16. 03. 09
Proofing press upstairs
My new Korrex proofing press weighs 460 kilos (approx 600 lbs). Getting it from the street to the workshop on the third floor was an adventure which, unfortunately, remains undocumented. Once upstairs, however, our little Flip video camera was at hand to record four grown men and one press in various stages of deconstruction. The movie is very much in beta. A proper version will be made once we can actually pull proofs on the press.
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by erik
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10 Responses to “Proofing press upstairs”:
1
It was with a mixture of concern and amusement I watched the video — I cannot begin to imagine how you got it to the third floor!
Rob Turpin
March 20th, 2009 at 14:12 pm
2
It’s called elbow grease.
Actually we took the ink unit off the machine by moving it over to a book shelf on wheels that we had padded to reach the height of the press bed. That took about 100kg off the weight. Then we tilted the press upright and slipped it onto a little board with wheels that we had duct-taped together. This contraption was pushed into the lift (elevator) and brought to the third floor. There the process was reversed, as can be seen in the video. Without the lift we would have been in serious trouble. If the lift had been bigger, we could have left the press in the horizontal position.
erik
March 20th, 2009 at 15:43 pm
3
Looking forward to the final video with proofs! Looks like a good piece of machinery.
Tor Løvskogen Bolling
March 22nd, 2009 at 13:33 pm
4
Right! I’m coming over in the summer and you and me can print for a few days. Fancy that?
Jonathan Doney
March 25th, 2009 at 11:16 am
5
You are either luckier than I, Eric, or more skilled. I once with two pals moved a Vandercook of the same size. We had no lift in the building, so we had the bed off the base, and were roping it down a stairwell. It got away from us and destroyed a wall upon landing. None of us was hurt, though. The press was fine.
have fun with this.
will
will powers
March 27th, 2009 at 14:19 pm
6
Reminds me of when Chris Stern and Byron Scott first moved a big letterpress into the old house in Seattle where Chris was living at the time. I somehow contrived to be somewhere else that day. They only had to get the press into the house on the ground floor, but the front porch had three wooden steps; as Chris put it, one guy with a bad back and one 70-year-old man got a one-ton press up onto the porch and rolled it into the living room. They did it with patience, levers, and shims; it took them all day.
Chris dubbed his imprint Grey Spider Press, because of a small arachnid who was along for the ride up those steps.
John
John D. Berry
March 27th, 2009 at 18:43 pm
7
“the old house”
“one-ton press”
Those terms combined in one tale already make me very nervous. How did the joists handle the load, John? I have my own sad tale on this theme.
will
will powers
April 14th, 2009 at 14:50 pm
8
[…] Proofing press upstairs . There is also quite a bit of type and everything else I need to start work; but I still haven’t printed anything. Meanwhile, as reminder and inspiration, here is a lovely video from the US showing business cards being printed on a platen press. […]
SpiekerBlog » Blog Archive » Real printing
January 9th, 2010 at 11:01 am
9
[…] their hands dirty, I took dozens of photos. I did learn to print ages ago and have my own Korrex in Berlin, so for me it was more about getting familiar with the leading brand of proof […]
SpiekerBlog » Blog Archive » Vandercool
January 22nd, 2013 at 23:55 pm
10
[…] und hier ging es mir vor allem darum herauszufinden, wie sich eine Vandercook von meiner Korrex in Berlin […]
SpiekerBlog » Blog Archive » Vandercool
January 23rd, 2013 at 00:05 am
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