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. Â
Neil Giroux, North Adams, MAÂ
ngiroux@roadrunner.com
In the photo it appears that the frisket can swing back flat away from the bed. On a Vandercook with an inking mechanism, roll the carriage over the form with the inking mechanism engaged and impression off. Then raise the rollers, lower the frisket, and shift the print lever to impression on. Then move the carriage over the form again.
Lisa and Paul: Of course if you have a Vandercook, you could use the photo of the frisket as a start, but if you have a Poco, keep in mind that the bed moves back and forth under the cylinder. My rig moves back and forth with the bed, and the packing serves both ways. Consider this: If you remove the inking mechanism on the Vandy, then you must hand ink. If the “frisket” in the photo open away from the cylinder, how do you conveniently get to the form to ink? If you leave the Vandy inking mechanism intact, when do you lower the frisket?
Offhand, catalogs and brochures for the Universal i & III, SP20, No. 4, 215, and 219 (both old and news styles) list hand frisket frames as optional equipment. Here’s a pic of a “frisket frame on a 219 OS”:http://vandercookpress.info/images/219OS-handfrisket.jpg from the Post 1928 Proving Equipment PDF (14 mb) located on the “Bibliography”:http://vandercookpress.info/bib.html page. Note that this frame is spring-loaded where it attaches to the bed, thus these holes are not threaded.
Could you say offhand which proof presses already have the threaded holes? This sounds like a good place to start, maybe.
Thanks,
Lisa
Many proof presses have threaded holes on the sides of the bed bearers to screw in a frisket frame.
Hi Lisa: I have a cast-iron chase on the bed. To the end of the chase I have welded hinges connecting the chase to the steel-frame tympan. The tympan is, in turn, hinged to the steel-frame frisket. I lock the chase to the side of the bed with wood quoins, lock the form in the chase in the same manner, and “away we go.” Hope this helps. Neil
Hi, Neil,
How do you attach the platen/frisket unit to the press itself? I can’t exactly see if it’s just leaning there or you have bolted it somehow. Did you drill into the press? Also, is the press bed the “normal” depth for the usual things (boy, am I making sense). I would love to see/make/use one of these things.
Thank you,
Lisa Davidson