The Vandercooks: SP-15s
First, a bit about Vandercooks
Vandercooks are flat-bed cylinder presses, which means, in the most basic of terms, that type is set into a forme (a block of text) which is held in position on the press bed by metal and wooden furniture. Paper is fed, one sheet at a time, into grippers attached to a cylinder, which is then cranked to roll across the bed of the press. In the process, a series of rollers first spread ink onto the type, and the paper is then pressed onto the forme as the cylinder travels across the bed, releasing the paper at the end of its travel. The cylinder is then rolled back to its starting position, and another sheet is fed into the grippers.
For all kinds of info on Vandercook presses, visit VandercookPress.info...
Of course, there is much work to be done before a single sheet is gripped. First the type must be set, one letter and one thin sliver of copper or brass at a time (coppers & brasses are used as spacing materials between letters & words).
Type is arranged first in a composing stick, upside-down, and is justified accordingly to the measure of the text block. This is extremely detailed and time-consuming, yet meditative and rewarding work.
A page of type, well set, can take hours to prepare, and many proof pages must be pulled on the press to ensure proper optical spacing and consistent inking/impression before the first usable page is printed.
Vandercook SP-15
Provenance:
The week the 15-21 was being moved in, something a bit crazy happened. I'd heard of a print-maker here in Vernon who had a cabinet of old type he'd picked up years ago, thinking he might be interested in text, but that interest never developed, so he wanted to get rid of the lot of it. After a few weeks of conflicting schedules, I finally managed to get out to see him 2 days after the 15-21 arrived. While chatting in his basement studio and looking over the type (mostly some rather ornate and iffy script & blackletter foundry type), Roger sort of paused mid-sentence and, pulling away a dusty sheet, said: "I don't suppose you'd be interested in this thing...," revealing a slightly rusty and somewhat dismantled SP-15. Interested? Um, yeah, sure.
From there I stopped by again to pack up the rollers & haul some of the type drawers home; that is, after dumping out the nicely organized dwelling a mouse had made for itself in the top (empty) drawer of the cabinet...
Yes, those are sunflower seeds...
Cylinder carriage & type in the trunk...
...and then, a few days later, I gathered a small posse to haul the press out of Roger's basement and into the shop. After stripping it down & cleaning things up, installing a new switch for the motor and a new feedboard, it's ready to roll.
Specs
Borrowed from:
Vandercook SP-15:
5/12/61 #21,500 - 10/28/74 #29,951
Bed: 15" × 31¾"
Maximum sheet:
14¾" × 20"
Maximum form:
14" × 18"
Floor space: 5'9" × 2'8"
Weight: 705 lb
SP stands for Simple Precision and was "a low priced precision test press" series (1968 Vandercook catalog). Sometimes they used a hyphen between SP and the number, and sometimes they didn't.
Dan S. Wang had this interesting remark: "This press was used to produce a perfect proof of a handset form which was then made into a photo-litho plate for eventual offset mass reproduction. 'In other words, this machine occupies the very specific and narrow period in which printing used both manual skills and photo offset automation'" (from Archipelago 4.4 - Contributors).
The SP15 was also available without a motor and ink reservoir drum. While it is equipped with an oscillating roller The ink is distributed by manually turning a hand wheel mounted on the end of the front form roller core on the operator's side.
