I sent my form rollers to be recovered and got them back without the MR-110 pin that goes into the end of the shaft, the one with the rounded head that connects to the gear clutch. The roller company says they never saw them. When I prepped the rollers for shipping, I stripped off the gears and springs, but didn’t think to remove the pins; I assumed they were part of the roller shaft and not removable. New ones are available from NA Graphics, but are expensive. Is there some kind of substitute? Are these pins easy to get out, ie, could they have fallen out during transport somewhere? Thanks.

I know there are a few of you with Reprex presses. Our press has stop releasing the paper at the end of the impression. It is hitting the release spring and the bumper. Even doing it 2 or 3 times doesn’t matter. The schematics and instructions are minimal help. Anyone have a solution?

Marty Veerde, Chair of Printmaking at the Quay School of Fine Arts in Whanganui, New Zealand sent me these photos of a Vanderlook-alike with hopes that I could identify it. Unfortunately, I have no information on this make. It has only two written references on it, one on an attached plate stating “Impression On – Off” and the other cast into the cabinet end with ‘SRL’. I thought it possible that it stood for Saroglia, once a well-known Italian manufacturer of printing presses and the maker of the Canuck proof press. The successor company is MEC Saroglia s.r.l., but in an email reply said it was not theirs.

Prof. Veerde says the press has no provenance or history. “… there are a few things missing off of it that will confuse the casual glance. Unfortunately the motor to power the ink train has been stripped before I got the machine and this would sit very high on the non operator side of the press It also had a protective shroud over the front of the carriage side plate which is missing as there are four screw mounting points there. The way that the ink train (vibrator roller and form rollers) disconnect from the carriage is also very distinctive and the casting for holding this roller train is aluminum.
The gripper trip bracket mounted on the operator side at the end of the bed-way is also another distinctive feature. It is not metric threaded so is either of English or American manufacture. I have just taken the old switch box apart and it has Bill Switchgear, Birmingham, England. Whether this was retrofitted or came with it is difficult to tell, however it does suggest British made.”

The press? A Universal 1 manual. The problem? A severe case of an undercut cylinder. How sever you ask? Say your normal depth of cylinder on a Uni 1 is what? .040 inches? .070 inches? This Uni? .160 inches. What packing can fill it? What top sheet can hold it?

What am I using for packing? .020” blue board, .010” mylar, .006” & .002 Vandercook tympan paper. The grain direction of each is doing what its supposed to under the topsheet. be doing, getting around the cylinder and under the topsheet. Trouble is, the packing won’t behave well enough where the topsheet fits in at the gripper assembly. It’s a jump even Evel Knievel would fear, making registration a worry I hate worrying about. Plus after a few impressions the top sheet begins to looked pretty worried itself right at that edge compromising fold where it meets the gripper assembly. Try two top sheets you say? HA! It will laugh at you and call you names if I shared your suggestion with this unruly beast.

Here’s my thought (and now tell me if this is rock stupid, okay?) I buy a diecutting jacket and (time to fess up, I’ve never seen a diecutting jacket for a Vandercook so yes, I am talking out my keister right now) and I put a healthy portion (how about .090” = 4 blue boards & 1 mylar) of the .160” packing under that. Plus the jacket itself would take up some room.Anyone know how thick? .050 inches maybe?

To anyone with Vandercook diecutting jacket experience: Would the jacket be strong enough to strap the packing down from end to end securely? And if it did, would it seem ludicrous to then act as if everything were normal and build up the normal .070” packing with the standard issue .006” Vandercook topsheet?

Why ask such a stupid question? Cause such a press exists and it’s in my care and I’d like folks to be able to use it. Plus . . . aren’‘t those Vandercook diecutting jackets sort of expensive? I’d rather look before I leap into buying one if this idea is buckshot full of holes.

Other than that, gang, any other possible solutions are welcome. Now amaze me with your wit, wisdom and candor. Moxon? . . . that leaves you out.

