Enrique asked me if he could use a No.4 oscillator on his SP15. The answer is yes. The tubes are the same diameter (3¾”) and the worm gear is the same part (DR-338), but the shaft and tube length of the SP15 is longer (13″) than the No. 4 (12½”). While the No. 4 [...]

This site is is undergoing a system upgrade and reorganization. Please use search field if you cannot find what your looking for, or contact me and I will do my best to direct you to the information you need. The dust will settle shortly. Thank you for your patience. Pjm

Here’s a vintage full page advertisement for a Hoe flatbed cylinder proof press from The British Printer, January-February 1933 (vol. XLV, no. 269, page 49). Hoe & Co. Ltd. was the London subsidiary of the New York printing equipment manufacturer R. Hoe & Co. Established in 1827, the parent company is remembered for their Washington-style iron handpress, but [...]

I’ve added a page to promote my new book  Vandercook Presses: Maintenance, History and Resources.

From its founding and through several decades, the Lee family ran the Challenge Machinery Company. Challenge, which began as the successor to Shniedewend & Lee, became one of the largest printing equipment manfacturers with a wide range of products. Among their many innovations were the first paper drilling machine, the first hydraulic paper cutter and [...]

Here’s a link to a fun take on a Vandercook as pinewood derby car. http://www.jeremyslagle.com/blog/2011/8/11/one-fast-letterpress.html

Andrew Franklin Wanner (1855–1935) was a typefounder and the proprietor of A.F. Wanner & Co. a printing supplier and press manufacturer in Chicago. Today the company is remembered as the original maker of Potter and Poco proof presses. It was also one of the earliest selling agents for Vandercook. In 1867, Wanner moved to Chicago [...]

Posted for the benefit of our European friends: http://riviera.angloinfo.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=215488  

Recently, I toured Thornwillow Press in Newburgh, New York where amongst the numerous letterpress equipment on premises is a 1927 Vandercook No. 119 Proving Machine. (The image at left is its entry in one of the early sales record books.) Currently,  this press is the only known example of the model in the census.*  In [...]

A Vanderblog reader just alerted me to a brief youtube video of a 30 x 24″ Soldan proof press in the UK that appears to be for sale.

Horace Wardner Hacker (1879–1968) was the founder of the Hacker Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, which made plate gauges, and test presses that featured reciprocating beds with stationary carriages. Hacker held 14 U.S. Patents for various gauges and press mechanisms (and four later patents unrelated to printing). Like R.O. Vandercook, he was a proponent of press [...]

This will likely be of interest to owners of British-built Vandercooks: Chip Coakley (the Jericho Press) emailed me with the serial number on his No. 4 made by Pre-Press Ltd. and to let me know that its original brass bearing blocks had British Standard Whitworth interior threads. When he bought replacement blocks from NA Graphics, [...]