Setting up our Harrild & Sons Albion: Part 1
We are hoping to connect with some others with a similar Albion press to help us make subtle adjustments between the spring, handle, platen, & bed.
We bought the press, a Harrild & Sons / London Albion iron handpress from the Museum of Printing in North Andover, MA, in May 2008. The platen size is 21" x 29".
The Albion was our 2nd iron handpress. The first one was a R. Hoe & Co. Washington #5. We've spent most of our rebuilding time working the Washington as it was missing the tympan / frisket and one of the corner irons. We finally got all of that completed except for a modification to the inner tympan.
We brought Steve Heaver from The Hill Press in Baltimore up to run an Albion workshop for a select group of friends and to help us get the press set up correctly. That turned out to be a lot easier said than done. In the photos down through this page I'll show the parts that impact the lowering of the platen onto the paper.
There seem to be 2 main problems at the moment
When you pull the handle it just doesn't seem to move as far as it should indicating that the platen is too close to the type. Right now the tympan / frisket doesn't drag on the platen at all, but it is really close to it. There is almost no room to have to lean into it. It only moves about a foot.
The chill is precariously close to falling out. It won't fall, but if we adjust the bar and pulls on the chill or move the spring, it comes apart. Just seems that there is no way it should be this close to falling out.
There are 5 components that seem to impact the pull of the press
the spring at the top,
the adjustment at the far side of the bar that moves the chill,
the four bolts that hold the platen against the cup,
the wedge, and
the stop that keeps the handle from over impressing the type.
Above #1: the press generally ready to go.
Above #2: the "spring"
What does tightening versus loosening it do? Make it easier to move the handle back to its standing position? Does anything else change?
What happens at the bottom of it? Does it hook somehow to the peg with the 1" cap you can see right below "& Sons" in the photos a few down.
Does anyone have what originally covered the spring and could you supply us with several good photographs taken all the way around it?
Related to part 2: Several people thought this press would not have had something covering those bolts. After considering the options, and why there are just two screws, I wonder if it wasn't something that might hold the tympan in the "up" position. Worth considering anyway.
Above #3: adjusts the wedge. Generally, should it be pulled farther toward the front or pushed toward the back?
The bolt part on ours is slightly bent. Something obviously heavy hit is sometime in its life. Because of the bend we cannot get the bolt in the last 0.75".
Related to part 2: It appears that we have to get that bolt straightened. Options to do some kind of workaround seem awkward at best and it complicates things if you to continue to adjust things.
Above #4: the bar that controls the "toggle lever" that moves the chill toward the vertical position. Any logical general position? How much of the threaded bolt should be exposed?
Related to part 2: After finishing Part 2 of this process it appeared that this interesting set of bolts had to be screwed on a "lot" more (maybe 6 threads showing instead of the .5 we see here).
Above #5: With everything set as it is now, this is how far I have to go to reach the handle. It can only be about 1.25" closer to me or the tympan would hit it while being lowered.
Should the handle be as close to me as possible without hitting the tympan? Seems like things would be a lot better if the handle was bent toward the printer. I'm not a small guy and I'm right against the rails (and all of that oil) when I reach for the handle and then I'm holding it right on the left end of the wooden section.
Related to part 2: We did get the handle about 0.5" closer to the puller. Not much, but it helps.
Above #6: This is at the end of the pull, which to me seems to not be far enough. The movement of the end of the handle from the beginning to the end of the pull is 15". I'm still quite vertical. Seems like I should be almost forced to lean in to the pull more.
Related to part 2: The pull is at least another 12" now, so things feel more in line with what we think should be happening.
Above #7: We finally found the serial number. By this point in time it appears they weren't going to much trouble to show it. So, 8112. In a photo we took the day we moved this press we took another photo of the other press that was exactly the same. It was numbered 8113. The museum said they got the pair from Pittsburgh. There is a photo in Rummonds' "Printing on the Iron Handpress" that shows two presses at Carnegie Mellon that at least appear generally to be the same kind of press. The sequential serial numbers are a pretty good indicator.
Related to part 2: Those photos we mentioned are at the top of Part 2.
Above #8: Sweet.
An added question: Can anyone share any form of base / stage for your press that perhaps shows it lifted off the floor and showing the brace you would put your foot against?
I may adjust this some if I hear from some people with useful information I can try.
