Heidelberg Windmill - Black Ball ‘Post War’

I am purchasing an old Windmill Black Ball and I contacted Heidelberg regarding the age of the press, and also why certain things looked differently from other Windmills that I had seen (The safety plate for example says ‘SP’).

Here’s what Heidelberg had to say about it:

“We don’t have a year of manufacture for this serial no. It falls into a group labeled ‘Postwar”, 1945-1949.”

Does anyone know anything more about this press? I recently saw a few posts on here about an ‘Ancient Windmill’ - but my serial number is even lower than theirs.

Best,

Dan

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From a Letpress message from Hal Sterne:

Pre War Commercial Register; s/n 1 - 16200
Pre War Super Speed; s/n 16201 - 25275
Pre War Ultra; 25276 - 29007
Post War Ultra; 29008 - 34850
Model T 1950 to 1966; s/n 34851 - 159999
Model TP 1967 to 1985; s/n 160000 - 194998

The pre-1950 models don’t have central oiling or ball bearing form rollers, among other differences.

Thanks for the information.

Would you recommend that I don’t purchase this press due to the mechanical differences?

Any other recommendations?

Best,

Dan

i had one back in the early 70’s, someone did some work on the press before i bought it. it printed well but these are older windmills, myself i would look for a newer one unless this one is really cheap. the central oiling seem to make the presses last longer, the one i had i ran for about 5 years every day before it gave me trouble. good luck dick g.

In the late 50s the blackball I ran had both central oiling and anti-offset system. It was new and imported c1956-7. Dick