Restoring/repairing a Sigwalt Chicago

I have a Sigwalt #3 Nonpareil but the handle is on the side, so not sure it would help if I sent photos. The guy I got it from might be helpful.

Your photo appears to show only one roller arm. If that is the case, it may be impossible to repair the broken part. It seems to me that unless you can find another press of the same model with some other broken part disabling it, the best solution would be to manually ink the press with a hand-held brayer, which was a common practice with such small presses. The ink disc would serve for such use, so that use of the press would still be easily possible.

I’ve got a very similar one, maybe the same? Photos attached.

If you need any specific measurements, i’m happy to send them but like others have said, I really don’t think it’s going to be cost-effective to re-machine parts for it.

They’re not too hard to find. I see a couple similar presses on eBay right now for under $200 (and a lot of wildly overpriced ones, including one that was turned into a lamp (!?) for $750, and a few over $1000, which is bonkers.

I’m sure there are certain models that are very collectible/valuable, but the people who are willing to pay top dollar for stuff like this are sadly not long for this world, and this model is very common. We got ours for $100 and friends told us we spent too much, ha. (and I found a much-more-useful Kelsey 6x8 at an estate sale a couple months later for $80) The people that hoard this stuff are passing away and if you are polite, alert, well-organized, and ready to jump when something turns up, stuff falls into your lap, super-cheap. Never spend top dollar on any letterpress equipment, unless you need it immediately to make money. : )

Also note that new rollers and trucks will cost about $200, Toddspresstime on ebay is a good source.

I liked AdLib’s idea of hand-brayer-rolling the ink-disk, if you do that, you’re ready to print! (if you have a brayer, and a chase, and ink, and type, and furniture, and tiny quoins…)

Bryan

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Thanks y’all! I’ll pass these along to my friend. I was thinking maybe buying a parts machine and swapping. They’re into restoration, so thinking that maybe the cost isn’t so much an issue. I’ll keep looking on eBay