Setting up our Harrild & Sons Albion: Part 2
This is the second step in trying to set up our Albion. We made a number of changes and figure out how a few things worked that we didn't understand before. We still have one big issue we think an that relates to trying to get the platen higher.
First, thanks to the dozen or so people that offered advice and photos. Really great to have you all as a resource.
Most of the adjustments came from reacting to suggestions we received. Often we would get things to where they felt about right and the chill would drop out. That happened maybe 6 or 7 times. Each time we got a bit better at getting things organized and in place.
We believe that two photos in Richard-Gabriel Rummonds' book Printing on the Iron Handpress may be the exact press we have or its brother. We bought one of two identical presses from the Museum of Printing in North Andover, MA back in 2008. Ours has the serial number 8112 and one at the museum is 8113. Consecutive serial numbers would seem to indicate they were bought new together. Currently trying to find out if Carnegie Mellon has any information related to this.
Paul Ritscher of Devil's Tail Press, through the iron handpress listserv where we've been getting the advice for our Albion setup, offered this bit of information about the presses. "In a glance at "Porter Garnett: Philosophical Writings on the Ideal Book", Book Club of California 1994 (a book that should be in every hand-press library), Porter Garnett describes the purchase of the two presses specifically for the purpose of printing the Catalogue of the Frick Collection for the Museum of Modern Art, a project begun in 1928, and not completed until after he left Carnegie in 1935 by Bruce Rogers."
After bit of online searching we found that the University of Delaware (just down the street) has a copy of the catalog of the Frick Collection. The colophon from volume 1, "The printing ... was begun in 1929 by Porter Garnett who designed the basic format of the text, and who printed the sheets through page 168 ... The work was laid aside in 1932. Printing was begun again in the spring of 1949 under the direction of Bruce Rogers, who designed the two volumes of illustrations, and the title page, section headings, and accessory pages for the volume of text. The sheets of text were completed on the hand-presses of the University of Pittsburgh ... One hundred and seventy-five sets have been made"--Colophon of v. 1.The story just keeps getting better."
I'm not sure what the connection was between Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Pittsburgh, but that will get a some looking into. More on that at the bottom of the page.
Here are the two photos from Rummonds' book.
Above: This one shows the press feet/legs to the cheeks so we have a much better idea that the photo matches our press. The caption in Rummonds' book reads...
Photo 13: Pressmen printing The Catalogue of the Frick Collection on two Albion presses back to back. Laboratory Press, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, 1949. (Photo courtesy of Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT.)
The caption in Rummonds' book reads...
Above: Photo 14: Pressmen printing The Catalogue of the Frick Collection on a Harrild Albion Press. Laboratory Press, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, 1949. (Reprinted, by permission, from American Printer, March 1950.)
THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN CHECKED, ADJUSTED or CORRECTED:
Bolts holding the platen on have been slightly loosened. They had been VERY tight before.
Spring was removed and cleaned. It isn't broken and seems as it should be.
The swing of the "handle" seems right (or at least a lot more right).
TO BE DONE:
Need to get the bolt that moves the wedge straightened.
What is the strap attached to the bolt at the top of the "rib stay supposed to do.
Is there a way to raise the platen (does being able to move the wedge do this?). The problem is that the tympan / frisket rests on the chase so the gap between it and the platen is really, really close.
Understand better how that round bolt on the far side of the rod that connects to the "J" object works and what it accomplishes.
Above #1: On our first page description we forgot to include a photo of the "cheek stop."
Additionally, we loosened the nuts holding the platen (one showing in the lower left of the photo above) to give it a bit of flexing room. It is definitely NOT loose, but when we started this it was TIGHT as we were trying to lift it as much as possible.
Above #2: the "spring"
In the first photo at the top of the page you'll see a strap attached to the top of the "rib stay."
Question: Is this meant to stop the bed from moving too far and likely would there have been one on the other end of the bed?
Above #3: We thought you might like to see the spring removed. Next to it is a kind of washer that centers in the top of the spring. Strangely the hole in that washer is a bit off center. We don't see any reason for that.
We were worried that removing the 2nd nut might send the nut through the ceiling. Also we worried that if the spring was under pressure when it came loose we would never be able to get it back in, but the designers of the Albion apparently thought ahead on that issue. We removed the lock nut and then keep undoing the other bolt. About 1/2" before you would start worrying that it was going to explode, it came loose and you could just remove it by hand. Then the spring just lifted out. I wondered if you could compress the spring by hand. Nope. Not even a little bit which gives you a good idea of how well the leverage works on the press. Ended up being a great demonstration of how well the handle, chill, etc. leverage each other for efficiency. I would really like to see a session on "How It's Made" on making those springs.
