After 30 years in print, many of which spent on Heidelberg platen and cylinder presses, its good to see this craft being maintained and good to see it done well too, attention to detail is everything. I miss my machines ;)
I grew up in a print shop that my Father purchased 4 months before I was born. Closed the doors after 39 years. Also worked for his Uncles Print Shop. They rolled letterpress newspaper mats, he had a cylinder, hand feeds and a windmill. Knew nothing about offset, until he got drafted and stationed at Fort Hood, 1963. The joy it brings my Dad when I find Videos of presses that he's always used as reference whenever I ran into a snag, along with my personal gratitude. Having said all that, really unique how you packed the Tympan to achieve impression. I often seen my dad use a torn sheet of paper, run his finger on the side of the press for grease, go behind the platen, add grease and torn sheet to any low-spots, just never seen him make-ready to register.
Agreed with Adrock, please keep posting. Also, I want to know which paper you are using in this video for print..?? Can I but it online somewhere, please share link if any..??
Most people don’t get the chance to see how this kind of work is done. We’ve been making these videos just to show how much work really goes on behind the scenes. Thanks for your comment!
As someone who did this manually many years ago and now uses tons of business cards, you’re going to be my go to company for my next batch of business cards. Your skills are impeccable!
As a long-time Letterpress printer, with all sizes of the C&Ps - from the Pilot up to the 12x18 we call "Big Ben", I enjoyed the familiar sound of your press running with the old Kemble motor. And, I was pleased to see you practicing pretty nearly the same techniques that I was taught over fifty years ago. Although we were taught to "kiss the paper", and not make as deep an impression as is popular today, your impression appears to be just right for the paper you printing on - and your register is indeed "dead-on" or, as we tend to say "dot for dot". Very pleasing video passing on some very correct techniques of this craft. Thank you.
Thank you Alan! The only thing I would've done differently is mounted each plate upside down so that they were right side up as they were being delivered. Just as type is supposed to be: reverse and upside down.
Bro I have no clue why your videos capture my attention, maybe it is simply the fact that the printing press changed the world. You are a master at this craft, thanks for your time and effort.
I loved this video! I'm a printer by trade myself. Of course this press is before my time. Thank you for the video! My dad is also a printer and he definitely would remember this type of printing!
Nice and interesting ! Cool to see those antique machines still working in a precise and silent way. Lucky guy doing an artistic job. Thanks for sharing
the machine is a beauty. When I studied graphic design in the late 80ies, I were taught all the old and basic techniques and this sure brings me back on memory lane (-:
H. Jima I’d say that styles has changed a lot, but there are still some basic “rules” to work with. Don’t use too many fonts at the same time, keep the design simple and consistent and don’t be afraid of showing the (white) paper. (I know that it’s been trending with words of wisdom written with all sort of fonts, but if you look close you’ll see that they go together, but only because they’re kept in same colors).
Jukebox Print Yeah, I’m sort of a typography nerd too. I love fonts and designing logotypes, even though it’s harder to keep a business with all the freebies on the internet. I’ve designed a few logos that are still in use +30 years later. I love your old print machines. The Heidelberg you have is called a “flyswatter” in Danish 😂
Love the gizmoness of that machine. Hand feeding looks sketchy. Be careful. Love these videos. Really neat to hear how they used melted wax back in the day.
it is so nice seeing the process and how the skill is needed on the swift pass through of paper. really cool result on the font off set...with perfect image. It really stands out!
I was trained in letterpress printing at a Tech high school here in CT in the 1970's. I loved it and resisted the move toward offset printing, but letterpress was a 'dying' art. I had a small shop for a few years in my parent's basement with a 6x10 kelsey. I can only imagine all the type cases emptied, used for arts and crafts and the type melted down for fishing weights. 😳 I miss having the equipment around as it would be fun to print jobs that are appreciated for the impression marks! I love it. Thanks for stirring up some good memories. I could use some and those were good times. Cheers, Pete
We remember the days of our Adana 5x8 in the attic with just a case of 12pt Caslon to learn with... We're years away from that now but not much has changed! Thanks for your comment Pete.
you made me so happy to see one working again, I operated one of those for 20 years and then they got a Kluge, after I retired the company sold all of them, they could not find any one that could operate them.
