Table Top Letterpress Finds a New Home

Today the table top letterpress printing press purchased earlier this year has found a new home.

American Equipment Company Table Top Letterpress

The decision to part with the press was not an easy one. After all, finding an ‘affordable’ one, then having it shipped out was not easy given the demand and the risks involved with shipping across the country.

Still, it had been sitting there for months.

With the purchase of new rollers back in October, I thought for sure, once classes end in December, the press, my press, will be up and running. Finally.

Well, there was a slight problem with the new trucks that came with the rollers. They didn’t fit so on came another item under the “Getting the press ready” list. Apparently I needed to get creative and find some paste abrasion to whittle down the inside diameter of the trucks so they would fit the new cores. (!)

UPDATE (1.27.2008): I sent the trucks mentioned above back to NAGraphics and had new replacement trucks delivered. The new owners are happy to report that the replacement trucks and the new rollers are working smoothly. (Yay!) It’s a mystery to me why the first set of trucks didn’t fit; the replacements were the same size (C&P Pilot)… If it doesn’t work the first time, try, try, again.

Small violin? Small step to take? Perhaps and that’s not the reason I decided to sell and it is the reason I didn’t begin printing this month.

If anything, this is a realization of limitations. My expectations of my self are high in anything I pursue and right now, my focus is on web design and development.

It’s true that if I kept the press I could start printing at some point in the future. Yet, it started to feel like a gym membership: buy one and never go.

Plus, I’ve worked with some super-talented letterpress printers and for me, it makes more sense to collaborate with experienced printers rather than trying to do it all and doing it myself. Because, I would demand from my self: Do it well.

In the end, it was timing. A friend called with questions about buying a table top press for his wife after initial frustrations on not being able to locate one. I offered mine for sale and we made a deal.

She will use the press and I helped a husband fulfill his wife’s Christmas wish. That makes me happy.