Martin Yale SP100 Score and Perforating Machine, 23 Sheets Per Minute, Will Score or Perforate Sheets From 24lbs Bond to 100lbs Cover Stock, Fully Adjustable Paper Guides

My parents bought this Martin-Yale SP100 score and perforating machine (right here on Amazon) for their small printing business.The print job that motivated the purpose was making custom tear-off-a-page tablets for a business who needs to give to people in the field who take orders a form with spots for all the necessary information (to help them remember to collect all the necessary information).For a job like the tablets, this machine has two perforation issues. One is that the adjustment set screw for the perforation side friction wheel is on the wrong side, so it's hard to perforate close to the edge of the paper. The other is that, because the perforation blade perforates into a groove, it tends to make the page a little bit thicker, so the stack of pages may need to be pressed to keep the thickness uniform.Another issue is that a slitting (cutting) wheel would be better than the scoring wheel for our use, allowing us to cut a letter sized sheet into two little tablet sheets. Martin-Yale sells such a wheel for this machine, but advises that any wheel replacement be done by a properly trained professional. If you choose to disregard this advice, see below.Also, there's a You-tube video where it's suggested that you can take the black cover off to facilitate adjustment of the location of the scoring and perforating wheels. I found that re-installing the sheet metal screws when replacing that thing was a major PITA, and I'm surprised that I didn't end up twisting them in two.These issues notwithstanding, the machine does what it says it does, and it provides an enormous savings in labor and improvement in speed over perforating with a perf wheel on a hand rotary trimmer. Also, the customer said that the hand trimmer perforated sheets came apart too easily, and ones perforated by this machine don't.Finally, the price is right. We couldn't find any less expensive piece of equipment on the market that even tries to feed sheets through and perforate them.PART II - How to violate your warranty and kill yourselfI survived these below operations, but I can't guarantee that you will be equally successful. Understand that if you attempt to follow these instructions below, neither I nor anyone else accepts any liability whatsoever for any damage you do to yourself or your perforator or anything else in the universe when you attempt to follow these instructions.Those four sheet metal screws need to be replaced with #10-32 machine screws. Amazon Supply has these: ([...]) but "Insert a product link" doesn't connect to Amazon Supply. With the plate removed, drill the holes in the plate out to 13/64" and drill and tap (here's an inexpensive tool for that: [...]) the holes in the machine for #10-32 threads. I used a small cordless drill. It's good to vacuum out the metal shavings before re-installing the cover. There are very few pieces of machinery that benefit from loose metal shavings being among their internal components, and this SP100 isn't one of those few.The perforator side friction wheel can be turned around, so that you can perforate closer to the edge of a page. In order to do this you'll need to remove the shafts. It's important when doing this to remove both shafts simultaneously. There's no clearance between the perforator blade and the groove in the hub opposite that blade to remove them one at a time - you'll end up breaking four of the perforator tines, like I did the first time.1. Switch the machine off and unplug it.2. Remove that black plate mentioned above.3. Using a 1/8" hex wrench, remove the two screws holding on the drive belt cover.4. Take a digital photo of the drive belt so you'll know how to put it back on.5. Remove the drive belt.6. Using a 5/64" hex wrench, loosen the set screws and remove the two "12T Pulley"s from the shafts.7. Simultaneously push the shafts so that the ends go inside the machine and are no longer held by the holes. Note: Those aren't external retaining rings on the other side. They're the plastic edges of the grommets in which the shafts ride.8. Gently bring the ends of the shafts out the front of the machine and simultaneously pull the shafts back towards you until they are removed from the grommets on the non-drive side.9. OK, now you have removed the shafts. You can (loosening the set screws with the supplied 3/32" hes wrench) take the friction wheels off, flip them around and put them back so the rubber is closer to the perf blade. You can replace a damaged perforating wheel. You can remove the supplied 14 tooth per inch perforating wheel (WRA03085D) and install a 7 tooth per inch perforating wheel (WRA03085B). You can remove the scoring wheel and install a slitter (WRA03085A) also replacing the scoring backup hub with the slitter backup hub (WRO003082). Some people may do a lot of scoring, but I find slitting (=cutting, =trimming) more useful.9a. Note: I couldn't find the above hubs on Amazon, but machine-solution.com sells them, and, ordering on the phone, we got them at a significant discount off the price listed on their site.10. All right, having customized the shafts, it's time to re-install them. Put the non-drive ends of the shafts into the grommets on the non-drive side, and gently push them in simultaneously. This is the most difficult part. You have to keep the blades on the top shaft indexed with the grooves in the backup hubs on the bottom shaft, because there no clearance to put them in later on.11. Once they're in far enough, put the drive ends through the grommets on the drive side and gently push the shafts back out to their original position. Before you go farther, check to make sure you have what you want. Make sure that each part on the top shaft is properly lined up with the corresponding part on the bottom shaft. Make sure that the set screws for the items on both shafts all face forward at the same time, so that you can easily make adjustments later on.12. If it looks good, reinstall a 12T Pulley on each shaft, making sure that the set screw tightens against the flat part of the shaft, and that the part of the pulley that engages the belt lines up with that part of the other pulleys that are still installed on the machine.13. Reinstall the belt, consulting your digital photo to make sure it's on correctly.14. Reinstall the cover over the drive assembly.15. Reinstall the front plate (See what I mean about wanting proper machine screws?).