Sealing Wax

After you have your gauge pins where you want them you melt the sealing wax and either drip or push the wax on the pins to keeps them from moving during the press run. I don’t use sealing wax any more because sometimes I have to chase register or cutter draw.

I still use use sealing wax regularly, I have found thst if i just drip the wax on the guide it cleans off of the tympan better than pushing it. BUT if feeding heavy stock I will push it to get a better, stronger bond because heavier stocks tend to hit harder on the guides.

That is what I figured… similar to dripping sealing wax on an envelope?

Do you have any tricks to melting the wax? I acquired some but it just seems like a super large, rock hard crayon. ;)

The old Eagle gauge pins had two points that rested against the tympan sheet. They weren’t very sharp. We filed them sharper and tapped them through the tympan sheet with the hammer end of the quoin key. Then we sealed them with wax melted with a wooden match and daubed on the pin.
The trick today may be finding sealing wax and wooden matches.
inky

Go to any grocery or hardware store and buy the long butane lighters that you would use to light candles or Gas grills( refillable ones are cheaper in the long run). These work great and you don’t burn your fingers.

Guage pins had teeth on the stop. We would tap the teeth into the tympan with a little tap of the gripper wrench then drip the wax. We used wooden stick matches to heat the wax.