My New Baby! | My New Baby!
It is pretty mucky, but seems to functioning properly except for a little restriction of movement at the bottom of the pull. I have begun to take it apart for a good clean as I believe that it is just ‘gunked up’ – there is a lot of fine sawdust stuck to the grease – probably from being stored in a workshop over the years. Time will tell. There is a bit of surface rust and tarnishing here and there, which is expected, but this is coming off easily. All the screws, nuts and bolts etc are getting a good soak in WD40 too, whilst all the old, greasy parts are getting a scrub and some fresh lubrication.
There is a good little potted history of the Adana company here and my web research over the last month or so has informed me that the High Speed 1 is probably the least desirable of the range, with the 5×3 and especially the 8×5 with its larger print area being the most popular. Briar Press, an excellent letterpress community have provided me with quite a lot of information, from copies of original handbooks, to the highly knowledgeable discussion forum.
Eventually, five different styles were separated from the first tray, with a lot of 12pt and 8pt spacing, some decorative borders and leader dots. These are all separately bagged up and ready to be reunited with the rest of their clan, if I ever get enough time to sort through everything!
From the pictures it’s hard to work out quite what happens with these presses. If you find the time it would be great to see a video of it in action!
I thought you’d like this one Stu! When it is all up and running I’ll do a bit of video – from typesetting to printing – and post it up in Vimeo. Meanwhile, if you want to know how it works, look at this.
Wow, great link! All those springs, levers and linkages – what a wonderful piece of equipment, yeah I want one!
Very nice snag indeed! Can’t wait to see what you produce once everything is cleaned and functioning properly.
Aah . . . Cheltenham, one of my favorites.
I bought an Adana HS2 from eBay a while back – not really had chance to use it yet and it’s ended up in a big box in the cellar, but you’ve kind of inspired me to get it back out!
I bought some replacement rollers from Elli Evans, but they’re really stiff. The originals were so perished they’re falling apart.
Oh – and all the type that I have is mixed up – and there’s a lot of it.
I intend to print my brother’s wedding invitations using it, if I can get my head around it before November!
Please keep updating your blog with your progress – and if you’ve got any tips for sorting out jumbled type I’d be very grateful!
Hi Charlie – glad that I’ve inspired you! Dig out that press and get inky!
I have bookmarked Elli Evans for some rollers, but mine seem to be okay for now, so I’ll persevere for now. Also, I should be getting hold of a HS2 at the end of this week (with new rollers!) so will be able to do some comparison prints. Keep watching!
I’ve just done a bit of conservation on our HS/1 and have a question. On the downward movement do your rollers naturally go to the bottom? The only way I can get them to the bottom is to let go of the leaver and let them spring back.
Ours has been dropped at some time and the bed is twisted slightly.
You can lock up directly in the bearer chase instead of using an inner chase but it is very fiddly, see the manual.
I’ve just got Briar Press to put a link in their press manuals section if you are looking for an HS/1 manual.
Hello Paul, I have just been and checked – mine is also reluctant to return to the bottom without an early release, but whilst I am printing it hasn’t proved to be a problem. I did consider that the bearer chase was too high, but although the action was a little better (not perfect), I could not get clear enough impression. I’m not sure if mine has original rollers too, and this may be an issue.
It works though, that’s the point. Let me know if you discover anything….