I love these presses. When I was in school I graduated in 1988, I wanted to get into printing so bad with this style printers, unfortunately, I could not find a job and we were transitioning from old to new but I'm 50 now and still wish I could do it I just love the way they look work everything.
Been a press operator for 20 years on everything from the Heidelberg windmill letterpress to a modern sm74 and I've never seen baby blue ink forms before
one more cool video. Than the last one, since this press is lot familiar (what I often see here in shops), it is more interesting to watch how it is done. Loved it :)
i deal with antiques and you cant beat the old school way of doing things. sure you can do it other ways and faster, but odds are the new machines will be in the landfill in 10 years.
Mannnnn..... U reminded me of the days when I started to train on this machine..... So many times my fingers got caught between the plates.... 😂😂😂😂 It's nostalgic for me.
I have a newfound love and respect for the time & effort that goes into this craft and line of work. Honestly mindblown 🤯 new subscriber and look forward to watching more vids 🤘🏼
I ran job presses from 1952-54 until I joined the Air Force in 1954. I fed a lot of business cards and envelopes. The school got us jobs when we turned 16. Up until then, we would have a week of classes, and then a week of shop.
I own a clamshell diecutter which works exactly like that press. You could easily register the next workpiece by placing a carbon copy paper on the moving mold and let the plate strike it to create impressions onto the background paper, then hollows out a piece of your to-be-printed stock at key locations of the image and align them to the striked image on the mold and move the holding clip to that paper's resting position. It sounds complicated, but its actually more precise and gets the job done in one go.
I know exactly what you're talking about. We'll use carbon paper for large forme die cutting and to feel out registration and impression on more complicated work - but for something as simple as this it isn't exactly necessary. We can't show every possible step in our videos and everyone seems to have their own style of preparing their makeready. Clamshells are good fun, especially the 40" ones with foil... Thanks for your input!
I ran letterpress for many years, and this press was my first. I’m sure the deep impression is intentional in this case, (pun intended) but it wasn’t when letterpress was the prime printing method. We were chastised if you could feel the image in the backside - we were told - “this is printing, not embossing.”
The catch is, our clientele now expect deep impression and without it we receive complaints. It would be nice to really finesse the makeready for fine kiss printing but there's no pleasing people with that!
Believe it or not, vintage machines like these are still used commercially in my country. We had a printing business back in the day. My dad was a veteran in the field with over 30 years of experience. We had 2 Heidelbergs KOR and KORD. The KOR was one of the earliest models, and a manual Victoria press like this one, removed the printing parts and repurposed just for die-cutting.
We used this press as our main die cutting machine for many years before adjusting the bed height for printing. A manual Victoria press would be a dream to have. I love presses with perfect parallel impression.
I like the fact that 'voda' is Chech for water, so is 'woda' in Polish and 'вода' in Russian (all pronounced the same) and the third color in the large V forms a droplet.
@@waterunderthebridge7950 that because -ka added when you wan't to make something shorter, smaller, cuter or not so serious. Baba - Babka - Babushka. Voda - Vodka - Vodochka - maximum of cuteness :)
@@SergeyRAD Yeah, except in my language there is a stepping away from the root in the process, the o becomes ó [u], and the d is voiceless (as in [vutka] for wódka). But I digress... :)
nostalgia y recuerdos de mis inicios en las artes graficas... esto si era arte desde su armado tipografico has la limpieza de la maquina ... =) excelente video ademas....
Cool counter-rotating ink discs. You don’t see many that are actually functional these days, not that they were a big hit back in the day or that they make much difference. You can definitely see and hear the wear in the press- visually in the backlash of the ink-disc and audibly in the various clanks on the press. The ratchet on the back side of the ink disc is creating some of those sounds, but there are others. When you run enough of these presses for long enough, you start hearing things... Speaking of sounds, I thought I heard the air pump on a windmill running in the background during some of those clips... The motor is struggling a bit- basically the pulley is too small -the arc of contact is too small and the belt slips, more at times and less at times. That’s why you hear the motor speed up and slow down as the load from the press changes. Dollars to doughnuts, your drive pulley is super polished from the belt slipping. There is no harm in this except premature wear of both belt and pulley, but they are easily and cheaply enough replaced. And the only solution would be a half shaft to step the speed down in two steps. (Assuming you wanted to keep the motor/speed controller original and not go 3-phase with a VFD). Great video. Keep up the good work!
