Refurbishing a 118-Year-Old Letterpress: Part 1
Hey guys! This is the story of how my husband and I refurbished a 118-year-old Chandler and Price 10x15 Old Series floor model letterpress.
A few months ago I found a letterpress printer on my Instagram discover, and as soon as I saw her working on her treadle-run letterpress machine, I felt a breeze rush through my soul and I knew I had to learn to do that. As a wedding stationer, I was familiar with the result of letterpress printing—the beautiful depth where the text and design push into fluffy, 100% cotton paper making a lasting impression. But when I watched the process, I knew I had to learn it myself.
I started digging online to find information on this process, looking for lessons nearby and hoping to score a deal on a tabletop Pilot Press. But among the tabletop presses that I found, they were either too far away and shipping was insane, or they were just too expensive (2k+). I kept looking and stumbled upon a Craigslist listing where 2 floor model presses were on sale for a great price. I ended up buying one for $500, and began the process of cleaning and fixing up my “new” 1903 Chandler and Price 10x15 press.
This press was most recently used with a motor, but the pulley, belt, and motor were missing. Anyway, I had decided I wanted to set it up as a treadle press so that wasn’t a concern, but the man who sold me the press ended up throwing in a pulley and motor. (Later on, I bought a treadle, attached and set it up, and tried to print… but it was waaay too heavy so I ended up running it on a motor… But more on that later).
Okay, to be honest, this press was in really good condition. It seems to have been used relatively recently, but the man who sold it to me was just a reseller, so I didn’t have all of that information. Nevertheless, I could spin the fly-wheel really easily and the press just ran smoothly. The only thing was that it was covered in layers—and I mean loads—of grease and dried ink. It seems that the previous owner used a lot of red ink, and it was all over the ink disk, the platen, and the parts under.
And the grease—my goodness it was oily. We went through a roll and a half of paper towel plus degreasers and other cleaning products just trying to get the grease off! But after about 4 hours of working with my husband and 3 hours alone, it was looking pretty good and ready to go.
Here are some before pictures.
And after!
Look as brand new as 1903 can be!
Some cleaning supplies I used.
Sam’s Club Oven and Grill Degreaser — This worked SO well. Better than Good Off, better than scrubbing with a grout brush, better than anything else I tried. I sprayed and the gunk just like dripped off. It may have been that it worked well for my specific press and it’s issues, but I’d give it a try.
Palette knife — As you can see, there was so much ink caked onto the press that we needed to literally scrape it off. It took a bit of elbow grease, but the palette knife helped. I got mine from Home Depot.
Rags, rags, rags. And paper towel
Lots of gloves
A grout brush. DO NOT USE A WIRE BRUSH. At least in my case, I tested a wire brush on a small area and did not like how it scratched. Instead I used a plastic grout brush and it worked quite well.
Acetone — I used acetone for the red ink all over the press. It was great for those areas where there was a thin layer of ink remaining (thick areas, read palette knife above). I actually just used old nail polish remover, because that’s what I had on hand. It worked. Just don’t breathe.
Air compressor — I used those bottled air compressors to get dust and gunk out of hard to reach places and oiling holes. Speaking of oiling holes…
Q-tips. Sometimes I used the cotton end, or sometimes I broke the Q-tip in half and used the stick part to clean excess gunk out of those oiling holes.
Goof Off degreaser — We used this also, but the Sam’s Club Degreaser trumped this for me.
Citrus Cleaner — Used this all over. Again, Sam’s Club Degreaser won.
Sand paper drill attachment — We used this specifically for the flywheel on the right. It was pretty rusty, so my husband just sanded down the smooth surfaces and it worked well.
Vinegar — specifically for rusty areas
WD-40 — Went over a lot of the press with this towards the end.
We probably used other random things here and there, just trying to see what works best. My press had very little rust, so if yours has rust, you might have to find better alternatives. Vinegar is a good one, but there are plenty of rust removing products out there that I did not experiment with.
I think my husband and I put in about 30-40 hours total cleaning this up (and getting it motorized, which again—more to come!). Hopefully your press is not as gunky and gross as mine, but I’d factor in a few weeks if the press wasn’t used recently for cleaning and refurbishing.
Hope this helps!
