Distributor Screws
The conveyor screws are assembled on the distributor beam. Two of these screws are in front of the distributor bar and one in the back. As soon as the matrix leaves the distributor box it is conveyed along the bar.
On the right-hand end of the screws are the driving gears which are pinned to the screw shaft. These gears are properly timed at the factory so as to carry the matrix in a vertical position without bending.
There is a small pin projecting between two of the teeth of one gear which must mesh with a tooth of its companion gear which is partly cut away. This prevents the gears turning when they are improperly timed.
This timing is readily accomplished by forming a small triangle with the pins in the end of the gears and the openings in the gears, or by placing the points of the upper and lower screws on the right end in the same relative position before connecting the gears with the distributor clutch shaft and gear.
Do not raise the back distributor screw while there are matrices on the bar, as it is difficult to get their lugs in the right threads again.
In closing the back screw see that the pin in the gear matches with the short tooth in the front gear.
The old distributor screws were pitched four threads to the inch. The new distributor screws have a much wider pitch, two threads to the inch, consequently the matrices are moved along the bar twice as fast to their respective channels. They are called “two-pitch screws.”
The two-pitch screws keep the matrices widely separated on the bar, permitting a freer distribution of large matrices.