A Beautiful Machine
This is a 1910 Potter Proof Press waiting to be cleaned up, have a chase added, and have some proofs printed on it. It’s made of cast iron and very heavy (it was unloaded with a tractor once home on the farm). The weight of things interests me, as we raise hogs for market every year, and the market weight of those hogs is something you have to be aware of. You try to guess when their weight is going to be at the right stage by the time you take them in to be processed, and you typically call months ahead with the butcher date.
Inspiration for the print shop name looms on the wall of the printing room here: A Few Months Past Market Weight, 7ft tall, acrylic on canvas. The story behind the painting is that one year we lost our spot at the butcher (they screwed up and didn’t write our hogs down on the date we requested back in early summer). When they finally were able to get our hogs in, they each averaged over 400lbs. Biiiiiiiig guys. Pork chops the size of dinner plates and all that….
A chase will depend on whether you want to lift the whole forme off (in which case any chase that fits will do) – or use a galley (which the type height of the press is designed for) – otherwise with my Potter I simply lock up to the side rails of the bed.
Thanks for the suggestions Michael. If I need a galley to make the type type-high, then I guess I need that too. Any idea where to get that to? -Sue
Not sure I can help much with that – I’m in a far-off and probably mythical corner of the world (New Zealand)… but the good people on Briar Press’s discussion forum may be able to help – and there is also stuff there about the thickness of a sheet of metal required to bring type up to height on proof presses. The people you have your press or type from might be able to helop. There’s also the Vanderblog (?) site about Vandercook presses, which has a section for Potters.
Thank you for the information Michael!
I’ve never printed with a galley–always slid the type off the galley onto the press bed–and always printed on Vandercooks (at school at UW-Madison). They didn’t need the galley for type height. It sounds like proofing presses have their beds lower than others.
Thanks again,
Sue
Hi there, your Potter appears to be a No 1, possibly No 2. No 2 weighs in at 1,000 lbs, No 1 around 800, according to this link posted on Vanderblog “http://vandercookpress.info/potter.html”
Did you get your press cleaned up and operational. What a beauty. I’m looking for one.
Cheers!