Ink fountain for printing presses

An ink fountain for a printing press comprising a fountain roller and cooperating reservoir, said reservoir including a pair of end walls, a rear wall and a bottom wall and bottom plate extending between said end walls, said bottom plate slidably carrying a plurality of keys in coplanar contiguous relationship, reversible motors carried by said rear wall and having threaded shafts, threaded means carried by each of said keys and engaging a motor shaft for moving said key toward and away from said roller and thus forming a metering gap, said bottom wall overlying said keys and said keys and bottom wall each forming an angle with a tangent to said roller at said metering gap of at least 60.degree., each of said keys including a recess on the underside thereof and said bottom support includes a plurality of threaded openings and set screws in said openings and protruding into said recesses for limiting movement of said keys, said threaded means comprising a threaded stud secured to and extending from each key, a sleeve having one end threadably engaging said stud and the other end threadably engaging said motor shaft, and means for adjustably fixing said sleeve relative to said stud.