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
A proof press resource
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
Enrique, making new Vandercooks is a perennial thought. But there is just not enough demand at the price point for which they could be built. The late Hal Sterne, who owned NA Graphics before Fritz Klinke, researched this idea in the mid 1990s:
“The Universal series was quite popular with the paper mills for testing paper. There was a company in New England that made special attachments for those presses. At one time when they couldn’t find any more Universals they asked us if we could have them built from our blueprints. We contacted a machine company in Cincinnati that had experience building presses and they wanted $50,000.00 each to build them in lots of ten. (We)could find no takers.”
Conditions for manufacturing are less favorable today. In North America, the closest thing to a new press is the one and two color proof presses built by Little Joe Industries. These small tabletop machines are designed to meet the needs of ink makers, paper mills and printers for research and development, and for color control. These presses feature geared cylinders, and a horizontal flatbed that can accommodate a type high form. http://www.littlejoe.com.
In Great Britain, Harry F. Rochat Ltd. makes a flatbed cylinder proof press “designed to fill a demand in wood and lino blocks.” It has an adjustable bed, grippers on bed, but no inking system. http://www.harryrochat.com.
In Germany, Drucken & Lernen make a showcard-style table top proof press http://www.drucken-und-lernen.de/Druckpressen-und-ge.125.0.html.
:) wouldn’t that be something?
how bout convincing Fritz for a kickstarter project to pre-sell the new machines. Then he can use the money to produce them. It’s a common model for production projects on KS.
Well, I do like to pull the trigger.
Sure would like to see an announcement more like, Vandercook SP15 back in production though.
Gerald
haha, I suspect you are joking Gerald. It’s a derby car, it looks fantastic to me.
Really? This is what all this has come down to? toys? Really? I was hoping for much more.
Gerald