Need help to ID my press
I’ve got this press that I’m trying to fix up so I can use but there are no markings anywhere on it that I can find. I bought it in the UK and the person I bought it from didn’t know anything about it.
Also, as it doesn’t appear to be one of the large well known makes, I was wondering what’s the thought on repainting it or leaving it in its current condition.
Any help to identify it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
One of these has appeared before on Briar but nobody was able to identify it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75606019@N08/13389841765/in/album-72157678...
Don’t paint it, rub the platen, bed and disk back to bare metal and chemically treat the other rust, hand ink your forme.
A few minute tips which may help in identification, (in the absence of any obvious clues), generally,! back in the period(s) when the machine was made, Foundry of origin usually incorporated Pattern numbers within the *Sand Cast* components,? Stateside and Europe seem to be reasonably well blessed with Archive Records of Foundries, Dates, longevity of production runs etc.etc… Any evidence of such >cast in< marks, to trawl possible archives, = main frame down low, rear or under the base, rear of Ink Disc, rear of Platen proper, side arms,!! etc.
Possibly also serial Numbers stamped (punched) in to the Bed, top R/L with Prefix,? and/or Serial number(s) punched in to the Top (to view) under the top bale arm all potential clues, if at all, when trawling archives.
One more tiny glimmer,! by far the greater number, of Table Tops of this apparent Vintage appear to be LEFT HAND side lever, . . may narrow the field for investigations, if at all.?
Good Luck.
I enhanced the second photo but I can’t see the roller hooks as hooks — are they broken or missing? If you have roller hooks it isn’t hard to make roller cores and get them covered, and make roller trucks to carry them. It seems that the chase furnishes the roller rails. It doesn’t look like the chase is deep enough for that, though — it would have to be type-high in thickness. I wonder if this was made for some sort of specialty printing with low plates or special short type. I also can’t quite make out the mechanism for closing the platen, but it seems not to be very beefy, so printing a large area hard may break it.
Perhaps it is supposed to use rubber plates? It may have been meant for printing on some kind of surface that required such special treatment, such as fabric. It also is capable of printing part of a much larger piece of material with the rest hanging out the sides and top.
Interesting! How thick is the chase?
Bob
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Mick on Monotype - I’ll do a more thorough inspection and see if I can’t find something to help ID this thing. The hand lever is interchangeable between LEFT or RIGHT side, so maybe that might narrow things as you say.
AdLibPress - Bob, they are roller hooks, I’ve attached an image to show them. I already contacted Todd about getting some rollers made up and it seems like it will be simple enough. I’ve attached another image to roughly show chase height. I guess I won’t know if it will handle the pressure of printing until I finish repairing it and get some parts made up. Interesting thoughts about it’s possible printing medium though.
Thanks
Jason
roller-hooks.jpg
chase-height.jpg
Jason, buried deep in the archives (probably on B.P.) there are many, many pages! with shots of a *hundred and one* illustrations of L/press Machines through the Ages, perhaps One of the forum, Contributors can point You in the right direction, may give a brief glimpse for I.D.… Many Monochrome shots, Even more in full colour and a few exploded diagrams.
Good luck. Mick.
Thanks for the tip Mick. I’ll keep looking into it.