Vandercook #14 Older Style

Since it does not have grippers, and must be hand inked, I’d expect a reasonable range might be between $1000 and $2000 - though location will have a lot to do with that.

Hi Bill,

Thanks so much for the info. I am new at this and have been checking out prices but was not familiar with the older model #14. Location comment is not clear to me. It is currently in the Midwest and I am in the Pacific Northwest so I am looking at shipping it.
Any comments on it other than price? Seeking words of wisdom.

km

Check out:
http://vandercookpress.info/

There is a very useful blog and lots of info on all different models and trouble shooting.

This is a pretty basic model of proof press, no bells and whistles whatsoever, so as was mentioned, you will hand ink and hand crank, and on the older models, i don’t think there are grippers on the cylinder, so accurate registration will be tricky.
This is not a press for fine, controlled, custom letterpress work, but better suited for printing wood cuts, or things that are kind of loose.
Consider the cost to ship it to the NW. The weight is around 600 lbs.
I would hesitate to spend too much, but it depends on your long term plans for letterpress. What kind of work are you looking to produce? It may be a good find if the price is super cheap, or it may be better to hold out for a more suitable, versatile press.

Thank you, Natron. I do understand that it is a very basic press. I am very fortunate in the respect that the seller is going to totally brake the press down piece by piece, clean, blast, paint and reassemble. It will be like new. The bed and drum are good.

Your comment on versatility and registration is well taken as I do seek pretty tight work. You have pointed out a very fine point for me to consider. I appreciate this.

km

Anyone else having trouble getting to the vanderkookpress blog? The URL posted above works but the blog gets you a random spam ad - some NSFW. I am guessing the blog was hijacked.

I was having trouble getting to the Vanderblog in the last few weeks. It worked fine a moment ago, when i looked, but a few times recently, it would come up funky.
Paul Moxon who runs it is pretty attentive, so i would bet he is on top of whatever issues you are seeing.

http://vandercookpress.info/vanderblog/

I’m hoping it’s not my post that’s being perceived as NSFW spam. I tried to be thorough when describing the issues with my press, but not that thorough.

Ha! Maybe it is me. When I go to the site from my iPad I am redirected to random sites. From my wife’s iPhone and MacBook it shows up fine. I did a hard reset - since that’s all anyone says to do. If other people see it fine, then something must be wrong on my iPad. Either that or the universe doesn’t want me to learn any more about Vandercooks!