HUGE Thank you!!!

Well… I have been watching and reading this discussion page for about two years and would like to say thank you to everyone!!! I purchased, moved, cleaned, parts, platen, printing base, guides, ink, plates, pantone colors, impression, packing, and paper sourcing problems all solved by reading and learning from Briar Press. Now I’m happy to report my first finished product!

Thank you!!!!!!!

Yes, I hooked up a bicycle to my press because I was too cheap to buy a 220 extension cord to the dryer, and the 110 conversion was sucking to much electricity.

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I want to see a video of it running!

Dan

Jared , AKA Heath Robinson !!

Jared, do what i do, wire the press to an extension cord and plug it into your neighbors house.

Why not go the whole hog and shin up the power pole and link into that like some south american ghettos have been known to do !
Before i get lambasted for this i have a memory of some place where there were thousands of cables trailing from windows to the power poles and illegal tapping seemed to be the norm! courtesy i think of national geograhic magazine , it may have been brazil or mexico suburbs i really cant remember correctly.

Peter, are you sure its Brazil, someone told me it was your neighborhood.

Oh no ,Brazil is much more up market than here! I think the cartels are similar just the surnames are different !

Don’t do it…this is what happened to the last thrifty letterpress printer trying to get free electricity!

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Oh thats ok i,m better now, i just smell a bit dodgy !
I spent too long on lunch ! Mad dogs and englishman this is our fate!

Didn’t take long for that rabbit trail… Funny though.

Per The Arm NYC request:

video

Awesome …

Very cool…like that Geico ad with the rowing Guinea Pigs ;-)

When I was half the age I am now, I got on a demonstration rig and pedalled up to one kilowatt for a few seconds, but only if I started accellerating rapidly; steady pace was about 250 watts, and in those years I rode a bike to work. After I retired, I did a heart test, it became “uphill” at about 200 watts output from my legs.

If you can power a press from a bicycle (unless it is a tandem bike) you should be able to power it with one-third horsepower, a washing-machine motor.

Anyone else like to make comparisons?

Alan.

Alan, when i first started out printing on my 10x15 c&p back in the mid 1960’s i lived 3 houses from the town dump, i would go there and get the motors from the washing machines to power my press, i had 3 or 4 motors but they seemed to last quite a while. i think i only burned up maybe 2 motors in 20 years.

I don’t know about all this silliness but if one powers a press with a bicycle it really shouldn’t be because they are just a cheap ass but really out of necessity, like keeping the Nazi invaders at bay.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bielerpress/263422836/in/set-72157594403977...

Gerald

Oh yeah, probably should add this. I worked as a lineman. I’ve seen folks blown out from cutting into lines. Think this is funny? you should see it for real.

Gerald

I have a great respect for electrickery ! This is why i dont make references to the motors on machines i may do it myself but i am not telling others how to do it .
I have never fitted a washing machine motor to any machine as i was always led to believe that they are likely to overrun because they have no governors or something like that . I know you shouldnt fit arbors for grind wheels to them from experience!
Just love the pics of both machines though , necessity being the mother of all invention etc,etc, I wait with interest for the wind powered version !