It’s true, I only change the vibrator rollers, I keep the other four in place all the time. I’ll try that, too! You know what’s funny? I posted this question on three different letterpress lists, and yours, here, is the one and only response I’ve had! I didn’t think my problem was that unique! 🙂

Hi, Kseniya! No, can’t say I’ve ever used roller bearings. I will try raising the rollers with added rail tape at the top. It could be that one of the rollers, possibly the end roller which sets a bit higher by design, might in fact by skidding a bit. I’ll have to see where roller bearings for 10×15 and 8×12 chases might be available.

Pete, maybe it’s the late hour, but I’m a little confused.  Do you want to put your stuff on, say, my blog, or do you want to put my stuff on your blog?  

Thanks!  🙂

-gary // paper wren press

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

http://www.paperwrenpress.blogspot.com

http://www.gjohanson.blogspot.com

http://www.q5letterpress.blogspot.com ( “All Things Wireless & Letterpress”)

Hi, Monica, try Vbelt Supply:

The link above takes you to a page that has belts 1.25″ wide and over 100″ length. I forget, I think my 8×12 uses a 120″ belt for the flywheel.  If you need to do any calculation for belt length vs press speed, I treated this some time back on my blog. 

gary // Paper Wren Press

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

http://www.paperwren.blogspot.com

Thank you, Jessica.  You and Kelly have both confirmed what I have been thinking. 

I am laying a different set of plans out for the next year, which will major more locally, and more in terms of education.  What you both have pointed to does connect!  Heh, here is where I wish I had everything under one roof where I could have open house events.  But that day is coming.

I’ll pop in from time to time to post how things go.

Hey, from the deep south: Y’all have a great Thanksgiving, ya heah?

-gary // paper wren press.

Thanks for the response, Kelly!  I had wondered as to whether I should appeal locally or not.  I have noted that when I do meet folks, at shows or shops, I spend half my time describing what Letterpress even is. This includes our local University here in DeLand, FL!!  It seems that before I even show what I do, I have to first teach a short-course about what letterpress is, and why they need it.  I guess that’s called “client development”.  I may look into having a DVD made of my process, and bring it along to my next local show!  Maybe even hold an open house . . . that is, when we can unite the Bindary/ Stitchery and the Press/ design center under one ‘visitable’ roof!

I guess I set my target away from the locals based upon my observation of the other two local, apparently very successful shops down in the Orlando/ Winter Park area.  I live about 30 miles north of Orlando,  in the DeLand area.  The largest Letterpress close to me is probably the largest in the country, and does half Letterpress, half seriography / silk screening.  They are in Orlando.  The owner(s) have told me they never once approached the local community, they built their presence on line, almost entirely..

The other is in Winter Park, and seems to do mostly wholesale greeting cards, pads and notebooks.  They go to the Manhattan show.  Again, while they do the local Winter Park scene socially, they seem to focus on a national market.  Or so it seems.

This to say, it’s influenced me not really look locally.  But that may be the problem, I have not really focused in my own back yard, just thinking that my back yard does not seem to fit my client profile.  But that is an assumption on my part, so your advice is well noted, and taken !  (my wife will also say “told ya so! ”  🙂

One area of endeavor that has been disappointing over the past seven years, which I had surely thought would have been better is Wedding Announcements. I am starting to think that custom consigned work just isn’t what we are cut out for. We do have an Etsy shop with cards, though not extensive. 

Our web site is http://www.paperwrenpress.com, it has a fair assortment of what we do, and links to our Etsy, just to give an idea.  It also links to our blog.

Well, we are a little discouraged, but hopeful.  It’s been seven years now, I think we are still in the process of discovering who we are in this industry.  Custom Printer?  Greeting Card Designer/ Printers?  Publisher? ( I would love to get into fine book printing and binding, but I think that is something to do once we “get well off the ground”.)

Thanks again for the response, Kelly, and I will take your advice starting Jan. 1, 2015, and re-level our artillery to just outside our  own doors!

-gary // paper wren press.

I would second the floor model idea, personally.  For one thing, you can probably get two 8x12s for the price of one Pilot.  Secondly, if you are going into business, you are probably going to print in quantity, and at some point your time sched. will become crammed enough that pulling the one armed bandit will be just too slow.  Pilots are great, I mean, heck, even Kelsey front lever presses do a great job, with castings about the size of the 7×11 Pearl.  But for anything like production, no bueno.  They were not made for high number production runs, and for that matter, neither was the Pilot.  Great for a hobby press, though.

