Townsend T-51 Colorhead form adjustment

[brycesteiner]

Hello all,

First I want to thank anyone who reads and/or responds to this puzzling issue I have with my Townsend T-51 Colorhead for the ABDick 9800 series.

I was working on adjusting the forms according to the manual I was able to level the rollers just fine, but after I tried to increase the pressure to the 4.5mm and test it, the form would slip out of it's "divit" and go back to the "night" position. Every time I tried this on the top form it would do that. The lower ink & water forms work just fine as they're supposed to.

I've tried to tighten different things and nothing seems to work. It only slips when I go from the water to the ink on the operators lever.

thanks for any help you might give.
Bryce

 

[UKPrintMan]

Hi

We have t51's on our multi's so dont know if they are the same but it sounds like something similar that has happened to me in the past. you may need to replace a locating collar, locating grub screw or if lucky just some adjusting of the spring grubs. The forms lock in to place using two spring loaded grub screws at the front of the shaft, If these grub screws loosen or the locating holes wear on the collar then the roller becomes easy to disengage especially when going to print as the cylinder bump knocks it off. If you disengage and remove the roller shaft and inspect the collar locating holes and spring grubs on the shaft for wear. If all looks in good condition then see how much the spring grubs pertrude on the back of the shaft to see if they need adjusting. To adjust the spring grubs you need to remove a grub screw first (a locking grub screw that prevent them moving) once removed you can adjust the sping grubs as required too tight and you wont be able to disengage the roller, too light and the roller turns off when running.

hope this is of help found it difficult to explain.
Jamie

 

[cymk]

T51

T51

Brycesteiner,

Congrats on printing the real way and not that digital crap that the owners of ABDick now push.
I suggest you call Townsend direct for help. They are great people and would love to help you. T-51 Townsend Industries, Official Site
The form shafts have a small divet machined in them for on and off. Inspect them for wear, also the plunger that contacts these divets may need adjustment.
UKman did a great job of explaining the adjustments. Call T51 and you will be ok.
CYMK

 

[brycesteiner]

Hello Jaime and CMYK,

The help was greatly appreciated. I took the end of the form roller adjustment apart and the divets had a lot of grease. I think part of it was dried in the holes. I cleaned it all up and realized the end was acutally put on too tight. It's now has a slight bit a play and it works just fine. Thank you both.
Here is the evolution of my work in printing: I actually used to run a couple of Multi's in high school many years ago, but after I was employed I started running ABDicks. I liked the ABDicks because they were easier and faster to switch around. I then started running an older Heidelberg KORD and it ran okay, it was noisy and slow. I also ran a single color GTO. The company I worked for then purchased a Komori 26" sprint. A very good machine. Once we started using more of the larger presses I went into prepress and started using Quite a Box of Tricks for imposing jobs, a fantastic program by the way. I'm kind of an all around graphic arts guy. I also worked on a newspaper for this company to. In one week's time I may have been doing all of this. After 11 years of working for this great company, I felt God calling me to another community to create a county newspaper that everyone received.
In 2005 I started my own shop with a couple of friends in a small, poor county. We have grown in respect and faith. We do a lot of digital jobs, but I do like running printing presses, but if you have anything over 500, you cannot beat the price, efficiency or speed that one of these can produce.
I prefer the presses for several other reasons too (printing the "real" way). I don't have to have a service contract like I do on my copier (even though I own it). The service contract cost $650 this month. I can buy a decent used ABDick for less than $900. It just doesn't make sense. The used ABDick can still produce millions of copies. A copier is well used and can be considered junk after 500,000 or even less. I also can do thermography from a copier's toner based printing.

Thank you both for your help,
Bryce