The Big Vandercook Caper

This just in: A larger Vandercook, swapping out the smaller No. 1 for a No. 3. Today, the second stage of my Vandercook move took place. [For those of you waiting to hear about the Wayzegoose, please forgive the diversion. Tomorrow is another day!]

First stage I did not see: Mark Barbour of the International Printing Museum moved my "new" No. 3 from Orange County to the International Printing Museum in LA County, where I worked at cleaning the "back" side-- which I will never see again, now that the press is against the wall of my composing room (aka shed!).

Second stage was today. Mark loaded up the No. 3 and hit the road for Santa Barbara (about 120 miles from the Museum), arriving at my home about 2:00.

First step of the move was to move the little Vandercook No. 1 proof press out to the driveway. Bye-bye, little Vandy! Mark and the pallet jack rolled little Vandy over 4x8 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood alongside my garage to the asphalt driveway, then down to the trailer.


Then, the big job: jacking up the big No. 3 and rolling it along the same route: down the driveway to the garage, turn left, turn right, and down the plywood road back to the composing room. A bit of an extra push/pull, and No. 3 was inside, where Mark manipulated the pallet jack perfectly and got No. 3 placed. Hello, big Vandercook!

A few more photos are at http://tinyurl.com/yc54kh5. All that's left to do is to clean her "near" side and re-attach the feed board. Then let 'er roll!

Moving right along, Summer's over already!

I didn't expect to become this far behind in posting, but it has been a busy and productive summer. June saw not only the miniature book workshop but the cat shelter work and my young cousin's graduation from Cal Poly (go, Kristina!), which was a thrill. In July I began planning my trip to the APA Wayzegoose in Iowa in mid-September. This involved printing for two keepsake bundles (Ladies of Letterpress did an Old Maid deck, and Paul Moxon organized a 100th anniversary Vandercook bundle).

My dreaded-but-ordinary birthday came and went. One of those "ending in 0" birthdays, but nothing happened! Not only did the sky not fall, neither did I. The most that happened was that a dear friend shanghai'd me to a nail parlour and I got the "Spa" toenail/foot massage treatment. What fun! Then we drove to Lompoc for a Proper Tea, allowing my Alien Feet to follow me there. And a good time was had by all, including the feet.

I also went to inspect a Vandercook printing press. It's about twice as big as the one currently in the Composing Room. I don't know why, but I decided to adopt the bigger one and sell the littler one. I measured carefully and I *do* have room. In a manner of speaking.

Today I went into the Composing Room (aka "shed") and cleaned it out in preparation for the Big move-in. Tomorrow morning my contractor's "guys" will place the type cabinet seen way in the back (empty) on top of the cabinet in the front/right of the photo. Then, I will add the mountain of typecases seen on the left of the photo. It'll be all ready for the Big Vandercook Exchange at 1 PM. You can see the "little" Vandercook on the right. Its replacement will be much larger!

I'll write about the Wayzegoose in the next edition. It deserves its own entry.