Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Letterpress Restoration: Press and Type Inspection

I have completed the quick inspection of the press and type just to see if anything is broken, missing, etc. The press looks pretty good, no missing teeth on the track or on the cylinder. There aren't any cracks from what I can see in its rusty stage. On either end of the bed there are bits of metal sticking up that holds a lock-up bar onto the press rather than there being holes on either end for the lock-up bar to fit into (shown below).


As far as the type and everything that goes with it; no wooden or metal furniture to be found, there is a pretty good selection of leading, no lock-up bar, no quoins or quoin keys, no frame, no grippers, and all of the type is either metal or wooden "show case" which has the slots in the back side.


The puzzling part is all of the extra pieces I found that are shown in the images below, I'll have to do some research on what they are and if they are even to be used on the letter press. I'm not certain on how this press was used in the past at PSU...

1 comment:

  1. The parts that you see are for a flatbed sign press. Not for your Vandercook. I looked at that press 10 years ago and tried to purchase it from the school. Come to Carthage's Fourth Friday Art walk. I will have a Chandler & Price up and running in the Old Press Building at 5th and Main.

    cody

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