gripper arms marking the paper

I am starting out on my heidelberg t platen 10x15 and I was wondering if the gripper arms are supposed to mark the stock, actually they are making a slight impression in my stock. Is this supposed to happen? If not, how do I fix the problem? They are relatively old arms, and the rubber is worn away so I replaced it with tape, should the tape be on both sides inside the gripper arms?

Thank you,

Meaghan

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The gripper can mark the paper and you should trim this off with your cutter. Which means you run your paper longer. I use tape and it works fine and it’s only on one side of the gripper arm.

Updated. Hi Meaghan,

I had this problem a while back too. Is your base locked up all the way to right end of the chase? If so, try putting a few small pieces of furniture on that right side to move the base to the left half an inch or so. I found that the indent wasn’t my gripper bar but the edge of the base biting into the stock.

Hope that helps!
Rebecca

Rebecca - I thought this was wonderful advice, only to look at my prints and see it wasn’t the chase causing the marks, but I will sure keep this in mind for the future, it all helps me make better prints - thank you.

cmcgarr - does that mean I should always use paper that is larger than the final trim size? I really do need to get a cutter don’t I? at the moment I have been cutting my paper down by hand using a knife and ruler and this takes ages.

Thank you :).

I use a 9x12 Base, on the right side I have a 1 pica piece of furniture or reglet, on the bottom I also have a 1 Pica reglet.

The reglet on the bottom is so the brass guides with pins don’t hit the base. The space on the right is so the gripper arm doesn’t contact the base plus I’ll trim the right side off.

If I used crop marks for a 2-3 color registration job I’m going to trim all sides anyway.

good point on the registering colour thing and thanks for tip on mounting my boxcar base - I would hate to damage it on my first run!

I need to get a paper cutter!

Regarding worn arms one should really replace it with long rubber strip pads and stick them with rubber to metal glue!

xleonardox - where can I get this long rubber stripping from? Is this a standard product sold in any building supply store or is it specific to Hiedelberg?

Thank you.

m

Updated. This is the site http://www.bhprint.net/index.htm i was able to recieve the replacement rubber strips, they are international…..

The strips for the Heidelberg when new are about 1mm in thickness, i would say they are specific to hiedelberg’s they are unique….

I have replaced rubber pads on a 10x15, i had to scrape away the old layer first, then with loctite glue (it was black in color specific for rubber to metal jobs) applied it to the rubber strips which were measured out and cut to the correct size beforehand, it was easy and the arms were like new!