Fairy Hammocks! No, really

 On the last hike of the fall season, we went to 19 Oaks. Alongside the trail I spotted a small en- campment where a fairy band must have just spent the night. Their little hammocks were still hanging from the grass.

I was sorry to have missed the fairies, but I'm sure they would not want us to have seen them.



Oh, all right. I know what these really are. But humor me.

Taking Care of Lil Bro

I should be posting about our trip to Germany. Instead, the plethora of photos has me stalled in that department.

Instead, I offer up The Boys again. Cicero takes good care of his Lil Bro Phidian, never mind that Phidian outgrew him in his first year.

These two shots were taken in my lap, with minimal lighting, with my iPhone. The best camera you have is the one you have WITH you!

I love the look of complete trust here.












A late evening bawth is the best kind. Phidian hardly bothers to wake up.

It Keeps On Giving

      Have you ever heard of Cascarones? They are hollowed-out eggs, filled with confetti, to smash on friends' heads during a Fiesta like we have in Santa Barbara. They are the gift that keeps on giving. For at least six months after the city-wide party, you find confetti in your car, your clothing, your house, your driveway. At least if you have friends.
      Yesterday I put away the small tote bag I usually carry during Fiesta. In it, I found a baggie with some confetti and a lone cascarone left over from the parade. I placed the baggie on the table and forgot about it.
      Wrong move. Today, the boys found it. They often perch on the pew and nose around at things on the table. When I emerged triumphant from the sewing room, I was greeted by signs the boys had experienced their own Fiesta while I was sewing.
       Exhibit A (Phidian, skulking)

Annnnd Exhibit B (Cicero, looking innocent)

Management makes no assumptions about the relative guilt or lack thereof of individual suspects. All parties involved have been thoroughly laughed at and found. . . . . . purring!

The Great Roller Fiasco

I had to try to print the last run for a calendar page job today, despite the oddly rising middle roller on my C&P.

Things were going along fairly well for awhile, but I noticed I seemed to be picking off quite a few hickeys. I stopped a couple of times to do that, making sure the inked disk was free of lumps before proceeding. I blamed the ink, which I've had for a couple of years, and suspected. The second time I picked up the hickeys I noticed that one was about the size of a big fingernail cutting-- and rubbery! When I looked at the press, there was a divot on the _top_ roller that matched the hickey. I now knew my rollers' days were numbered. There were roller "crumbs" in the job. I treadled on, hoping to finish the job before things headed south.

Then I noticed some deep cracks on the left side of the middle rollers. But my job was on the right side of the chase, so I kept treadling. But right in the middle of the run, the _bottom_ roller of the three began rising on the _left_ side! Oh no. . . but again, printing was going fairly well still. Hoping against hope, I made a decision to go for broke. I need to finish that job before leaving on our trip, even though the middle roller was scoring itself with the 2 lines I was printing today. Even.

The decision, alas, was made for me a few impressions later. Where the left-side deep cracks on the middle roller were suddenly gave way and a 5" chunk of composition jumped right off the core! I'll finish up the run on my Pearl or Golding Official. Good thing it's the smallest area for the last run. Those rollers looked almost like new at the beginning of this week. They were _not_ new, but they were apparently in excellent shape. I have never had composition rollers go bad so quickly and thoroughly. All mine have been fine for 10+ years. But things happen, and it looks like it was my turn for it :)



My conclusion is that the composition was going bad before it was visibly damaged, and that somehow affected the way the rollers were sticking (or not) to the disk, and possibly the cause of the rising roller ends. I'll get them replaced and then see what happens then. There was no friction problem in the roller saddles, shank, or other parts, all of which were well-oiled.

These shots are of the suddenly fallen-off-the-core chunk of the middle roller. The last shot is of all three rollers, where you can see the divot on the top roller (to the right), the missing chunk and some scoring on the middle roller, and deep cracks on the right side of the bottom roller.

APA Wayzegoose

Sorry, no pics til I get home, but here in Lansing, MI, I'm having a great time hanging with fellow APA members. That's Amalgamated Printers' Association, a group of hobby and other printers.

