Spooling Around

All right, that's perhaps the worst heading ever but since it's for a relatively unnecessary post, it's actually appropriate. I just wanted to put up a photo of the label on the spool of stitching wire that came with the stitcher. It's a wooden spool and the vintage label is pretty interesting. The label has the imprint of the manufacturer who made the stitcher but while gluing it back on I noticed that it had actually been placed over the original label. I couldn't see enough to determine the manufacturer of the wire.

BTW, I'm still looking for some additional spools, partial or full, wood or plastic, whatever gauge. I know I can buy them new but this poor printer is hoping to save some money if possible.

Wired!

Many thanks to my friend Alan Runfeldt of the Excelsior Press for having numerous printer's supply catalogs laying around and allowing me to borrow them. In two I found ads for my No. 8 National wire stitcher.

The top scan is from the circa 1950's New York Type Distributors catalog. They were located at 579 Broadway in New York City: just phone Canal 6-6767.

The second scan is from the Zimmer Printer's Supply catalog from 1969. Their main office was at 225 Varick St. in New York City with a sales office in Boston and an executive office in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Orders can be placed by cable using the code: Zimsupco

Don't you just love old catalogs? The information in these two ads tells me virtually everything I need to know regarding the stitcher. Capacity, speed, and clear enough graphics to allow me to reconstruct accurately the table gauge. Fortunately one of the end slides was still attached so I can use it for scale and general construction.

I now need some wire. If anyone has any 5 pound spools of wire they don't need, aren't using, or wish to donate please let me know. Older wooden spools are especially welcome!

A Stitch In Time

I've been on a slight hiatus from posting because I've been without a computer at home for about three weeks. I had an ancient 366 mhz unit that I've exchanged for a less ancient Pentium III at about 800 mhz. I still have dialup so dowloading, etc. is as slow as before, but aside from that I'm cookin' with gas. And it doesn't lock up every few websites. And it has Windows 2000 and Corel Draw, and it's the best thing since sliced bread. Now I'm loking into DSL. Yep, I'm moving right into the 90's.

Anyway, in honor of the first post since my return, I have a nice new addition to the shop to introduce, a National wire stitcher. While I don't plan on doing thousands of binding jobs of my own work, I will do some and want to have the option of doing binding for others on a paying basis. Besides, it's a cool machine and I love machines and because I only paid $50 for it and picked it up locally, I indulged myself.

I picked it up today and while I wasn't surprised by its overall dimensions which were about what I expected, I didn't realize it was so beefy. It's made of heavy castings and is very substantial. I still need to look into its particular specifications, but it certainly looks heavy enough to bind up to at least an inch thick as opposed to the smaller, lighter models.

It was made by the Gitzendanner-Muller Co., Inc. of New York, NY. It's their National Wire Stitcher, Size #8, serial number 1325. There is a supplier's tag on it as well showing that it was sold by the E.P. Lawson Co. Inc. of 426 W. 33rd St., New York 1, NY. The tag indicates they sold paper cutting machines and binding equipment and probably a lot of other things related to printing.

I'm estimating it is from the 30's. This is based on the paint color, style of the maker's and seller's tags, etc. The "New York 1, NY" will be a clue that I have yet to look into. It had a wooden wire spool with some 28 guage wire installed. The spool had a paper label from the same company as the maker of the stitcher but because the label was partly falling off and partly damaged I was able to see that it had been glued over a label from the actual maker of the wire. This is not uncommon as for example Martin guitar strings are sold in Martin packaging but are actually made by a company that makes strings as their main business. I wish stitching wire sold today still came on wooden spools instead of ugly, bright colored plastic. I repired the lbel and reattached it to the spool. Gotta love that wooden spool.

The stitcher is dirty with minor rust on some exposed parts but otherwise seems complete and cycled through when I turned it by hand. I need to replace the cord. If anyone could provide me with scanned catalog pages, instructions, or any other information on this particular stitcher or a similar stitcher I would really appreciate it. I'm pretty good mechanically but am flying blind with this machine.

The photos below were taken by the man I bought it from and aren't so good. I'll take some better ones and post them later.

"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."

This is about my first broadside and my first-time participation in a letterpress swap. In the spirit of Commodore Dewey, the printing of this innocuous sheet was something of an epic battle. Before the swap was a glimmer in any one's eye, about a year ago I decided I would try and print one of my favorite poems as a broadside. That was back when I had my C&P 8x12 with the poor rollers and worse Morgan Expansion truck tires. It was the first form of any length I had set.


My concept was to create a broadside in the style of the 17th century following examples I had seen. Thus the black letter Old English text and the Caslon title. The border was not exactly in a style of that age but was the closest I had. I picked a Strathmore all-cotton laid paper I got with the press along with most of the original equipment for my shop.


A number of problems cropped up right away, things that had not been so evident on the small forms I had printed to that point such as a business card. First was the roller and truck issue as it affected inking the form. The perf cuts in the rollers were bad at one place and created a white line that moved around slightly. The truck tires being out of round caused their own difficulties. And to add insult to injury I realized that the platen I had so carefully adjusted needed tweaking. I could deal with the platen but had to live with the rollers and trucks for the time being, not being able to afford replacements. The texture of the laid paper did not help. But for all of those things, it ironically still printed as good as some of the cheap and quickly printed originals I've seen. It was certainly readable, if no acme of the printer's art.


