inconsistent inking on heidelberg windmill
hello everyone!!!! been a longtime reader of these forums.
ive been experiencing this problem on our 10x15 redball heidelberg windmill where it looks like the rollers will hit the plate rly hard at random points and make random prints rly juicy. its rly bad on the far right bottom (FRB) roller. ive adjusted roller height and i got it perfect with our lollipop gauge but even then this problem still shows up.
ive pushed the roller height to go past 0 on the FRB roller and it helps with juiciness for a little bit, but then suddenly it will barely ink the plate (bc the roller is too high). then i push the height down and it helps, but then suddenly ill get super juicy so randomly. ill have it at 0 exactly but still ill get random prints where it looks like the rollers are hitting it hard.
rollers are new from advanced roller. i think trucks and bearings are old. i run another windmill with also new rollers from the same place and its perfect. not sure why *this* windmill is causing problems!
its almost like the rollers are changing their height by themselves at random points during the run lol. i made sure that my dials on the sides of my press are tight.
pls help!!!!!! and let me know if this makes sense. thanks so much!
top print: rollers hitting too hard making my print juicy
bottom: good print
both these prints were made during the same run
IMG_4314.jpg
Are the rollers slipping on the track?
i had that thought; i was trying to check but its kind of hard to see… i opened the clutch rly slowly to try and watch lol but i still cant rly tell. if they are, any ideas on how to keep the rollers rolling properly? i cleaned the rails but thats all ive done. also apologies if my terms are not correct!
You could try using corn starch on the tracks to help with the skid.
Paper. Your paper may have an inconsistent caliper. Or inconsistent finish.
If you can swap out your other set of rollers, try that too.
Clean your tracks with a fast drying type wash, NOT roller wash, make sure the roller trucks are also clean and dry. Corn starch is a stop gap that works til you do a proper clean up of the tracks.
Advanced Roller used to ship their rollers with new sealed bearings. If you’re using older bearings, lightly oil them so they turn freely. And I mean a half drop of 3-1 oil.
When I got to the third instance of rly I stopped reading.
Please respect spelling and capitalization.
As a printer you are a steward of language and the written word.
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dude chill lol. maybe learn how to use a computer since u posted accidentally like 4 times. anyway… thanks for the help everyone else, i’ll try these out!
Thank you bppayne, Dennis and papercut64 for ur suggestions; rails indeed had some oil on them and after a clean and a dusting of varn powder everything is working ok. thanks all!!!! <3