11 Dec
2011
11 Dec
'11
12:10 a.m.
Hey folks. Can anyone recommend a good book (that I can find used
via abebooks etc) that'll teach me the ins & outs of small-scale (i.e.,
sheet-fed) offset printing? Old is fine. (I'm exploring old presses)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA
11 Dec
11 Dec
12:39 a.m.
On 11 Dec 2011 at 0:10, Dave McGuire wrote:
Hey folks. Can anyone recommend a good book (that I can find used
via abebooks etc) that'll teach me the ins & outs of small-scale
(i.e., sheet-fed) offset printing? Old is fine. (I'm exploring old
presses)
Not exactly small-scale, but I recall that Bill Gates (he of
"MIdnight Engineering") might know a lot about offset priting. At
least he made his ME subscribers suffer through blurred copy and ink
that turned your hands black when you held his printed pages.
--Chuck
2:24 a.m.
On 12/11/2011 12:39 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Not exactly small-scale, but I recall that Bill Gates
(he of
"MIdnight Engineering") might know a lot about offset priting. At
least he made his ME subscribers suffer through blurred copy and ink
that turned your hands black when you held his printed pages.
Oh really?? He printed it himself?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA
3:15 a.m.
when he said he typed the copy and hit print he was serious. IIRC he
went to somewhere in Massachusetts and bought a press that was out of
business after some light experimentation and moved it to Colorado.
I wonder what happened to him, I never heard why he actually failed to
make the last of my subscription anyway.
The registration was off, the copy was clear on my copies, but the
colors didn't all line up.
I never noticed a problem with the ink smearing.
Jim
On 12/10/2011 11:24 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 12/11/2011 12:39 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Not exactly small-scale, but I recall that Bill
Gates (he of
"MIdnight Engineering") might know a lot about offset priting. At
least he made his ME subscribers suffer through blurred copy and ink
that turned your hands black when you held his printed pages.
Oh really?? He printed it himself?
-Dave
1:55 p.m.
On 11 Dec 2011 at 0:15, jim s wrote:
I never noticed a problem with the ink smearing.
Well, it was only one issue of ME that did that--and I dropped a note
to Bill and was sent a replacement copy. Apparently, the uniformity
of a press run was, er, variable?
WEG's name popped into my awareness a couple of months ago after a
report of salmonella-tainted cantaloupe originating in Rocky Ford, CO
hit the national news (killed about 13 people). The town name rang a
bell, and eventually led to WEG and his Rocky Ford Printing
operation.
If you subscribed to ME around 1995, what you got was a blow-by-blow-
as-it-happens narrative of Bill and his Press. I recall that he
drafted his father into the effort.
ENTCON is still held in Denver, but Bill apparently hasn't shown his
face at one for about 5 years.
In some ways, Bill at his best reminded me a lot of "Mr. Tinaja"--
Don Lancaster, who was a regular contributor to ME. (BTW, if you've
never heard of Don, visit his website at tinaja.com--it's a treasure
trove of stuff).
I have no idea of what Mr. Gates is doing nowadays.
--Chuck
6:06 p.m.
On 12/11/11 10:55 AM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 11 Dec 2011 at 0:15, jim s wrote:
If you are doing 4-color printing on a one color press then registration
will always be a problem. I trained on and ran an AB-Dick 9820 (not 100%
sure on the model number) offset press and especially the faster you ran it,
the more likely you were going to have registration issues.
Also if you were not completely accurate with the placement of your
negatives on the printing plate you could mess up your registration there
also :(
I never noticed a problem with the ink smearing.
Well, it was only one issue of ME that did that--and I dropped a note
to Bill and was sent a replacement copy. Apparently, the uniformity
of a press run was, er, variable?
WEG's name popped into my awareness a couple of months ago after a
report of salmonella-tainted cantaloupe originating in Rocky Ford, CO
hit the national news (killed about 13 people). The town name rang a
bell, and eventually led to WEG and his Rocky Ford Printing
operation.
If you subscribed to ME around 1995, what you got was a blow-by-blow-
as-it-happens narrative of Bill and his Press. I recall that he
drafted his father into the effort.
ENTCON is still held in Denver, but Bill apparently hasn't shown his
face at one for about 5 years.
In some ways, Bill at his best reminded me a lot of "Mr. Tinaja"--
Don Lancaster, who was a regular contributor to ME. (BTW, if you've
never heard of Don, visit his website at tinaja.com--it's a treasure
trove of stuff).
