ve found that the paper will tend to have difficulty in maintaining register.

Fritz,
Page 110 in the instruction manual.
” replacing gripper rubber pads for 10 x 15 and 13 x18”

Another thing to check is the shape of the grippers. If the springs are broken and or rubber is worn you may get an inconsistent grab both at both at the pickup and regrap of the bar after register

Here are my tips on maintaining press registration. The first color down is the most important. If the first pass doesn’t register, nothing else will. Can you see the corner marks on my print? They run off the bottom and the side of the press sheet. They are called “sheet run marks”. I can take a stack and see if ANY have misregistered. I recently ran over 200,000 with less than .05% waste., 2 colors, and die-cut. My rule is that if 1 sheet out of a hundred is out, I have a problem to fix. If it’s 1 out of a thousand, I need to know why, even if I cannot fix it.
I always set up on a similar sheet, but not the good stuff; I cannot waste good stock.
As far as replacing rubber on a gripper, knock yourself out… I buy my replacement grippers on eBay for about $70. I haven’t had to for at least 15 years, but I keep a spare just in case.
Best wishes from someone who has been there… BP
PS Running too slow can cause register problems too. I run an 8 point stock at 2,800 iph with no problems
PPS I’ve run windmills since 1973. I bought my first one from Carl Green at Quadco Printing in Chico, CA.

sheet run marks.jpg

Hi everyone!

Thank you for taking your time to type all of these specific tips. I shall try them out soon and report back! I’m just waiting on a fresh batch of paper stock.