What Goes Around, Comes Around...

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Some of you might remember my summer Letterpress confessional style update - new presses, restoration, Heritage Park, yadda, yadda, yadda (you can read it here if you are just coming across this now). Anyways, there is an addendum to this story, which I am really excited about. 

Way, way, way back, the original person who got me into letterpress did so by giving me his press. Not because he was wanting to get rid of it, but because he was moving. I know that had to have hurt more than a little bit. While I am very thankful he passed it along to me, I have always kept my eyes out for a smaller, more portable replacement for him. This summer, it showed up! 

The funny thing about this little press was I knew it was meant to be for my friend the second I laid eyes on it. It is the exact type and brand of press he gave me, only one size smaller and a whole lot more portable.! 

Tiny rusty platen Kelsey 5x8 all broken and sad. Just the way I like them.

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This is an important part of a little press, the clamp that holds the chase and chase bed up against the frame. This one is broken.

​One catch with this press though was that it was unusable - the clamp that held the chase and chase bed in place was broken off, an earlier brazing repair to the roller arms was done crookedly (so the rollers would not have traveled in a straight line across the ink plate) and there were all sorts of missing or loose bits to hold it together. 

Luckily, I have access to an amazing shop and a friend to help with repairs! After giving a good clean, we started chipping away at this a little while ago. I did the smaller stuff, prep work and painting while my friend did the jobs that required a higher level of skill like the brazing and fitting work. Check out the pro clamp repair: 

You wouldn't even know it was totally broken off before!

This little jig allowed us to remove the brazing from the original repair, align the pieces correctly and then re-braze back together straight.

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Anyways, I'm overjoyed that we could rescue this sweet little press, give it some love and send it to a new home where I know it'll see a lot of use! I feel like there has been a full circle made in this story now! 

She's so pretty and clean and ready to ship. We painted it a basic grey (like it was originally) to protect it, but my friend can paint it any which way he wants now! Except rust colour. No more rust, please.