Pearl. . . now there’s the ideal starter press.  Slightly smaller than the 8×12 C&Ps, about the same overall size of a Pilot, only it has a flywheel and treadle, and is capable of very excellent printing of wedding stationery up to A7, can be unbolted from it’s table mount (which comes with the press, having two drawers on most models), easily lifted by two people, and once the flywheel is removed, will fit easily through a 30″ door frame.  And….they are about the same going price as a Pilot.  They are classic presses, and have quite a following.  I ran many high impression run jobs from mine, and when using Lettra or any other open sized non calendered papers, capable of leaving a very nice deboss.

Thank you for not calling it as having been “letterpressed”.  Sets the hair on the back of my neck on edge whenever I hear a proper noun used as a verb.  But all that aside . . . back when Letterpress was part of a standard commercial shop, and still a part of the daily production routine, Letterpress was the term given to the press type itself.  When I was asked to set the text for the Clarklift Central business card shells, it was because we were going to use the Letterpress.  Now, once it was established that a print run was going to go out as a Letterpress order, it was a matter of which kind.  The standard vertical platen Chandler & Price (that we all know and love) was called a Job Press, or alternately, a “Platen Jobber” or a “Platen Press”.  The Vandercook was known as only one thing: the proof press.  Anything printed from the Platen Job Presses were considered Letterpress Printed, and that included typeset formes, die cuts, dot etched screen cuts, half tones, woodcuts, linoleum cuts, whatever the raised surface medium was, if it was printed on the Letterpress, it was considered Letterpress Printed.  At one time, the term used for raised surface printing was “Typography”, from the Greek word “Typos”, meaning “an exact copy of” or “Same As” in Koine.  The term survives in its original meaning among philatelists (stamp collectors): Scott’s Specialized Catalog lists it among the three major printing types: Planography, Intagliography, and Typography, both print and emboss.  But these days, “Typography” has morphed to the study of Lettertypes and Letter styles. 

Language changes, and terms evolve, I know.  And I will say that at age 60, what I do with my own platen jobbers to print out “Modern Letterpress” products would have gotten me fired on the spot when I was 19!  The papers we run on these machines today would have never been even considered suitable 40 years ago, when the ideal was polished hard stock used for extreme detail, which Letterpress is so very capable of doing.  But that was then, and this is now, and terminology won’t break your press, thankfully.  Enjoy your 8×12 OS, and if you find yourself doing high number impression work, like several thousand impressions per run, you might consider picking up a New Series version.  The “NS” is a lower profile job press with steel shafts and bearings, whereas the OS is iron through and through.  The OS is still an excellent press, however.

Ok, it’s taken a while, but here it is:  I photographed in fairly high rez all the pages of my Ludlow manual, about 155-odd pages.  My PDF maker choked on the images, so these are .jpg images at about 8 mB per image, in a zip file, which I uploaded to my site.  You can download it here.

If that link didn’t come through, try this:

http://www.gjohanson.com/Homesite/ZIP/ludlow.zip

Allow about 3 to 4 minutes download time, depending on your connection.  Again, this is a Zip file.

I included cover shots, front and rear.  All parts, images, and text are included.  The Manual dates to 1986, so in the big scheme of things, it is not an old manual.  Also, you might see that I wrote David Seat’s phone number on the front cover.  David is the one to contact about set up and maintenance of these machines.  If that number isn’t right, let me know, I’ll correct it for you.

Hope this helps you, Barb, and whoever else may benefit from this.

gary johanson

Paper Wren Press

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

http://www.paperwrenpress.blogspot.com

paperwrenpresjs@gmail.com

#printshopinapigeonhole

Barb, would a scan of a manual be of help?  I have a manual, it’s my only, as I am also in the process of obtaining a Ludlow.  It’s gonna be a protracted endeavor, because down here, it seems that turn-key operations are unobtainum.  I have to get a Model M here, mats there, mat cabinets over across the state, ludlow sticks over in Portland, pigs over in Baltimore, Ludlow cleaning tools (which Dave Seat informs is about as important as the machine itself) from eBay……Ach!   But as it is, so far I’ve gotten sticks, this manual, and I may have a line on a Ludlow in the Tampa Bar area….maybe…

The manual is 150-odd pages, and while it might be a bit arduous to scan each and every page, I could scan and post some of the key elements of the manual, if you would wish.  It wouldn’t be immediate in that I have a ton of stuff, but if there are particulars you are needing immediately, email me at paperwrenpress@gmail.com.  I’ll see if I can identify where in the manual it is, and scan those pages.   If it’s helpful to you.

gary johanson

Paper Wren Press

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

Mary, it’s been a while since you posted this query.  It’s been almost a year, I am curious how you are doing.  Did you ever make the transition?