Above #4: The print ready to be replaced. The bolt seems to be an eye bolt. The next time I take this apart this far, we are going all the way and clean the paint off of a few additional parts which will make the press look a lot better and perhaps a bit less industrial. We think that will be nice.
Above #5: Shows the bend in the bolt that positions the "wedge."
It is starting to look like that bend might be creating part of our problems getting the press set up absolutely correctly. It is also interesting that the bolt DOES NOT come out of the wedge. There must be a pin that has been driven through the wedge to hold it in, but visually you cannot see any evicence of it. The bolt can easily be rotated by hand when it would likely be close to coming out, but eventually just rotates without coming out.
Next on the list of things to fix on the Albion is to get that bolt straightened. It is worth saying that I don't think that is going to be easy for whomever does it.
The wedge is flat along its bottom and the top slants which is what changes the tension on the chill. As it turns out the wedge is not exactly centered in that indented part of what holds it to the press. Once you get the wedge loose enough to rotate it you have to be sure to get it back in the right way.
Above #6: The "wedge" at the top with the "chill" at the bottom. Not sure what you call that "rocker plate" for the bottom of the chill.
Today, we are going to try putting something on top of the wedge and under that rocker plate to see if that will raise the toggle joint mechanism.
We tried that, but that was harder than it seemed it would be. We've decided to just go for the straightening of the bolt so now that we are past Thanksgiving we'll start making some phone calls. Anyone out there willing to do it for us for a fee? Email Ray.
Above #7: Shows the wedge being replaced.
We've figured out that part of our problem is that the "frisket / tympan" was setting on the chase we had in the press. The chase has "Harrild & Sons" cast into the piece so it looks original.
So, it looks like the wedge might need to be pushed in about the thickness (a bit more than 1") of the part of the frame it is bolted to
Once we took the chase out things the bed fit much better under the platen. The problem is that even if we use furniture to position a smaller chase that fits inside the metal edge of the tympan / frisket will still be in contact with the furniture. This is the reason it appears that no matter what we need to get the whole adjusting mechanism for the platen up at least 0.125".
When we are standing at the press looking at the wedge we still aren't quite sure this is the problem, but we don't see anything else that can accomplish that raising of the platen.
So, things are a lot better. We get a more logical pull to the handle and we also have a much better idea of how the mechanism work. We seem to be getting closer and I suspect once we solve straightening that bolt things are going to fit nicely into place.
More on the Carnegie Institute of Technology and University of Pittsburgh issue, piecing together the story from Wikipedia.
The Carnegie Technical Schools were founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh. In 1912 the institution changed its name to Carnegie Institute of Technology.The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was founded in 1913 and was initially established as a department within the University of Pittsburgh. In 1927, the Mellon Institute incorporated as an independent nonprofit. In 1967 Carnegie Tech merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University.
So, it seems the caption for the 1949 photos at the Laboratory Press at Carnegie Institute of Technology and that the overall credit for the book as being University of Pittsburgh seem OK.
Setting up our Harrild & Sons Albion: Part 3
Trying to have a conversation with others about our problems with our Albion has been difficult for a couple of reasons.
We are new to iron handpresses. Since the formal beginning of Lead Graffiti in 2008 we've wanted to print at least some quality work on an iron handpress.
Trying to talk from the same page is difficult. Everyone we talk to is a lot more experienced and trying to define the part you are talking about and what is happening with and around that part is difficult on the phone. Through email it is worse, except you have a record of what was said that you can go over it multiple times.
So, the purpose at the moment of this page was "stop and start over." Take the entire press apart from the platen up, pull out all of the parts, clean the parts well, and photograph related parts in group portraits. We've supplied names to the parts trying to make sense of the relationship between this 1928 Albion and the Washington-style iron handpress which is thoroughly illustrated in Richard-Gabriel Rummonds' "Printing on the Iron Handpress." As it turns out the way the two presses work is quite similar and many of the parts operate in the same general manner.
Above: Albion stripped down with the piston separated from the "head."
While we were doing all of this we even got rid of that scuff, which seemed like dried caulk, on the upper left.
Above: Piston in place with the "piston support pin" in place.
Above: Spring, spring washer, eye bolt, nuts for eye bolt, piston support pin, and cotter pin.