Fast forward to the present day and the advent of my great 10x15 press with good rollers and steel trucks. Now you would think hey, now we're cooking with gas, right? Well, sort of. Everything certainly went much better and the print was far superior. But the fly in the ointment was that I had taped the rails to get the rollers adjusted and had been pretty happy with the business cards I had done but I should really have taken more time to experiment. I had signed up for a great letterpress swap (letterpressswap.blogspot.com) and was pressed for time (no pun intended) so even though they did not come out as well as I would have liked and as the press is capable, they're OK.


What I needed to do and have subsequently done is to remove a couple layers of tape from each rail so the rollers would press a bit more into the form. Once I did that I got great inking and nice prints without makeready using the same form. Not that it couldn't have used a touch of makeready here and there to really get it just right. The type was a bit worn and though I replaced a number of sorts it could have used a little onionskin here and there. So the moral of this story is to take your time and go the extra mile.


As my first real project I was reasonably satisfied and I learned a good deal more about what constitutes basic adjustments. You can see the results for yourself below. Wild exclamations of approbation and constructive criticisms are welcome.

Hooked On Wingnuts

In my last post I neglected to explain that the screw hooks are fixed to the bottom board with nuts and washers, the nuts on the bottom being countersunk into the board so the bottom board sits flat on the base. The screw hooks in the top board are loose in their holes and each has a washer and wingnut. Once the top board is laid on the stack of pads each length of chain is attached to the hooks in the top and bottom boards with as little slack as possible. The stack is then compressed by tightening the wingnuts evenly on both sides.

Now go and do thou likewise!

A Pressing Issue

I make up my notepads using a padding press and padding cement. These presses come in various shapes, sizes, and types of construction but they all do basically the same thing: compress the stacked pads so the flexible padding cement can be applied and so that the pads will maintain a compact form and the sheets hold together well once released and cut apart for use.

I made my own press modeling it on a style once commonly available from most printing supply houses and still available in one form or another, even on Ebay. The biggest difference is that I made mine from scrap lumber and plywood and it cost me nothing but time and a couple bucks for the two pieces of chain and the screw hooks.

The press consists of a base, a removable vertical backboard, a bottom board and a top board. You can see most of these parts in the photo. The photo is from last year and shows my original pads. To use it you stand the backboard on the base and lay the bottom board on the base. After first folding the edge of a sheet of index and laying it on the bottom board, you take a stack or stacks of pads (whatever will fit depending on the size of the press or pads) and place them on the bottom board with the top of the pads against the backboard. The pads of course have already been made up by interspersing a piece of chipboard alternately between the number of sheets each pad will have. You jog the stack so it is nice and square and the sheets are even all around. Then another sheet of index is folded and laid on top of the pads after which the top board is put on, the chains connected to the screw hooks, and the wing nuts tightened to squeeze the stack of pads. How much they should be squeezed depends on how tall the stack is but there's a lot of "that seems about right" involved.

The top and bottom boards with the pads in between can then be lifted up as one unit and turned around on the base so that the tops of the stacked pads are facing you. The sheets of index can be folded up and down out of the way. They are there to prevent padding cement from getting all over the boards.

As might be expected from the name, padding cement is a special adhesive used for pads. It is sort of rubber-like when it dries and I'm sure everyone has used a pad at one time or another and so is at least familiar with it in a user's sense. It can be purchased from printer's supply houses, art suppliers, etc. It's available in a few colors though white seems to be the most common. The cement I have is water-based and I just take a cheap brush and paint on the cement making sure to work it in well so I don't miss any spots. I let it dry and then put on a second coat. Most people probably use just one coat but I like two for strength. Another way to strengthen the top is to press cheesecloth over the first coat while it is wet and then paint on a second coat.

In a pinch, the pads can be stacked on the edge of a table and a brick or two laid on top to prepare for the cement. This is the method given in an older graphic arts textbook I have. But I like the surety and stability of the press.

Once the cement is completely dry (I leave it overnight) I cut the pads apart with a wide-bladed knife. There's a bit of a technique to this which is easily learned by doing it a few times and after which you can slice them up like butta.

Pads are easy, cheap, and a great project and always seem to be a big hit with everyone I give them to. Obviously they can also be used in business-like ways for advertising, etc. I would only add that you need a lot of sheets to make them. I printed almost 600 sheets on my last pad project which yielded 17 pads of about 35 sheets each. So you Vandercook users may want to pay a visit to your friend's motorized platen press. Heidelburg owners are in luck.

Noteworthy

I finished the run for the new pad sheets today, about 600 in all. That's the longest print run I've done to date and it went very well. Among other things, doing some of these mundane print projects gives a lot of practise feeding the press. If I haven't mentioned it before, I run the press at 14 impressions per minute which is very comfortable for me. The experiment of leaving the Van Son rubber base ink on the press overnight was successful also. I know this is "common knowledge" but it's nice to have it verified by my own experience. The top photo shows my first pads which I printed on my old 8x12 about a year ago. The bottom photo shows the revised heading. I not only like that heading better but they printed somewhat better as well, though I'm not sure how much of the difference can be seen in the scans. I'll be gluing them up in the next day or two. It's a simple and fun project and besides the potential advertising value they make great gifts and are useful to have around. I made them using offset paper cut offs so they basically cost me only my time. The faces are Old English, Caslon, and Stymie.