Repair

I know very little about this beautiful art, but have BIG dreams of diving in with the help and advice of some more seasoned pressers. I have a million questions, but I suppose my first is: would you go for a local expensive, yet ready-to-go press versus a further away, may need repair, less expensive one? thanks so much for your wisdom!

Hi Cory,I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this, but depending on the kinds of repairs the damaged press needed, I’d probably go for the close/expensive/not damaged one, especially if they deliver. Moving a press can be a hassle, and it’s stressful–fixing one can be even worse if you have to search everywhere for a part or a welder who makes house calls. A new, ready-to=go press would be that much less to worry about, so you could focus on getting you and it up to speed.

I TOTALLY agree with Kseniya,Last year I found a steel in an Adana press in the UK – now because I live in the Caribbean in a British OT it seemed like it made more sense to me to purchase it – even with the currency conversion and the price to ship – it still came under from other adanas I’ve seen for sale. I was living on Briar Press for months and I even put out a desperate plee of LOL. Frustrated I went ahead and bought the press, which is still a good deal. It sailed over to my island and I have it for a few months now trying to fill some orders.First thing I had to take it apart completely to clean it up (if you plan to do this take tons of photos – TONS – it will save you a lot of time and trouble when the time comes to put it back together). That was the type of adventure I somehow found interesting but after all the screams and head aches I learned a lot about the functioning of my press. To get it up to the point where I am at right now I watched tons of videos online and read through lots of responses from the briar press community with other new persons trying to get up and running. I am filling an order right now using the press but it still isn’t balanced and I had to actually make up parts with the help of welding and wood work shops around the island. You will have much more resources than I have right now but it can be a very frustrating.I am now in the process of trying to get a much bigger press, a C&P, and based on my past adventure I am setting a reasonable budget for what’s out in the market and will be getting a press from someone who knows and teaches letterpress. I plan to try to learn on the press before crating it and sailing it to paradise. Though getting my inexpensive press and going through the entire ordeal has been and still is hair raising – I’m glad I learned a lot about the workings of my press, but I’m going to opt to simplify my life a bit at this moment and put some money in investing (that is what we should consider it really to be) in a press I know will only need some TLC and occasional oil to keep me pressing.

Hello Cory,Both Kseniya and Sachkia hit the nail on the head with their answers.You usually get what you pay for. A printing press is an investment, buy a good one and it will only go up in value. Think of it as buying a car…..do you buy a cheap beater…that will probably $50 and $100 you to death, or do you purchase the new car…ready to drive away? They will both get you to your destination, but do you want to break down on your way there? Parts are hard to find and expensive. Are you mechanically inclinded? Do you have lots of patience? These are only a few things to think about. Since your post is almost a year old….did you get your press? Please let us know how it turned out for you. Best wishes, Camille

Thanks for all of your replies! When I wrote this, I was thinking of purchasing a local tabletop printer in excellent condition. Since then, I’ve been off to the Penland School of Crafts to study traditional printing and have become much more inclined towards printing on Vandercooks. I’m looking out for an Sp15 now. While I’m still no mechanic, I think I’d be willing to pay a pretty penny for any that I knew I could get home and in working order.Again, I surely appreciate all of your help!

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