American Rototex Autos.....

[StuJohnston]

Ah, that makes sense. The machine that I have has a coating of dried spray tack that I am constantly removing. Thank goodness for WB tack and pallet tape!

[Printhouse]

I just bought WB tack, this press will not see spray!

[Printhouse]

Slow day printing wise so I broke one of the head completely down.  I took each of the steel parts home to the blast cabinet and cleaned them up.  All the bolts, nuts, screws and washers went into the tumbler.  The painted main body is prepped to be hit with the da and made ready for paint.  Went through all the bearings and wear points to check them out.  Found a couple of the rubber motor mounts broke and will replace them.  Drive chain soaking right now......  Hopefully I will be spraying all the parts on Saturday and Sunday and hoping to start reassembly early next week.  I plan to d this with each of the four heads over the next month or so.  I will snap some pics from here on out.

[ebscreen]

The only thing that wore out on mine was the Geneva drive. Not sure if yours works on the same principle
or not, but I was told it's common to see these break. Mine had been welded and broken, welded and broken.
Ingeniously simple design, but the stresses are unbelievable.

[Printhouse]

Heck out of the four heads I had one with the chain tensioner actually on correctly and one that it was missing completely.  At least I found all the parts in a box.  I should know this press pretty well by the time I actually get to run it.  I wish I could find a owners manual. 

[Printhouse]

Well after replacing a faulty 24 volt power supply we now have the entire press running.  It appears that the dwell timer relay is bad and a new one is on its way.  I also have to trouble shoot timing the indexing and the print heads.  It should not index with the head in the down position but it is.  With how sticky all the switches were I will check all the heads up position switches tomorrow.  All the large panels went to the paint shop today for clean up and paint.  Mocking up all new stickers for it tonight.

[Printhouse]

I thought I would give a quick update on this press!  I have not had a lot of time to mess with it between being busy printing and also flying at my real job about 72 hours per week.  All of the major panels have been re painted now and are waiting for the new graphics to go on them.  The press is now running except the dwell timer being out which should be replaced next week.  My hope is to get the base cleaned up and painted early next week then move it into its final location for set up.  I may see about the price of having Ed, The Press Doctor, to come up from Arkansas and heklp with the final set up.  New squeegee rubber is going in tomorrow.  The number 1 head has been compltely stripped down, cleaned, blaster and repainted and reassembled.  Just waiting on the new registration grid stickers to put the final touches on it.  I iwll snap some pics later this afternoon.

[blue moon]

I thought I would give a quick update on this press!  I have not had a lot of time to mess with it between being busy printing and also flying at my real job about 72 hours per week.  All of the major panels have been re painted now and are waiting for the new graphics to go on them.  The press is now running except the dwell timer being out which should be replaced next week.  My hope is to get the base cleaned up and painted early next week then move it into its final location for set up.  I may see about the price of having Ed, The Press Doctor, to come up from Arkansas and heklp with the final set up.  New squeegee rubber is going in tomorrow.  The number 1 head has been compltely stripped down, cleaned, blaster and repainted and reassembled.  Just waiting on the new registration grid stickers to put the final touches on it.  I iwll snap some pics later this afternoon.

all I know is that if there are no pictures, it did not happen!!!

WE WANT PICTURES, WE WANT PICTURES!

good luck and keep us posted. It is a good read! Thanx for taking the time to put it up (did I mention there were pictures missing?)

pierre

[Printhouse]

Let me see what I have on my phone! 

[Printhouse]

I don't have a lot of pics but here are a few!

This first one shows two things...  frist off, the fine rust that is coating just about everything! Second off, the one weird head that I thought was to fluip up and move a flash under but the way it is constructed it does not flip up.  It is more like it is to adjust off contact or sonething!

The other pics just show the parts after they went home to the bead blaster.  Tomrrow I will take pics of the big panels and covers after being repainted and the head back together with the new semi-satin black parts!

[StuJohnston]

Lookin' good!

I have a question about that wiring diagram you got. I am about to email techsupport@gpiparts.com with my serial to request a diagram for my multiprinter, is that all I need to do? Did you have to pay for it? Is that the right email address?

It appears that the previous owner pulled some of the wires from their places in the control box for unknown reasons and I want to be sure that I am hooking them back up in the right places. They specifically unhooked the double print and double index switches. Not all of the double print switches though oddly.

[Printhouse]

They were great to deal with.  I just gave them the S/N off of mine I believe.  I ended up blowing the schematic up at staples to a poster and laminated it so I could trace the wires one at a time and green out the ones we found that were fine.  I have been pretty busy printing this past 2 weeks so I hope to get back on this thing this week and get all the parts ordered that I need to replace. 

[Printhouse]

Here are a couple of pics from this week.  The first refurbed head is goign back together but I am waiting to get the new registration grids before final assembly.  Also you can see the covers and side panels have been sanded down and repainted.

[larryk]

Hey Printhouse.... what's the status on your Rototex? I just picked up a 4 head 8 station from the local auction house and did a search to find you have been refurbishing one. Mine was on 4 pallets but it looks like it is all there. I contacted GPIparts for any info I could get from them and I hope to get it going one of these days soon.  It also came with a big a$$ flash unit, looks like it would take 16 bulbs and runs on 3 phase. I don't have a clue about this thing so if anyone has any info on it give me a shout. The printer was packed pretty good with the small parts in boxes and the newspapers used for packing were dated Feb. 1995 and from New Jersey....... The guy that consigned it at the auction said it was running 2 years ago..... for some reason I have my doubts about that. Oh well, it was CHEAP.

[StuJohnston]

They made an 8 station version of this? I think that it might be a good idea to make an American *.* Auto restoration megathread or something. I'm slowly doing a working restoration of a Multiprinter myself. I will be uploading some vids, or at least pictures, of the parts that I have taken apart and cleaned for those who are like I was when I was trying to find out more about these machines when I was considering buying one.