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colorspan 72uvx

David Baggett

New Member
Does anyone have a Trolly Plate for a colorspan 72uvx?
The bearing at the bottom went out and they want me to replace the whole thing.
 

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
hahahahahahah......

Don't do it.

Here's a true story...

After one year (past warranty) of using our 72uvr, same thing happened, but it wasn't the bottom bearing-- it was one of the top ones -- and they wanted $900 for a new trolley plate.

Well, I spent the money cuz I didn't know any better and the new plate came and after much agonizing fastidious, careful wrangling, I had the old one off the the new one in and working.

So I'm sitting there looking at the bearings on the old trolley plate and I started to wonder.... I got up and took it next door to a machine shop to ask if the fellow could do anything with those bearings. I was thinking it might be handy to have a spare (good) trolley plate in case this happened again.

So buddy grabs a glass and looks closely at the bearings and looks up at me with kind of a wry mischievous half grin. I'm thinking Ohhhhh, this could be bad.

So, he gets on the phone, mumbles a bunch and hangs up. When I ask how much these bearings are, he tells me "four"... in my frame of mind, I'm assuming he's talking four hundred and I say "That much??!!"

He says, "well, four bucks apiece ain't that bad -- and I just ordered them for you... You want me to cancel?"

So then he tells me that these bearings are really just skateboard bearings, that's it...

When the bearings came, he didn't even charge me to press off the old ones and press on the new ones... we just gave him a free set of bus. cards for that...
 

David Baggett

New Member
Did you have a tech replace the trolley? And if not was it hard to do?
Would that trolley you have fit the 72uvx? Do you want to sell it?
 

omgsideburns

New Member
If the bearing is bad you can replace it (the bearing size is written on the side of it), but if the wheel is bad good luck. I had a local machine shop make me about 5 different sets of wheels for those bearings and none of them worked, they have a lip on the edge of them to hold them on the bearings and for some reason my machinist couldn't get it right (I couldn't find any equivalent either, they were all urethane not polycarb or whatever those wheels are made of). I ended up replacing the trolley but I still have the old one and the old bearings if you're looking for one.

It's easy to replace.. take the tension off the drive belt, pull the cover off the carriage, lift the carriage off the track, pull the screws off the back plate (the one the bearings stick through), that will let the belt out of the carriage.. then you undo the head height adjustment bolts (wrench on the nut in the back plate while you loosen the bolt).. and then it's like four or five allen screws to take the plate off the back.. you'll also have to undo one ribbon cable from the head board, it's just a little one that connects to the encoder strip reader.. it takes like five minutes.
 

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Dave... I think the UVX and UVR are the same printer except the X is set up to take material that is thicker than what the UVR can print. I think everything else is the same.

I think.
 

omgsideburns

New Member
Red=Remove, Green=Look

1- Remove the cover on the end of the rail to expose this.. the screw from the cover actually holds the tensioner restraint in the place. Remove this restraint to let the spring/tensioner out. From there you should be able to remove the one screw above the wheel to take the whole tensioner assembly off and give you all the slack you need to pick the carriage up off the rail.

You don't have to take the whole assembly off the printer, just lift it up off the rail by tilting the front up and lifting it off.. then set the front of the assembly down on the platen and let the gold rear part of the frame rest on your rail. I do all of this on the removable access station on the left side of the machine, this makes it easy to work around the head. There is no reason to disconnect any hoses or electrical connections except for the encoder strip reader.

2. Remove all screws (red arrows). The top four hold the ink/air line bracket. The bottom 8 remove the back plate.. taking off the back plate also means the belt will come free from the plate.

3. To remove the height adjusters, you'll need to hold the nuts in place while you turn the bolt. Don't lose the two belt clamp things. There are five bolts that the trolley plate slides up and down on, they will need to be removed to remove the trolley. Also note the ribbon cable, it is removed from the board, you will see it when you remove the carriage cover.. just use needle nose pliers to pop up the clip and the cable should slide out easily.. it's a tight spot.

4. This is the side of the trolley that is up against the carriage assembly.. Note the two adjustment screws for the encoder reader.. don't mess with them.. if you need to adjust them do it before you put it all back together.

5 & 6. To remove a bearing/wheel from the trolley, pop it out with screw drivers by putting them in and rotating them.. Don't nick the wheels when you're doing this. By wheel I mean the hard plastic ring on the outside of the bearing.

7. It should come out in one piece like this.

8. To remove the post, lay the bearing in something that will allow the post to hang through, and knock it out with a punch and mallet... I used holes in the trolley plate to show you.. works fine.

9. This is the bearing seperated from the post.. note the post has a rounded side and a squared side.

** From here I don't know about replacing the wheels on the bearings, I took this to a machine shop because my wheels were bad. **

10. To put the post back in the bearing, you will put the squared end into the bearing (the bearing is rounded).

11 & 12. With the squared end in the bearing, hold the post between your fingers and tap it with the mallet until the post is flush with the other side..

13 & 14. To reinstall, just press it with your finger as far as you can. You can then use your punch to tap it the rest of the way in.. the bearing should be as far down as it can go.

15. If your post is loose in the trolley you can use your punch to make a dimple in the aluminum.. this will hold the post in place.

16. Bags of bearings! Replacing a bad bearing is just a matter of having one pressed in place, but replacing a broken wheel is something I haven't solved.

Good luck.

I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but it works. I know this machine inside and out so feel free to ask more questions.
 

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omgsideburns

New Member
Thanks Goat, you're the one who put the idea of replacing those bearings in my head.

BTW, I made an extra note in section 1 about taking it off the rail.
 

David Baggett

New Member
Still dealing with the bearing problem for the trolley plate, had a machinist replace the plastic wheel with one made from nylon. He did an excellent job
even recreated the lip inside the plastic wheel, but in only lasted 2 months. Now I can't even have the wheel replaced the bearing is finally gone.
DOES ANY ONE OUT THERE HAVE AN EXTRA USED BEARING FOR THAT 72 UVX
TROLLEY PLATE?
 

David Baggett

New Member
Did that skateboard bearing have a plastic sleeve around it like the trolley plate bearings?
Do you have the part number for that skateboard bearing?
 

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Did that skateboard bearing have a plastic sleeve around it like the trolley plate bearings?
Do you have the part number for that skateboard bearing?

No, that plastic part is ColorSpan. And I don't have the spec on the bearing, but, as mentioned above, the bearings themselves have a number/size on them. Our machinist was easily able to tell what they were with a magnifying glass.
 
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