Abstract: A sheet withdrawing mechanism is disclosed for a collator having a plurality of spaced moving shelves or partitions forming pockets. Each partition or pocket receives a pile of sheets and as each pocket passes sheet withdrawing position, rotating spiders, preferably having a plurality of arms, each extend an arm into each pocket in succession, engage the top sheet of the pile and at least partially withdraw the sheet far enough to be reached by adjacent secondary withdrawing mechanism which completes the withdrawal of the sheet from the pocket. Two constructions of spiders are illustrated and described, one having relatively long arms for partition spacing having a relatively large dimension so that the arc of movement of the end of each arm is great enough to withdraw the sheet sufficiently solely by the sweep of the arm. The second spider construction is for partition spacing having a relatively lesser dimension so that a greater number of pockets can be provided in an over-all dimension.