Pensé que nunca volvería a ver una de estas,y menos imprimiendo en linotipo en 3 colores, maneje una de estas durante años, saludos y felicitaciones por el vídeo.
Somewhere on TH-cam there’s a video of a woman running a hand fed platen press at a really frightening speed. I did a bit of letterpress back in the ‘70#, but always slowly.
@@srfurley I remember reading in an old Golding & Co. manual that an experienced operator could handfeed a press at 3000 impressions per hour. Most people don't even run their motors that fast...
"Printers used wax because tape hadn't been invented." Haha! We had masking tape but still used wax in the 70s and 80s. Your press is in great shape. Excellent work!
You tend to get a feel for it over time. It’s also kind of a sensory thing where the sound and feel of it lets you know. If there’s too much, we just clean off one or two rollers.
Perhaps there is a video out on it already, however, where to how to do you produce the plates themselves? Looks like they might be one-time use deals?
These videos are eye openers for those of us who are not ex pro printers. Great work. I'm curious what solvent you use to wash away the ink and clean the presses ?
I like that, "Never ever consider reaching for it!" did that once on a 10 x 15 Windmill, when sheets kept dropping off the pickup vacuum tubes. I still have the scars........
You will only give these out only to customers/clients that either preordered a product/service. Giving these out is like giving out trophies. Customers got a earn it. If not, snap a picture and give it back.
After 30 years in print, many of which spent on Heidelberg platen and cylinder presses, its good to see this craft being maintained and good to see it done well too, attention to detail is everything. I miss my machines ;)
How many price of this machin
I grew up in a print shop that my Father purchased 4 months before I was born. Closed the doors after 39 years. Also worked for his Uncles Print Shop. They rolled letterpress newspaper mats, he had a cylinder, hand feeds and a windmill. Knew nothing about offset, until he got drafted and stationed at Fort Hood, 1963. The joy it brings my Dad when I find Videos of presses that he's always used as reference whenever I ran into a snag, along with my personal gratitude. Having said all that, really unique how you packed the Tympan to achieve impression. I often seen my dad use a torn sheet of paper, run his finger on the side of the press for grease, go behind the platen, add grease and torn sheet to any low-spots, just never seen him make-ready to register.
We had two of these in our print shop class in junior high. NO! Nobody ever got hurt. Respect.
Please post MORE. I love this content, the presentation, the filming and editing. So good!
Agreed with Adrock, please keep posting. Also, I want to know which paper you are using in this video for print..?? Can I but it online somewhere, please share link if any..??
I love these old machines, the gentle quiet movements are fantastic, glad to see they are still being used to produce high quality prints.
Never realised it was such an involved process until I saw these videos. Great to watch
Most people don’t get the chance to see how this kind of work is done. We’ve been making these videos just to show how much work really goes on behind the scenes. Thanks for your comment!
Took me back 65 years to my first year as as a apprentice printer. Did a 7 year apprenticeship-Love the Chandler and Price-will never wear out.
As someone who did this manually many years ago and now uses tons of business cards, you’re going to be my go to company for my next batch of business cards. Your skills are impeccable!
Thank you very much! It took years and years of practice and learning to adapt to all the different designs that come through!
Jukebox Print I can tell you work hard at it! I love your videos
I love, love, love the old press! Old machinery in general, but the o'l press looks and sounds amazing.
We love them too!
As a long-time Letterpress printer, with all sizes of the C&Ps - from the Pilot up to the 12x18 we call "Big Ben", I enjoyed the familiar sound of your press running with the old Kemble motor. And, I was pleased to see you practicing pretty nearly the same techniques that I was taught over fifty years ago. Although we were taught to "kiss the paper", and not make as deep an impression as is popular today, your impression appears to be just right for the paper you printing on - and your register is indeed "dead-on" or, as we tend to say "dot for dot". Very pleasing video passing on some very correct techniques of this craft. Thank you.
Thank you Alan! The only thing I would've done differently is mounted each plate upside down so that they were right side up as they were being delivered. Just as type is supposed to be: reverse and upside down.
