C and P Model N

To all you Printers and Printerettes… where might I find info on Chandler and Price Model N Press? This a 12x18 hand feed Model N, not to be confused with the C & P New Style or Old style. This press was made sometime in the 1960’s, or maybe the 1970’s. The serial number is ND 639. I have found serial number lists for all the other C & P’s but not the Model N. It is painted green and I’m sure that was the factory paint job. Any one out there has one? What can you tell me? When was it made? How many were made? I have picked this press up from a fellow some 20 miles from me. It was an easy move. The press has good rubber on it and was last run some 6 years ago. Thanks… Printer Bob

Log in to reply   8 replies so far

I have a brochure advertising Model-N presses dated 7-69. It seems that they were just about to release the machines when this was printed, as there is a disclaimer about changes in the specifications or design. I have seen several, all painted green. Nice machines, an excellent score.

Paul

This is entirely pulled from the mouldy recesses of what I laughingly call my mind so please take it for what it’s worth, but I seem to dimly remember that the Ns were kind of along the lines of a hand-fed version of the C & P Craftsman designed for use in printing schools. I think they may have been the last Gordon-style models Chandler & Price ever manufactured. Certainly, the New Series had been phased out by the early or mid 1960s.

Michael Hurley
Titivilus Press
Memphis, TN

Model N line of presses was indeed designed for use in schools but it seems to have more in common with the New Series presses than the Craftsman line. By the 1960s the Craftsman presses were heavy duty, single-piece base, with impression control via knob. They made a handfed Craftsman of this type as well as front and side feed. The Model Ns that I have seen have more NS-like castings but are clad in several guards that I’m sure were designed to satisfy the growing safety standards in trade schools. They added things like adjustable rails, but I don’t know if they have impression control.

There was also a 8x12 Model N but never a Craftsman this small.

I have seen the Model N in both green and gray original paint.

Brad.

Oh and I believe the N line of presses featured 3 form rollers as opposed to the Craftsman 4.

Brad.

The “Instructions, Oiling Chart and Component Parts List” document for the C&P Model N is online at:

http://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/presses/cp-gordon/cp-n/...

(The digital presentation of the plates is a bit jarring at first, but they’re all there.)

The printing code on this document suggests December 1961.

Thanks are due to Paul Aken, proprietor of the Platen Press Museum in Zion, IL for making this document available.

Regards,
David M.
www.CircuitousRoot.com

Many thanks to all that replyed. Still looking for date of manufacture. This N Model series had to be one of the factors that caused C & P to go out of business. History showes us that A B Dick and Multilith as well as Chief presses (all offsets) were coming on strong. If you were a printer in the 1960’s and 1970’s I doubt that you were going to buy a letterpress while your all competion were going offset. Does anyone know where there might be a parts press? I need a piece of sheet metal off of one so I may restore this press to it’s former glory. Printer Bob.

OSHA put C & P out of business.

The brochure I have for Model- N presses is dated 7-69.

There are only 3 pieces of sheet metal. Two pieces form the cover for the end of the press facing the operator. They follow the shape of the end on the side frame. They are both 21-1/2” wide. The bottom one goes from the floor to just above the center bolt hole. The top one goes from the underside of the delivery board to just below the center bolt hole. The top piece overlaps the bottom one.

The other piece is the cover for the motor pulley. Contact me with your surface mail address and I’ll send you a pattern.

By the time C&P ceased operations in the 1970s, and I don’t have the exact date, the company was employee owned. They were producing a small web offset designed for smaller newspapers, had an extensive line of paper cutters, and had been making newer versions of their heavy duty platen die cutters. I doubt the model N caused their down fall. The Inland Printers from the early 1970s were full of C&P material, but I haven’t come across the issue that tells of their demise. Lutz Machine in Sierra Vista, Arizona purchased casting patterns of several of the die cutters at the C&P auction and offered new parts for many years, and I imagine they still have the patterns.

Fritz