On Vandercook Engineering Change #848, dated 8/15/61, the roller cores for these 2 presses were radically changed. We run into these 1961 and earlier presses with the old cores on occasion, and it makes replacing the rollers much easier to know the serial number, or even better, a photo when recovering the rollers or ordering new cores. This post will cover the numbers for the Universal I, but the first 2 numbers apply to the SP-20, which is listed on this change order.

X-21010 replaced B-110

X-21012 replaced X-14099 (form roller bearing screw)

X-20933 replaced X-14095 and X-14616 Rolller core

X-20934 replaced X-14098 and X-14616 Roller core —gear

X-20935 replaced X-14097, plain roller core

X-20936 replaced X-14097—gear core. 

The change in cores also affected the end bolts and the bearing block assemblies.

In order to make room for a new press I have listed The Arm’s Vandercook #3 proof press on eBay. Starting bid is $1. This press is missing its inking roller setup and would have to be inked with a brayer, but it should prove to be a good deal for someone printing monotypes or smaller editions. This press is sold as-is and is located at street level in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NYC.
If you’d like to stop by for a look let me know! And if you have any questions feel free to ask them here.

See the auction here- http://tinyurl.com/2ap3va

Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

I took my son to the Houston printing Musuem today and it was really a nice place to visit. They had a Vandercook 4 with no motor but it was operating. A wonder place with lots of type cabinets and other table top presses.

I found this brochure when I bought my Vandercook 32-28. I don’t have the date so maybe Fritz can help, enjoy.

I found this advertisement and saw the row of Vandercooks, they look like 32-28’s.

Here are a couple of photos of my Hacker Poco 0 with my tympan and frisket. I hand ink this press. Notice the roller bearers. This process approximates the printing techniques used on the Common Press for 350 years, and the Iron Hand Press for another 150 years. I use brown paper for both the tympan and frisket, and hold it to the steel frames with wallpaper paste. I set type on the bed, lock it into place with wooden quoins I’ve made, and then make an impression of the frisket with carbon paper. Once I know where the  impression will strike on the frisket, and use a razor knife to cut a hole in the frisket.

Then comes paper to the tympan, ink to the form, and run an impression through and get the right inking. Then it’s one at a time until the press run is done, or I’m too tired, whichever occurs first. Please feel free to contact me if you need help with your Poco, want a hint to hand ink your Vandercook, or to kibitz.  

Neil Giroux, North Adams, MA 
ngiroux@roadrunner.com

My attention has been diverted from the Vanderblog and related as of late as we get into putting up our new building for NA Graphics and a move in a couple of months of all the Vandercook records, parts, and related stuff for the business. I’ll have Paul massage a photo of how the structure looked today after we put up the beams that will support the second floor. The entire structure is just over 9000 sq. feet on 2 floors, about a mile out of town right next to the Animas River. As our companion business of construction, we are doing all our own work except for electrical, plumbing and earth work. We are in a new industrial park that has its focal point being the 1906 brick substation built for the Animas Power and Water Co., one of the very early AC power companies in the world.

I’m afraid I got Paul hooked on The Inland Printer while he was here back in August. They are a fantastic source of information on printing, and letterpress in particular. The Vandercooks were often mentioned in this publicaton, and both being based in Chicago, the ties were strong. My collection runs from 1897 to the late 1970s and is comprised of both individual copies and close to 80 bound volumes. In my zeal to get these, I finally did an inventory and found a couple of duplicates of bound volumes.

R. O. Vandercook, and later his son E. O., both preached precision in materials for letterpress. In volume after volume of the Inland Printer, the need to lower makeready time pops up constantly, with references to the testing and measuring equipment available through Hacker and then Vandercook. Many factors caused letterpress’s downfall, but excessive makeready time, measured in hours into days on some presses, served as much as anything to create a stampede to offset. Vandercook tried to stem the tide, but their efforts were for naught and their prosperity of the 1960s was because typesetting was still dominated by hot metal and there was a need for repro proofs. Many of the national magazines had heavy investments in letterpress equipment and continued into the 70s until such time as they could justify the change to web offset, and in some cases, gravure. When I look at the party pictures Paul has posted, and the rest he hasn’t, it is with a certain sadness that I see these happy people unaware that their part of the world will soon change and printing will never be the same.