Bro I have no clue why your videos capture my attention, maybe it is simply the fact that the printing press changed the world. You are a master at this craft, thanks for your time and effort.
Wow that's printing system was very brilliant i miss them we have that machine 20 years before and accuracy was amazing i miss that printing machine
Digital printing just doesn't compare!
Love the colours and the simplicity of the card.
Sure brings back memories. I haven’t used anything like this since the 70's
I went to a museum that had an active print shop with these machines, and now I'm here. I kinda want to learn how to do this now.
Find yourself a "print finishing" shop and tell them you're willing to learn!
That Impression on the Paper is so Beautiful.
M Umair thank you! It takes a while to level the press for that kind of impression. It has to be just right!
I loved this video! I'm a printer by trade myself. Of course this press is before my time. Thank you for the video! My dad is also a printer and he definitely would remember this type of printing!
That is awesome!
I am glad your video pop up into my suggestions. Keep going.. we would love to see more.
I do like it. Have started this process since 1978.
Learned letter press in high school
It was very satisfying. Its a true art Ran large offset for 35 years.
Nice and interesting ! Cool to see those antique machines still working in a precise and silent way. Lucky guy doing an artistic job. Thanks for sharing
the machine is a beauty. When I studied graphic design in the late 80ies, I were taught all the old and basic techniques and this sure brings me back on memory lane (-:
any books you recall that you'd recommend for Graphic Design?
Typographic Desk Reference
&
The Elements of Typographic Style
H. Jima
I’d say that styles has changed a lot, but there are still some basic “rules” to work with. Don’t use too many fonts at the same time, keep the design simple and consistent and don’t be afraid of showing the (white) paper.
(I know that it’s been trending with words of wisdom written with all sort of fonts, but if you look close you’ll see that they go together, but only because they’re kept in same colors).
Jukebox Print
Yeah, I’m sort of a typography nerd too. I love fonts and designing logotypes, even though it’s harder to keep a business with all the freebies on the internet. I’ve designed a few logos that are still in use +30 years later.
I love your old print machines. The Heidelberg you have is called a “flyswatter” in Danish 😂
Inspirational! Love your press, I have never seen an ink plate like that and four rollers, wonderful.
Love the gizmoness of that machine. Hand feeding looks sketchy. Be careful. Love these videos.
Really neat to hear how they used melted wax back in the day.
So fascinating! I could watch this for hours! Thank you for sharing!
I like the way you show all those fixtures that we don't know they exist. greetings from El Salvador (Central America).
Rodolfo Cabrera thank you! I try to be as detailed as possible.
What a mechanical marvell these machines are, love watching them whirr away 👍
Amazing really!
it is so nice seeing the process and how the skill is needed on the swift pass through of paper.
really cool result on the font off set...with perfect image. It really stands out!
this was the most satisfying video I watched in a while. Love the old school printing machines and techniques.
i like the way you make it look easy, real smooth
Beautiful indeed... I'm a manual typesetter as a profession, so I have a very warm feeling in my heart seeing this. :-)
I like how the text takes advantage of this too.
I was trained in letterpress printing at a Tech high school here in CT in the 1970's. I loved it and resisted the move toward offset printing, but letterpress was a 'dying' art. I had a small shop for a few years in my parent's basement with a 6x10 kelsey. I can only imagine all the type cases emptied, used for arts and crafts and the type melted down for fishing weights. 😳
I miss having the equipment around as it would be fun to print jobs that are appreciated for the impression marks! I love it.
Thanks for stirring up some good memories. I could use some and those were good times.
Cheers,
Pete
We remember the days of our Adana 5x8 in the attic with just a case of 12pt Caslon to learn with...
We're years away from that now but not much has changed! Thanks for your comment Pete.
Nice press and speed control rocks!
Found out about this channel yesterday! Love it, definitely some great explanations and videos.
Another fantastic video!!
Great video!What a cute little machine! Great video!What a cute little machine!!
Thank you 🤗
you made me so happy to see one working again, I operated one of those for 20 years and then they got a Kluge, after I retired the company sold all of them, they could not find any one that could operate them.
Fifty years for me.
Love it, keep them coming
Please continue with the videos, learning so much.