I'm sometimes not sure how I qualify to hang with such witty and talented folks. It's nice to be able to talk shop, swap stories, and admire other printers' work though. Today we all enjoyed a trip to Owosso Graphic Arts, a company that makes printing plates and commercial dies. Very nice people and an excellent service for printers. They deal with huge businesses and hobby printers alike.

After lunch, we visited a steam train museum whose line has the name of Pere Marquette. What the crossover between letterpress and steam is I can't say, but there is a strong connection. My highlight was riding on a caboose as it was switched from one track to another.

This evening, Joe Warren talked about scoring and die cutting on a platen press. It was a highly useful talk for those of us who have only printed on our presses. Joe showed us examples of scoring matrix, explained the use of a jacket for die cutting, and demystified die cutting with sample dies and their products.

Then Arie Koelwyn gave a talk about using unusual materials to print with. He has used bent rule, children's suncatchers, thin foam cutouts, wood letter cutouts, nature materials, and almost anything flat he can fine, mounted type high, inked, and printed. His printing is always well executed and attractive, so his use of these materials is encouraging.

And that's just the first day of the Wayzegoose. Stay tuned. Tomorrow begins the feeding frenzy: the yard sale in the morning, followed by the auction in the afternoon.

Chase Lifter, Part the Second

Done! And it works. Not bad for a mechanical non-genius. Photo shows the pulley suspended from the "rail rider," with the hooks hanging limply in place. Since I live alone, I don't have a photo of my device in use. Too bad. But here's the photo of the completed device:

To use it: I rest the chase (form) on the left arm of the press, near the counter you can see in the photo. Using one hand to steady it and the other to place the hooks, I engage the hooks under the edge of the chase, in the open areas of the lockup.

To lift the chase, I hold firmly on to the loop (in the photo, it's looped over the counter) with my right hand, and ease the chase into position with my left. Once the chase rests on its ledge, I release the hooks with one hand and engage the chase clamp. (I made the hand loop a more reasonable size after this photo was taken. No danglies.)

The tricky part is when I release the hooks. They want to drop, making the hand loop zoom to the very top of the pulley. With one hand, I have to get one hook end into the hand loop so that the hook ropes form an upside-down Y engaged by the loop. Once the chase clamp is engaged, I can slide the entire lifter assembly back along the rail so it doesn't interfere with the press.

Inspired by Rachel's description of Duane Scott's chase lifter, this is what I came up with. I'm quite happy with it and expect to use it a lot.

Surprise, I'm posting again: Chase Lifter, Partially assembled

On the Letpress List, there has been recent discussion about a helper tool for installing a form into a 10x15 C&P. The form and chase can be very heavy, and installing it to print requires lifting it, leaning forward, and lowering it gently into its bed.

My hands aren't all that strong, and a heavy chase strains the back muscles a bit. What better idea than to install a chase-lifting pulley assembly!

When I went out to survey the territory, I realized I had an advantage: the rail for the rollup garage door runs right over the press. All I needed was some sort of angle iron to rest over the rail, and I could then suspend a pulley and hooks. When I need to open the garage door, the chase lifter can slide back out of the way.

Finding the correct vocabulary for the the hardware store employees was less than easy, but I was lucky enough to be assisted by a couple of young guys who were capable of thinking outside the (tool) box. I had a drawing of what I wanted to do and asked them what parts might function as I desired.

One of them had a brilliant thought: he went into the wood yard and returned with a stud anchor: a piece of strap iron bent into a U with flanges (dare I say "serifs?"). I straightened out the flanges and lo, the sides hang down and the chain links fit into them.

Photo 1 is what I have dubbed the "rail rider," AKA "deck post tie." Attached to it are some links with screw-threaded closures. They meet in a plain ring, and a third screw-threaded closure attaches the pulley to it.

Photo 2 is a view of the rope and hooks. Tomorrow I will cut about 1/4 inch off the end of the hooks to allow the jaws to be large enough to admit the chase. The rope holding the hooks will loop into the pulley rope.

Note: the rope "ferrules" still need to be crushed to hold the ends of the rope from slipping. I will do that in the vice tomorrow.

I don't expect this device to hold the entire weight of the chase/form for long; it is simply a tool which will bear part of the weight of the chase while I jockey it into place. I'm very excited about testing it tomorrow afternoon! Stay tuned: by tomorrow night I hope to have results and a photo of the finished device.