Archive for December 2006

Dust Cover Repair - Posted December 20, 2006

Universal I’s [and other v-cooks?] have an optional dust cover which is, because of the design, often broken. They seem to break at the same point – the transition from dust cover to attachment tab. I believe that the dust cover should have been made without the cutout in the center, which would have prevented the failure in the first place.

This is a very simple repair – something anyone can do – but I don’t think it would have occurred to me if I hadn’t seen it on one of the presses at the King Library Press. The Universal I there has the dust cover repaired using one plexi patch and 4 screws on each side. It works but still flexes a little at the break. I improved on this repair by using a patch above and below the break. Plexiglass can be purchased from any glass store, and can be cut by scoring & bending just like glass. Finish the sides with sandpaper. Clamp the four pieces [2 original broken pieces, top patch, bottom patch], one side at a time, and drill holes with a normal drill. Use appropriate size bolts & nuts to hold it all together. This works very well and extends the stress into the wider part of the dust cover, so it shouldn’t break again.

Hopefully, your broken dust cover hasn’t been thrown away. I got lucky, maybe you will too.

hope this helps – alex, press eight seventeen – lexington kentucky

Dust Cover Fix 1Dust Cover Fix 2Dust Cover Fix 3


Adjusting Ink Roller Height [15-21] - Posted December 10, 2006

As the process of getting to know the press continues to unfold, I’ve been putting together some notes on various discoveries & lessons learned. This post is concerned with adjusting the height of ink rollers.

While these notes may appear overkill for a relatively simple process, some may be as ignorant as I was about what this adjustment entails, so I’ve put the notes, along with a few diagrams, together as a web page. I hope it might prove to be of use.

Please let me know if you notice anything incorrect about the notes and I’ll update the web page accordingly.

http://www.greenboathouse.com/15-21/adj-ink-roller-height/


New York Times Article - Posted

An article in Sunday’s New York Times online edition ‘Retro Printers, Grounding the LaserJet’ features a photo of our own Eric Holub. —PM


NPR’s SoundClips: A Hand-Fed Printing Press - Posted December 8, 2006

The 1949 Vandercook Number Four Proofing Press Number Four of Douglas Wilson of Springfield, Mo.Friends & relations alerted me to this story on yesterday’s ‘All Things Considered.’ And I quote: “Douglas Wilson of Springfield, Mo., lets us listen to the sound of his 1949 Number Four VanderCook Proof Printing Press. The hand-feeding process makes for some rockin’ rollers.”

For all of us on the Vanderblog, this 2 minute piece ought to sound very familiar. I don’t know how long NPR keeps these pages up and running, so give a listen here some time sooner rather than later to share a bit of fleeting attention.—Terry Chouinard



Reprex Once-over - Posted December 6, 2006

Scott Fisk, designer, educator and vanderblog consultant, just bought a Reprex, a 1960s era down-market flatbed cylinder proof press. Its overall condition is quite good and it should prove to be serviceable. Its mechanisms, however, may seem a bit peculiar to most Vandercook operators. For example the reservoir drum, while driven by a chain, also oscillates—conversely the large steel rider doesn’t. The form rollers do not have bearing blocks or nyliners on the core ends; they simply sit into a notched bracket that is raised and lowered by adjustment screws, much like pre-Universal series Vandercooks (No.4, 219, 325). —PM

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Scott’s Photos:

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More Reprex images


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