I love these presses. When I was in school I graduated in 1988, I wanted to get into printing so bad with this style printers, unfortunately, I could not find a job and we were transitioning from old to new but I'm 50 now and still wish I could do it I just love the way they look work everything.
I'm in love with this process
Been a press operator for 20 years on everything from the Heidelberg windmill letterpress to a modern sm74 and I've never seen baby blue ink forms before
Great video and information. Well done.
Glad you liked it! Thank you!
that right hand should be awarded for consistency 😁
Awesome video. Thank you!
one more cool video. Than the last one, since this press is lot familiar (what I often see here in shops), it is more interesting to watch how it is done. Loved it :)
i deal with antiques and you cant beat the old school way of doing things. sure you can do it other ways and faster, but odds are the new machines will be in the landfill in 10 years.
I can play all day with this machine. Thanks for sharing these videos.
Mannnnn..... U reminded me of the days when I started to train on this machine..... So many times my fingers got caught between the plates.... 😂😂😂😂
It's nostalgic for me.
fallen in love with letterpress. just. like. that. :-)
That's how it starts!
This is amazing! BRAVO!!
I have a newfound love and respect for the time & effort that goes into this craft and line of work. Honestly mindblown 🤯 new subscriber and look forward to watching more vids 🤘🏼
You are in Toronto! That's great news.
Wow! Great press, wonderful skill! I have a C&P power guillotine form that vintage. I want to computerize the backgauge, lol.
Wow, amazing. There such a beauty to this craft. ❣️
I ran job presses from 1952-54 until I joined the Air Force in 1954. I fed a lot of business cards and envelopes.
The school got us jobs when we turned 16. Up until then, we would have a week of classes, and then a week of shop.
Reaching for it is how the Chandler and Price I ran in the past got its name. The snapper.
You have to treat these machines like a wild dog. Never get too close!
Really cool
This is the content i signed up for, love it
I own a clamshell diecutter which works exactly like that press. You could easily register the next workpiece by placing a carbon copy paper on the moving mold and let the plate strike it to create impressions onto the background paper, then hollows out a piece of your to-be-printed stock at key locations of the image and align them to the striked image on the mold and move the holding clip to that paper's resting position. It sounds complicated, but its actually more precise and gets the job done in one go.
I know exactly what you're talking about. We'll use carbon paper for large forme die cutting and to feel out registration and impression on more complicated work - but for something as simple as this it isn't exactly necessary. We can't show every possible step in our videos and everyone seems to have their own style of preparing their makeready. Clamshells are good fun, especially the 40" ones with foil... Thanks for your input!
I ran letterpress for many years, and this press was my first.
I’m sure the deep impression is intentional in this case, (pun intended) but it wasn’t when letterpress was the prime printing method. We were chastised if you could feel the image in the backside - we were told - “this is printing, not embossing.”
The catch is, our clientele now expect deep impression and without it we receive complaints. It would be nice to really finesse the makeready for fine kiss printing but there's no pleasing people with that!
Love this video
After all it is wonderful. Exact location. Cool color. Great. 모든 내용을 다 이해는 못했지만 너무 잘 봤습니다.
Believe it or not, vintage machines like these are still used commercially in my country. We had a printing business back in the day. My dad was a veteran in the field with over 30 years of experience. We had 2 Heidelbergs KOR and KORD. The KOR was one of the earliest models, and a manual Victoria press like this one, removed the printing parts and repurposed just for die-cutting.
We used this press as our main die cutting machine for many years before adjusting the bed height for printing. A manual Victoria press would be a dream to have. I love presses with perfect parallel impression.
I like the fact that 'voda' is Chech for water, so is 'woda' in Polish and 'вода' in Russian (all pronounced the same) and the third color in the large V forms a droplet.
Marcin Zdun i like the fact that in these languages “water” is just a “k” away from vodka
@@waterunderthebridge7950 that because -ka added when you wan't to make something shorter, smaller, cuter or not so serious. Baba - Babka - Babushka. Voda - Vodka - Vodochka - maximum of cuteness :)
@@SergeyRAD LOLKA :B
@@SergeyRAD Yeah, except in my language there is a stepping away from the root in the process, the o becomes ó [u], and the d is voiceless (as in [vutka] for wódka). But I digress... :)
Same in serbian😄 вода
nostalgia y recuerdos de mis inicios en las artes graficas... esto si era arte desde su armado tipografico has la limpieza de la maquina ... =)
excelente video ademas....
