Terry Chouinard sent me this advertisement he saw in the BBS Specimen Book (No. 25) for a “Vandercook Gordon Press Vibrator.” He asked if Vandercook made any other equipment for production presses? Good question. After all, their presses were marketed as pre-press equipment. But nothing in the catalogs I’ve seen references anything like the Gordon Vibrator.

Some time ago Daniel Morris gave me a CD of pdfs of Vandercook patents he found on Google Patents. After reviewing these files it appears that the vibrator and R.O. Vandercook’s first patent “Means for Dissipating Static Electricity” (1902), plus three for offset presses, were the only ones issued to his company for inventions not part of a proof/test press or plate making equipment. Hacker Manufacturing Co., acquired by Vandercook in 1937, held 14 U.S. patents for equipment that later became part of the Vandercook product line, notably their well known plate gauge.

Rather than uploading Daniel’s files, I’ve created a page with tables listing the patents issued to Vandercook and separate pages for Hacker and Challenge. Each feature links to the drawings and descriptions on Google.

Hello!

I have two pictures (pictures below) of a piece that is grinding on my vandercook 219. There are fine metal shavings under the press after about an hour of running. I see no way of adjusting this to lift it up.

Any suggestions?

Pictures:

Nick

Hello all – -

I had the great fortune of saving an SP20 from the scrapyard earlier this Spring. However, it was not quite as complete as I remembered it being when I first found it last Fall.

Someone clearly attempted to dismantle it sometime in its history, then abandoned it, and the only old pressman in the shop claims that it had always looked like this. I smiled and nodded and agreed that indeed, they never had a feedboard or handle, clearly.

I am looking for a motor speed reducer for a #4. This press belongs to Gray Zeitz, who is the nicest person you’ll ever meet, has a beard like ZZ top, and has been hand setting & printing books at Larkspur Press for 35 years. He’s charged me with getting this press running, and this is the last piece of the puzzle. Here’s a pic:

We have the motor and the bracket. I need the reducer (part with orange oil cups) and the cover to the right would be nice too, as well as the belt. This is part number x-9464 in the manual.

thanks in advance,

Alex Brooks

press eight seventeen – lexington letterpress

Alot of cutting and creasing in the UK seems to be done on Heidlebergs – I haven’t got one of those, so my question is this: does any one use their Vandercook for cutting and/or creasing and if so what do you use?

For cutting I assume you would pack/protect the cylinder from the die with absorbent material – is there a hard rubber blanket people use?

For creasing I can envisage using brass rule – or are there dedicated creasing ‘widgets’ out there?

Thanks

John Christopher

I spotted this on ebay 370033826590 – somebody might be interested – what is it?

John

arcane devices

I was recently asked about a homemade photopolymer base I use at The Arm and thought it would be of value to post the reply here where it might be of use to others.

“The base you saw at The Arm was an acrylic base with an aluminum surface laminated to it. It works okay, but I must say I really prefer the Boxcar bases we have here. That homemade base doesn’t have the dimensional consistency of their bases. If you can’t afford that Boxcar and are willing to do a bit of work you can also get some plate aluminum from these guys http://stores.ebay.com/FORTAL-Aluminum and then have a good machine shop mill it down to the appropriate base thickness for the photopolymer plate stock you intend to use.
Machinists are often only able to mill to a consistent thickness over a small area so you could take more than one piece of material, have it machined down to your base thickness and puzzle it together on the bed of the press. I personally think it is better to have a base that is in multiple pieces so that you can later decide to use only part of it. This allows you to lock up type with photopolymer and not have to run the same color through the press twice because the plate base has gobbled up too much of the bed.
You won’t get the nice anodized grid as provided on the Boxcar bases, but at least you’ll be printing!”

Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

The airlines have conspired to strand me in the NY area. So I decided to send you all a note from red hook. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to visit the Arm this time, but i did spend a week at the Dale Guild in NJ, and took some pictures of Theo’s vandercook block leveler. I thought it was interesting, and i bet you will too. Enjoy – alex