-gary

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

http://www.gjohanson.blogspot.com

I almost always name my presses!  They are too important not to.  We name ships, aircraft, and if you go back to the early 1800s, in the days of the thwart-mounted 8-gauge bird guns of the Chesapeake, even the guns!  Even Swords received names! Oddly enough, my original 8×12 NS C&P that does yeoman duty is nameless. I never felt moved to name it.  My 1909 Pearl OS Model 3 was christened “Anna”, after my grandmother, both whom came into this world in June of 1909.  My Kluge is named “Brother John”, after it’s prior owner John Moran, printer extraordinaire.  My former student, Isabell, of “9th Letter Press”, named her OS 10×15 C&P  “St. Peter”.

-gary

http://www.paperwrenpress.com

http://www.gjohanson.blogspot.com

Well, it looks a little late for dealing with the actual quote needed, but i might comment anyway concerning pricing. One point is that no matter what, market value rules. That being said, the market value of letterpress printed products are substantially higher than most other processes. As a former calligrapher, i might advise against the temptation to lessen the value of hand wrought letterpress artisan products by undercutting. Keep your prices in line with average prices as near as you can ascertain them to be. Those of us haunting and stumbling through site after site already have a decent appaisal of what our treasures sell for, more or less.I would start with what your fiscal needs are, your rent, light bill and utilities, &c. What do you need to make to clear your bills. What do you need to take as profit? Once you get a figure here, start adding your cost of goods for prospective order. How much is your time worth? Count all your costs, the cost of shipping your paper and dies to you, cost of makeready, any custom inks, the cost of your dies.If you have an idea of what you must take to cover your cost, and you have a grasp on the percentage you need from your labours to pay your bills, and you know what you want to pay yourself, you are ready to experiment with crunching numbers. This is where you begin to determine your necessary margin, the difference between costs of goods, operating costs and administrative costs – and your gross taken in. You may find you need around a 50% margin to make things work. Or 70%. Or if you work from your garage, only 30%.From here, what i did was pull a few sample prices based around my determined costs and evaluated the margin. If i could live with it, i worked that margin into the equation on my Excel spread sheet, working it through all possible order types i could think of. I found that my resultant prices stayed pretty much in line with market average. There will always be folks cheaper and more expensive than you. Again, its all averaging, trial, re-working, and trialing againto arrive at a point that best represents value to your product, and a fair income to pay you costs and remunerate yourself for your hard work and hard fought skills.Things i have chosen to work into my prices are design time and remake errors. I find it not uncommon for a mother of the bride to throw a last minute wrench into the works by decrying the wording of the text, or some such thing. I allow for a last minute overnite rush die to be made at no penalt,!y to an already overtaxed bride to be. It cuts down my margin, but i’ve made a friend and maybe even a referral.!I hope the above makes sense. I am not an accountant but i have run retail businesses most of my life (high school diploma only) – and learnt letterpress on the print shop floor when letterpress was still considered a standard shop item. Customising pricing to suit your shop and environment is like customising anything else : it may take a lot of time to work out the finished product.

I think Crane Lettra is quite popular for this.  Check with Legion Papers.  

From a “traditional” letterpress point of view, so much depends on what you want to focus on.  Will you be setting traditional metal type, for instance?  If so, a platen press and that poco proofer would be ideal.  Will you be making posters or broadsides?  Cylinder presses, a Challenge Proofer, a Vandercook, wood type, etc., would be ideal.  Wedding announcements using digitally designed plates, polymer or metal?  I’d still go with the platen presses, which were designed for both registration and production.  Remember that a platen press’s effective print area is about 1/3 of the inside chase diametre, or if pushing it, one half.  Thus, pay attention to the chase size of whatever platen you may choose.

Platen presses do not excel in broad, unbroken areas of colour, a cylinder type press will do much better.  A cylinder press is also safer for deep deboss work, but you can do some debossing with a platen press with proper choice of paper and die size.  Platen press DO excel with ….. letters, yes, and also relief printing that involves line shading, like wood engravings.  Linocuts do well depending on how broad the areas of colour are.

I do both handset type and metal dies.  Thus, I keep a proofing cylinder press (Showcard) and an 8×12 platen at the home studio, and the 10×15 at another location where my most important piece of equipment also is…….my 30 inch Craftsman paper cutter.  That, next to the press, is the most valuable piece of equipment in my shop.  Without it, I would be dead in the water.

gary

G. Johanson, Letterpress

http://www.gjohanson.com

http://www.gjohanson.blogspot.com

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