Along with the press we found an old box with drawers and parts that had fallen through the rotten wood. We cleaned them and we are now starting to sort them. Looks like we have a good supply of both upper case and lower case 10pt font that we have yet to identify. There is also smaller font that will be a bear to sort! Also found a lot of "cast furniture." that is used to lockup the type as well as four chases
Beginning the restoration
The press is now in the shop, and we've succeeded in removing the flywheels, motor and other hardware. We've found that the press was built between 2011 and 2012 and that it had a single speed drive with a brake/clutch mechanism.
Success! How we did it...
Removing the motor, we first used a small winch and strategically placed boards to gently coax the press into the sunlight. [Slides]
Then we borrowed a crane that just happened to be demolishing the house next door to fly the press to a place we could load it onto a truck and take it to it's new life at the Red Onion Press [Slides]
Beginning the excavation
After careful examination of the shack's roof and walls we surmised that the best line of attack was to break out the wall and drag out the press using 2 x 6 boards as sleds.
Raising the dead. A Halloween ghost story!
Recently we were contacted by Tim Richardson, an Acworth City alderman, who told us about about a constituent who had a problem. Seems Cheryl had bought some property with an abandoned shed. Looking to have it removed she discovered a large old machine buried in the corner of the building. Not only that, the only door in the shed was too small for the heavy cast iron contraption. The property owner googled the name of the machine, Chandler and Price and early 20th century letterpress printing machinery, which led Alderman Richardson to us.
Nearly intact, the size and shape of the motor places it from the 1930's.
Cheryl contacted the previous owner and they knew nothing about the press. With Cheryl's blessing, we will take on the task of removing and restoring the press. Follow our journey here as we figure out how to bring this treasure back to life.