I was able to finalize the restoration of the SP15 on Saturday! Yay! I’m finally ready to print, but I’m going to take a break for a couple of weeks to recover. If you’ve missed any of this exciting saga, check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
The Evapo-Rust worked like a charm. Look at the cylinder! There’s no pitting on these parts!
I had a little bit of trouble getting the gripper back together because I had taken it a part about a month ago. But like I’ve said before, these presses are great because nothing fits where it’s not supposed to (except the cylinder… silly me, I put it on backwards)! The part that was confusing was inside the adjusting screw because you can’t see it on the pictures of a gripper that is fully assembled.
With a little help from the manual I downloaded from Boxcar Press I was able to put it back together properly. In case you get stuck and can’t figure out how to reassemble the gripper bar on a Vandercook SP15, here are the quick and easy steps:
1. Put the adjusting screws through their holes in the gripper (tympan) bar
2. Place the small springs on the threaded post of the adjusting screws (from the inside of the bar)
3. Screw the plastic end guides onto the threaded posts
4. Snap the small c-clips onto the end of the posts
5. Place the copper paper guides on the plastic end guides with the bent end pointing up
6. Screw down the paper guides
7. Lube the gripper posts with graphite powder (really cheap at your local hardware store, just ask for “graphite lubricant” or “dry lubricants”). I had to use my fingers to make sure it got all the way around. Wash your hands right afterwards! This stuff gets everywhere!
8. Slide the gripper posts through the holes on the top and make sure they go up and down easily
9. Put the large gripper springs on the bottom of the gripper posts
10. Snap the big c-clips onto the end (a little tough because they’re bigger and you have to make sure the springs stay in place)
11. Make sure to dust off any excess graphite powder so it doesn’t get on your paper.
Remember to go see more pictures of the SP15 Restoration on Flickr.
If you want more letterpress goodness, be sure to check out The Windmill in My Garage from Alex at Retinart. He has such a way with words and his pictures are outstanding!
Winners!!
Last week I announced that in celebration of Creative Curio’s one year birthday I would be giving away 6 sets of the letterpress cards I made. Here are the winners!
David, Samuel and Alec get the Happy Day! cards.
RaShell, Kristarella and Kristen get the Cheers cards.
Congrats guys!
Firstly, Yay for you! you look very happy in that first picture, glad the hard work finally paid off.
Secondly, Yay for me! I won a prize. I’m looking forward to seeing your letterpress work first hand.
Oh and thanks again for your kind words & suggestions on the new design. I have to say after following some of your suggestions it looks better already. There’s still some work to be done before I’m completely happy though.
Thanks again Lauren
David’s last blog post..roll on 2009
David,
Cool, glad you liked my suggestions for your site. I think some things aren’t working quite right for IE6 (only thing I can use here at work), so I’ll have to check on FF later on.
Yay for you! I hope my cards live up to the hype
Great news! Thanks so much, Lauren! I look forward to getting your notecards! Congrats on finishing your restoration project.
Hey Lauren, congrats on getting your press clean and shiny! I know how hard it is, so you must be so proud!
I like the shots of the gripper bar — seeing how it comes apart (or goes back together) helps give an understanding of how it work when on the machine.. So I guess the next post in this series will be you setting it up and running it? I’d love to see how it all fits together once you have your type set up
and thanks for the kind words and link!
Alex Charchar’s last blog post..The Windmill in My Garage
Kristen,
)
You’re welcome (I hope this means you’ll be a regular commentor around here now
Alex,
I’ll most definitely be posting photos (maybe a video!) of me operating the press. You’re welcome for the link! I hope you get lots of visitors.
I’m most proud! It’s not as shiny as I would’ve liked, but I also get to start using it a lot sooner and my enthusiasm won’t be shot by too much cleaning
Ah no kidding! I was planing on doing a video of my press too. Even though it runs crazy fast when it has the motor going, you can run it by hand, so you see how everything moves in slow motion.
I know what you mean about how clean is clean with these things. Mine isn’t getting as cleaned as I would like, but it is a little nicer, although my wife is being super nice and keeps telling me it’s a lot cleaner than it was.. but you know soon as you run it for the first time, it’s just going to be covered in ink anyway.. although ink is better than rust, heh
Alex Charchar’s last blog post..The Windmill in My Garage
Alex,
But yes, you’re right, it can’t stay pristine forever. It’s meant to be used and to get dirty! I was comparing my pictures of the press I used in class vs. mine and that one is definitely more dirty than mine and it still ran like it was supposed to and didn’t mucky up the paper.
Ooo, don’t say that it will just get dirty again! All my hard work…
Sounds like it was quite an effort! It looks very complicated, glad you got it all up and running… We actually have one from the 12th century at our University (or so it seems)… I can’t remember the exact year it was but it was fun to use.
Jacob Cass’s last blog post..Do You Have Enough Friends?
Jacob,
Do you remember what it looked like? That’ll be a clue to how old it is. I’m learning that there are sooo many different kinds of presses! Vandercooks, for example, are pretty unique in that they were originally designed to be proof presses (not made for long, fast runs) and only came into use in 1909.
You sure it’s from the 12th century? Gutenberg didn’t create his press until the mid-1400s (15th C.)
its good that its still work:)goodluck on your printing:)
NaldzGraphics’s last blog post..24 Amazing High Quality Desktop Wallpapers
Hi Lauren,
This is Monique from your letterpress class!
I hope you are doing well. Fantastic job on the restoring the Vandercook, can’t wait to see what you make on it.
I posted on my blog about the press I got!
Take care
Monique,
Hi!! Oh how cool! Congrats on your press
I was finding myself regretting not getting at least your email address. I’m so glad you stopped by! How did you find me, btw?
I started a Googlealert search for letterpress, so anytime letterpress is mentioned in blogs google emails me the link and yours came up!
Monique,
)
Oh yes, I use Google Alerts for “Creative Curio” just to see if anyone mentions me. Well awesome! Thanks again for stopping by (and feel free to subscribe to the feed