Voda means water, in cyrillic languages, if anyone's questioning why there's a drop in the logo.
Cyrilic? I think you means slavic.
Excellent.
Many thanks!
FANTASTIC!!!!
Glad you like it!
Love that Impression!
wow, very cool !
Thank you!
NOT EASY, it's a DELICATE process... and NICE FINAL PRODUCT !!!!
Do you have a video of how the plates are made? I would love to see that.
Nice content
These are great
Thank You, Kindly share. Keep up....
Cool counter-rotating ink discs. You don’t see many that are actually functional these days, not that they were a big hit back in the day or that they make much difference. You can definitely see and hear the wear in the press- visually in the backlash of the ink-disc and audibly in the various clanks on the press. The ratchet on the back side of the ink disc is creating some of those sounds, but there are others. When you run enough of these presses for long enough, you start hearing things... Speaking of sounds, I thought I heard the air pump on a windmill running in the background during some of those clips... The motor is struggling a bit- basically the pulley is too small -the arc of contact is too small and the belt slips, more at times and less at times. That’s why you hear the motor speed up and slow down as the load from the press changes. Dollars to doughnuts, your drive pulley is super polished from the belt slipping. There is no harm in this except premature wear of both belt and pulley, but they are easily and cheaply enough replaced. And the only solution would be a half shaft to step the speed down in two steps. (Assuming you wanted to keep the motor/speed controller original and not go 3-phase with a VFD). Great video. Keep up the good work!
Yes i would like to see moreeeee and moreeeee
Exallant job....!
Thank you!
Did not know that I needed to subscribe to another channel. :-)
Pensé que nunca volvería a ver una de estas,y menos imprimiendo en linotipo en 3 colores, maneje una de estas durante años, saludos y felicitaciones por el vídeo.
BRAVO!
Thank you!
Great content, would be nice to keep seeing the rage of results you can achieve with that.
Thanks for the clear explanation and sharing the techniques on letterpress printing!
Somewhere on TH-cam there’s a video of a woman running a hand fed platen press at a really frightening speed. I did a bit of letterpress back in the ‘70#, but always slowly.
@@srfurley I remember reading in an old Golding & Co. manual that an experienced operator could handfeed a press at 3000 impressions per hour. Most people don't even run their motors that fast...
MARAVILLOSO TRABAJO DE ARTE... YO CUENTO CON UNA CHANDLER Y LA USO PARA SUAJE Y DOBLEZ... ESTA ES UNA EXCELENTE IDEAAA, GRACIAS
"Printers used wax because tape hadn't been invented." Haha! We had masking tape but still used wax in the 70s and 80s. Your press is in great shape. Excellent work!
I am wondering how do they know how much ink will be needed. Very interesting to watch. Please post more.
You tend to get a feel for it over time. It’s also kind of a sensory thing where the sound and feel of it lets you know. If there’s too much, we just clean off one or two rollers.
Thank you for telling me. It is very interesting.
this is so beautiful :)
nice press btw.
Perhaps there is a video out on it already, however, where to how to do you produce the plates themselves? Looks like they might be one-time use deals?
I would love to see more and I’m a first timer watching and new subscriber.
These videos are eye openers for those of us who are not ex pro printers. Great work. I'm curious what solvent you use to wash away the ink and clean the presses ?
God I love those machines.
You said it.
I like that, "Never ever consider reaching for it!" did that once on a 10 x 15 Windmill, when sheets kept dropping off the pickup vacuum tubes. I still have the scars........
Ooouch!
must of been on a Heidelberg
Old model but best model
You will only give these out only to customers/clients that either preordered a product/service. Giving these out is like giving out trophies. Customers got a earn it. If not, snap a picture and give it back.
Love it...
..."our antique Chandler & Price letterpress" ....I'm 46....I used these in 9th-12th Grade.....sooo many memories, old ANTIGUEY memories lol
What named this machine?
Trabalho com tipografia até hoje, parabéns