Saturday we went to Woodstock, IL, and came home with two more printing presses, type, and other letterpress paraphanalia, as a direct result of the letterpress show & tell we did at MuseCon - one of the attendees had inherited it.
Both presses need rollers, which is to be expected, and we know where to get them. Most of the type is in good shape, but one set end up partially pied (jumbled). Some of the spacing material needs a good cleaning - dust, dirt, oil, and Ghu knows what else accumulated in a decade or two in an attic, with cats of possibly less than impeccable habits.
One press is the same model as Ron's little 3" x 5". It needs a little work, the ink disc doesn't have ratchet teeth on the back for it to rotate. Our guess it was a fabricated replacement. Ron has a couple ideas to address that.
The other press is also a tabletop press. The nominal size is only a little larger than mine (6-1/2" x 9" vs. 6" x 9"), but it is overall a larger press. IIRC mine is/was more of a hobbyist model, the new one was for more serious use. Making a mental note to get pictures to show the differences. It needs more work than the small one. Ron's thinking he's probably going to end up completely disassembling it, for rust removal, stripping and re-painting. I suggested the auto shop nearby that likes odd projects for getting sandblasting and painting done.
That, however, will be pending actually getting it apart. Ron's working on getting some serious penetrating oil to address that. And yesterday we were investigating part-washer units and home-built alternates, for press parts and other things that need serious cleaning. I need to see if Goo Gone can be bought by the gallon...
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