After some online advice we thought it might be best to add a couple washers at the bottom of the sprint to lift it to help us get the gain in height we THINK we need. Home Depot had exactly the right washer. The photo above shows 3 washers added. After putting it together it seems like it might need 5 or 6.
Above: The handle is attached. You can just see the top of the handle pivot pin showing on the back side. The connecting rod is in position (it has to be inserted through the handle and piston before the handle is locked into place. The caps on both ends are not in place and the round connecting rod nut is not in place.
Above: Handle, tapered handle pivot pin, connecting rod, and brass connecting rod enclosures.
Above: the back of the pivot point for the "bar." The vertical tapered pin is the "bar pivot pin." You can also see the "handle stop" in the lower right.
Above: a closeup of the near end of the "coupling rod ".
Above: The far end of the "coupling rod" shown from the back of the press. There is a circular lock bolt that has not been added to the threads.
Above: round connecting rod nut, conneting rod locking nut, and connecting rod brass enclosure piecs for the far end of the connecting rod.
That round nut and the encasing mechanism is quite amazing the way it sits on both ends inside a socket. The ball at the other end of the "coupling rod" is welded to the rod and is not threaded on.
Above: Wedge area. You can see the coupling rod passing from the bar through the piston to the toggle lever.
The toggle lever is in position, but does not have the chill supporting its left side.
The red arrow points to a flange that runs up the backside of the cheeks. At the 2015 APHA conference on "Printing on the Iron Handpress" we had the chance to print on the Kelmscott-Goudy press in the Carey Collection at RIT. The Kelmscott printers had wrapped a heavy iron strap vertically along both sides of the cheeks to provide support when they were printing the "Kelmscott Chaucer." We don't know if perhaps the flange shown here is a reaction to that or is built into earlier Albions. You typically don't see photos of the backs of iron handpresses. Below is a photo showing that flange. It is possible that there might be some adjustments to this press as it was ordered from Harrild & Sons with a specific printing project in mind. That was "The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalog" which is a large format book. Adding the flange would have been a fairly easy process when making the sand casting moulds.
Above: toggle lever (J-shaped piece), toggle lever pivot, chill, wedge-shaped chill support, and wedge.
There has been some questions raised about the chill (3rd piece down from the top) and if it is symmetrical. As best we can tell it is. You can tell that the fulcrum that fits into the chill is not perfectly circular and that might be contributing to some of our problems.
We've been taking some of the major threaded pieces to Doug at A-F Machine, located just to the right and across the street from us in the Sandy Brae Industrial Park. He has the complete set of taps and dies to clean up the threads. The first piece we took to him was the "connecting rod." He pulls out a cardboard chart out of his shirt pocket which I think he has been using since the 60s, measures the threads and announces "7 8 9". I look at him with a blank stare and he says "7/8th inch with 9 threads per inch." He walks over to a 5-foot-high cabinet, opens the bottom drawer, pulls out out a die (the part that does the rod). Three minutes later it is as clean as it was the day in 1928 when they made the press. Sweet.
Anyway, we gave him the wedge with the bent bolt. That took him an hour as he had to be really careful with that cast iron support which kept us from getting the bolt out. Tray did a great job figuring out where the pin was and then drove it out with a punch. All better now.
Above is a photo of the wedge and associated parts before the bolt was straightened.
We are really liking being across the street from Doug and all of his machining equipment.
Above: Albion with most everything in place. At this point the connecting rod lock nut is not on it and it has not been adjusted for printing.
Above: Closer view from the side.
Above: Main toggle area from the back.
Above: This is the final reconstructed press. We still have the problem at this point that the platen seems to be too low. If you'll notice there is a curve along the top of the piston. We think that should be hidden in this photo and that the platen needs to be raised at least 1/4".
The platen being too low causes the pull of the bar to bottom out after only a very short pull when the bar should essentally come close to being parallel to the near side of the platen. It is only getting maybe 25% of that distance at the moment.
Since we wrote the information above we've made two additional changes. We've gotten the bolt that pulls / pushes the wedge straigtened and it works completely through the cycle.
We added 3 washers over the eyebolt at the bottom of the spring and that lifted the platen to at least where it was when we stared all of this. We are going to try adding a couple more and see if the pull of the handle gets closer to going parallel to the side of the bed.
Below you can see a Youtube video of the pull being executed. The end of the handle is moving about 8" or 9". we think it should be more like 24"
Video of the handle being pulled (actually pushed).