Printing presses, type cabinets & letterpress gear: free pickup in Albuquerque, photo first

Presses I want to hear about

A printing press is the rare thing that gets harder to place the bigger it is. The letterpress community’s own value guide (Briar Press) says moving a heavy press can add considerably to its price, and big floor presses sometimes go to whoever will pay to move them — while a tabletop press or a cabinet of type is exactly what printers hunt for. Either way, a photo tells me what you have.

• Tabletop platen presses: Kelsey Excelsior, Chandler & Price Pilot, Adana, Sigwalt and other lever presses.
• Floor platen presses: Chandler & Price, Golding Jobber and Pearl, Gordon-style jobbers — treadle or motor.
• Automatic platens: Heidelberg Windmill, Kluge.
• Proof presses: Vandercook, Challenge, Line-O-Scribe showcard presses, galley proof presses.
• Iron hand presses: Washington- and Albion-style.
• Hot metal: Linotype, Intertype and Ludlow gear, mats and parts (photo first).

Not sure what you have?

• The maker’s name is usually cast into the frame or on a plate.
• The inside of the chase (the steel frame the type locks into) gives the size printers ask about.
• Rollers, trucks, the ink disc and the chase are the parts that go missing, so say which are there.
• On a Chandler & Price the flywheel helps date it — wavy spokes on the older Old Style, plain spokes on the New Style, a solid wheel on the Craftsman.

Type, cabinets and composing-room gear

• Hamilton and other type cabinets and California job cases — empty ones too.
• Foundry (lead) type in fonts, cases or galleys — even pied type.
• Wood type (Hamilton, Wm. Page, Morgans & Wilcox, Tubbs), poster letters, ornaments and borders.
• Galleys and galley cabinets, imposing stones.
• Chases, quoins and keys, wood and metal furniture (the spacing kind), reglets, leads and slugs.
• Composing sticks, line and type-high gauges, bodkins, mallets, planers, lead and rule cutters, miterers.
• Cuts and blocks: engraved and photo cuts on wood bases, ornaments, dingbats.
• Numbering machines, brass rule, photopolymer bases.
• Type specimen books, supply catalogs and press manuals — see technical manuals and instruments.

Paper cutters, bindery and finishing

• Paper cutters and guillotines: Challenge, Chandler & Price, Triumph/Ideal, Kutrimmer (photo first).
• Board shears; standing, nipping and cast-iron copy presses; lying presses and ploughs.
• Hot-foil stamping presses (Kingsley, Kensol) with their brass type.
• Paper drills, perforators, round-cornerers, wire stitchers.
• Sewing frames and finishing tools.
• Sealed letterpress paper stock: ask first — not office paper.

Etching, litho and printmaking studios

Albuquerque has a real printmaking community — UNM’s Tamarind Institute is a fine-art lithography workshop, the public library’s Center for the Book keeps a Chandler & Price, a Linotype and a Washington press, and Takach Press builds etching and litho presses right here in town. Remarque Print Workshop rents press time. When a studio downsizes, its gear is worth a photo.

• Etching presses: Takach, Conrad, Charles Brand, Griffin, American French Tool — tabletop and floor.
• Litho presses, litho stones and levigators, rollers.
• Brayers, ink slabs and knives, drying racks.
• Flat files for prints and paper — flat files and map cabinets.
• Screen-printing presses and carousels.

How to photograph a press (it saves us both a trip)

1. The whole press from the side, flywheel and base in frame.
2. The maker’s name on the frame or plate.
3. The chase and the rollers, if they’re there.
4. A type cabinet with one drawer pulled out.
5. The way out: stairs, door widths, the floor it sits on (slab, wood, basement), the driveway, and where a trailer could park.
6. Anything broken or missing.

Don’t tip, drag or unbolt a cast-iron press for a better picture — cast iron is more fragile than it looks. Text the photos to (505) 250-3804.

Heavy presses: the honest part

A tabletop press is one person and a dolly. A floor press is a lot of cast iron. Tell me where it sits and how it would come out, and I’ll say honestly whether it’s something I can move. I have a trailer, and a forklift for suitable loads, but I don’t promise a move until I’ve seen the photos — a press in a basement or up a flight of stairs may need a professional rigger, and if yours does, I’ll say so up front. Tell me your deadline too (a closing, a house sale, a lease-out) and I’ll say honestly whether I can make it. The city of Albuquerque is my usual area. Rio Rancho, Corrales, Los Ranchos, Tijeras and the East Mountains are case by case, and Bernalillo, Placitas, Algodones, Los Lunas, Bosque Farms, Peralta, Belen and Edgewood are usually out of range.

What I don’t take

• Inks, solvents, cleaners and other chemicals: household amounts go to the City’s household hazardous-waste center; a business uses a hazardous-waste hauler.
• General paper, envelopes and office supplies.
• Modern copiers and digital presses — those belong with electronics (working or not) or industrial equipment, not here.
• Anything I can’t get out safely as one operator — I’ll say who to call.
• Equipment that isn’t yours to give: a school’s, church’s or agency’s press goes through its own surplus process first.

When print shops come up

A retiring printer or a closing shop. The letterpress community’s own guide notes that “most old equipment is being sold by old printers” (Letterpress Commons). Closing a shop on a date? See business closing pickup.

An estate or a garage hobby shop. The Kelsey in the garage and the type cases in the basement — families often don’t know what they are. Photograph them before anything is thrown out, and see clearing out a parent’s house, estate cleanouts, estate-sale leftovers, garage cleanouts and clearing a loved one’s home.

A school, church or office renovation. Once the press or the type cabinets have cleared the owner’s surplus process, whoever owns them can text me a photo.

A printmaker downsizing a studio. Presses, stones and flat files are all worth a photo.

The rest of the shop’s furniture — steel desks, stools and cabinets: vintage furniture pickup.

Where it goes

I identify each piece, clean it and list it where printers and makers look. Working presses and complete fonts go to people who’ll print with them; cabinets, cases and cuts go to printers, collectors and makers; cast iron and type that truly can’t be used are recyclable metal (scrap metal pickup). Afterward you get a Reclaim Receipt. Typewriters and office machines: vintage & collectibles. The whole print-shop list is on my want list.

Text me a photo of the press → Or use the request form