Most of the dirt on our Thompson platen press is a mix of dust, lint, and oil which can be removed with a soft brush and a vacuum cleaner. However, the ink fountain suffers from years of encrustation of dried…
Category: Letterpress
Monotype pump head disassembled
As part of my project to add a pump latch to my Monotype Composition Caster to allow casting of larger type, I decided to take apart the pump head so all the parts could be cleaned properly of decades of…
The big monster printing press
This press is our latest acquisition. It actually came from what are now the premises of KwartzLab, the former home of Pandora Press. This machine is a Thompson-British Automatic Platen Press, weighing in at about 1525kg (3360lbs). It fills the…
Our workhorse printing press
The press we do most of our work with is a Chandler and Price 7×11 Old Style. This is a hand-fed treadle-driven letterpress. When we got the press it was set up for motor drive, had an ink fountain, but…
Our smallest printing press
Our smallest printing press is a Kelsey Excelsior 5×8 Model U tabletop press. When we got it it was suffering from fire and water damage. Most of the paint was worn off, there was rust all over, and the rubber…
Monotype Pump Enhancements
My Monotype Composition Caster is a British-made one, with a serial number indicating fairly late manufacture (1960’s) so it should in theory be fitted will all the latest bells and whistles. But for some reason it is missing the pump…
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