I have no idea of what Mr. Gates is doing nowadays.
--Chuck 
12:43 a.m.
On 12/10/2011 10:10 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
Hey folks. Can anyone recommend a good book (that I can find used via
abebooks etc) that'll teach me the ins & outs of small-scale (i.e.,
sheet-fed) offset printing? Old is fine. (I'm exploring old presses)
That hobby I've heard can get fairly pricy, up there with classic computing.
A quick search at Lindsay's Books has nothing on old presses but they
may have other valuable information in repairing something or metal casting.
http://www.lindsaybks.com/
-Dave
Good Luck, with your new Hobby.
Ben.
2:22 a.m.
On 12/11/2011 12:43 AM, ben wrote:
Ahh, I'm familiar with them, I have some of their electronic-related
books (Instruments of Amplification, Voice of the Crystal, etc) and
should've assumed they'd cover this sort of material as well.
Note that I'm not talking about metal type ("letterpress") printing,
something I already have a bit of experience with. I'm now looking at
offset printing, which is a whole different animal. That isn't quite so
pricey on a hobbyist level, since it's dealing with equipment that
production print shops often have a very hard time getting rid of.
Hey folks. Can
anyone recommend a good book (that I can find used via
abebooks etc) that'll teach me the ins & outs of small-scale (i.e.,
sheet-fed) offset printing? Old is fine. (I'm exploring old presses)
That hobby I've heard can get fairly pricy, up there with classic
computing.
A quick search at Lindsay's Books has nothing on old presses but they
may have other valuable information in repairing something or metal
casting.
http://www.lindsaybks.com/ Good Luck, with your new Hobby.
Thanks! I've been peripherally associated with it for much of my
life (the "other end" of the chain, the source material, typography,
etc) and have always had a bit of a fetish for it. There's a lot of
very cheap hardware available in my new area (western PA) so I figure
it's time to look into it a bit.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA
4:47 p.m.
Note that I'm not talking about metal type
("letterpress") printing,
something I already have a bit of experience with. I'm now looking at
offset printing, which is a whole different animal. That isn't quite so
pricey on a hobbyist level, since it's dealing with equipment that
production print shops often have a very hard time getting rid of.
As an aside (and not at all relevant to the OP), I found a couple of
semi-techncial books on the monotype nad linotype machiens in a charity
shop a while back. Semi-techncial meaning theu included diagrams of the
mechanism, instructiosn for dismantling and adjusting it, etc.
On the groudns i tend to buy any technical books if the price is right,
they came home with me... I'd better not start collecting that sort of
machine, though, classic comptuers give me enough of a (lack of) space
problem as it is.
-tony
12 Dec
12 Dec
9:23 a.m.
New subject: Linotype/Monotype manuals - Re: OT: offset printing?
On 11/12/11 4:47 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Those are quite important. I just gave a Linotype Electric Pot manual
and a Linotype Maintenance Manual to a friend who still runs Linotype
and Monotype gear. If you ever see anything related to hot metal
equipment, I suggest you grab it (and try to find a good home, if you
don't want it specifically).
--Toby
Note that
I'm not talking about metal type ("letterpress") printing,
something I already have a bit of experience with. I'm now looking at
offset printing, which is a whole different animal. That isn't quite so
pricey on a hobbyist level, since it's dealing with equipment that
production print shops often have a very hard time getting rid of.
As an aside (and not at all relevant to the OP), I found a couple of
semi-techncial books on the monotype nad linotype machiens in a charity
shop a while back. Semi-techncial meaning theu included diagrams of the
mechanism, instructiosn for dismantling and adjusting it, etc.
On the groudns i tend to buy any technical books if the price is right,
they came home with me... I'd better not start collecting that sort of
machine, though, classic comptuers give me enough of a (lack of) space
problem as it is.
-tony
11 Dec
11 Dec
5:01 a.m.
Perhaps
Practical printing volumes 1&2
J. Southward Printers Register 1911
(not looked in mine for relevance as not shelved properly, loose "somewhere")
others related search terms
http://www.collection.archivist.info/searchv13.php?searchstr=686.2
I also have a press from a UK bank note and ticket printer Waterlow & Sons
Dave Caroline
4607
days inactive
4608
days old
10 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cclist＠sydex.com -
dave.thearchivist＠gmail.com -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
jws＠jwsss.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
toby＠telegraphics.com.au