Anyone have experience with a Scamp III Offset Platemaker?

Well the scamp at it best could make a plate for offset in medium to poor quality. It was a photo mechanical transfer process, the exposure unit was a series of bulbs under a glass, the negative was contact printed with the artwork and sandwiched to a metal or paper plate, ran through a processor, peeled apart and developed with a fixer and plate lacquer. The early plates would last about 5m impressions if the gods were shining on you and the last series of plates would run around 20m impressions. This platemaker was a low end way to get into the quick printing business. It would have no cross over use in letterpress platemaking, it would make a rather large paper weight.

Chuck, Thank you for your quick response! I have enough lead in the garage to do without the new paper weight. (No wonder it looks new)

Thanks!
Courtney

I think at one time you could have made PMT contact negatives with this unit, but since it has been perhaps ten years since diffusion transfer was totally abandoned by the industry, no material or chemistry is available for that.
The exposures used for diffusion transfer are quite short, a mere fraction of the intensity needed to expose relief photopolymer. So the exposure function of the Scamp is of no use here.
I have a couple PMT processors, and one printer suggested they might be used today for controlled dampening of cotton paper. Maybe, but it’s too much work to drag them from deep storage.