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.