More Marbling—At Last!

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Marbling, Things we sell — No Comments ↓

After a long hiatus, I’ve had a chance to do some marbling.

The driving force was actually the necessity to test a new sample of carragheenan. We’re currently out of stock, and as usual, the last source we bought from is no longer available so we have to try a new supplier. Thus the need for me to test out the sample from the new supplier.

Fortunately, this product works great! I had essentially no problems with streaking of the marbled pattern, and the only paint contamination in the marbling tray is from some paint I applied too heavily causing some of it to sink to the bottom of the tray.

Now we have to figure out the other bugaboo for small businesses like ours: How to order less than a truckload!

CBBAG Ottawa Book Arts Show and Sale, May 25th, 2024

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in CBBAG Book Arts Fair, Kevin, Upcoming Events — No Comments ↓

This year the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG) will be holding their Book Arts Show and Sale at the recently-opened Carleton University MacOdrum Library Book Arts Lab, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.

The fair will be held Saturday, May 25th, 2024 and runs from 9am to 4pm. Their web site should offer more details as the time approaches.

We will have a table at this fair, offering for sale a selection of our handmade paper, marbling, and some bookbinding supplies.

Grimsby Wayzgoose, April 27th, 2024

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Grimsby Wayzgoose, Upcoming Events, Us — No Comments ↓

The 46th Grimsby Wayzgoose Book Arts Fair will be held on Saturday, April 27th, 2024, at the Grimsby Public Art Gallery and Library, 18 Carnegie Lane, Grimsby, Ontario.

The fair will feature over 50 exhibitors of varied book arts, including hand paper making, paper marbling, bookbinding, and private press printers. There will be items like books, cards, prints, and paper, both as giveaways and for sale.

We’ll have a table at the fair, with handmade paper, marbling, and some bookbinding supplies for sale.

As usual, there is also a Wayzgoose Anthology being produced, featuring sections contributed by many of the fair participants. Unfortunately, we did not have time to contribute this year, so we’ll have to purchase our own copy.

The fair will be open from 9am to 5pm, and admission is free.

A New Hollander Beater!

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Beaters, Us — 2 Comments ↓

We recently purchased a Noble & Wood Cycle Beater!

…complete with flaking (probably lead) paint!

This beater can process up to 10 pounds (4.54kg) of dry fibre weight, in 24 U.S. gallons (90L) of water. That’s 5% consistency, considerably thicker than the 2-2.5% limit for a Valley Beater. This beater can manage this because it uses an auger to pump the pulp up to the infeed level for the beating tackle, allowing for a steep slope from the outfeed back to the auger. With the Valley Beater, on the other hand, the only slop to drive the pulp around the tank is the height difference between the backfall and the infeed, so a thinner pulp must be used to ensure proper circulation.

The auger is in the foreground of the second photo, driven by that rather complicated belting arrangement. The top of this shaft is fitted with a double-cone pulley, so the auger speed can be varied relative to the main roll speed to control the flow rate.

The roll and its shaft are mounted on a pivoting arm allowing the roll to move vertically. The roll bearing is the the dark part below the “Caution” sticker in the first photo, and the obvious round tube is part of the frame that supports the roll (the fact this is round is irrelevant; it is welded to the rest of the pivoting frame). The actual pivot is hidden to the right.

The beater also uses a moveable weight on a lever (the lever end is just poking through the yellow part in the foreground of the second photo) to counterbalance the approximately 100 pounds (45kg, though more technically 440N) weight of the roll. This allows beating force to be varied in a calibrated manner anywhere between zero and this maximum.

There is also an adjustment for the minimum gap between the roll and the bedplate. This adjustment is the vertical rod projecting from the top of the round frame tube. This is supposed to have a handwheel and scale on it so it can provide calibrated adjustment.

All this means you can control beating pressure, minimum gap, and flow rate, giving more latitude for controlling the beating action than with a Valley Beater, which only lets you adjust pressure in increments of whatever counterweights you have available.

The whole thing is driven by a 5hp (3.7kW) motor, which is getting near the largest electrical load we can handle in our shop. Fortunately, the actual power drawn by the motor depends on how hard the beater is working.

We have several tasks to do before we can get this working:

  • Strip off the flaking paint, and repaint the whole beater. The interior of the tank does not appear to be painted at all, but only has a tiny amount of surface rust.
  • Reverse the beater on its stand. The stand has legs flared on one side and one end for stability, but the beater is clearly mounted backwards on the stand since its centre of gravity is opposite the stand sides with the legs flared out. The thing almost looks ready to topple over.
  • Make a bracket to hold the motor and beater stands in the correct geometrical relationship so the drive belts run properly. We don’t have any place we can have a fixed mount for this beater, so we need to keep the motor and beater as separable units allowing us to move them around the shop with a pallet truck or fork lift.
  • Add a VFD so we can run the 3-phase motor on the single-phase supply we have in the shop, or use a new motor. Although we can generally buy a new 5hp motor for less than the cost of a VFD, finding the correct motor speed (1200-ish RPM) would be difficult, and we would have to replace the motor started (“switch”) as well. Furthermore, the VFD gives soft start so you don’t have a huge current draw when the motor starts up.
  • Figure out how to mount the guide frame for the counterbalance arm properly; This is a cast part with three bolt holes that match up with bolt holes on the side of the tank, but the bolt holes in both the frame and the tank are threaded (tapped), so I don’t understand how you can actually tighten the bolts properly. I could drill out the threads on the guide frame, but I don’t want to do that if this is actually intended to work (somehow) the way it is already built.
  • Make a handwheel for the beater gap adjustment

There is a manual, of sorts, for this beater available from Magnolia Paper (aka Magnolia Editions) in Oakland CA. I’m assuming they own one (likely the one in the photo on the cover page of the manual), and also the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland OH owns one, but it seems to be missing its auger.

Looking for a Job…

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin — No Comments ↓

After almost 43 years with the same employer, my “day job” is coming to an end. Since I graduated from University of Waterloo in 1981, I’ve been working for and with the same people, first at the Math Faculty Computing Facility at the University, then at a spin-off (due to University politics) group called the Software Development Group, then for the spin-off (politics again) company Thinkage Ltd. based in Kitchener, Ontario.

Over the years we’ve produced many software products, often for other software companies, but our most recent product, the MainBoss maintenance manager, is a Windows application targeted to small companies like privately-owned hotels, small municipalities, colleges, property managers, and small manufacturers. The software is used to manage maintenance and repairs on buildings and equipment owned by the customer.

Although the program worked well, it was not a turnkey installation for a mom-and-pop operation because it used Microsoft SQL Server to contain its database, and setting up MS SQL requires some degree of computer literacy. At the large-scale end of the market we could not compete with enterprise-level products like SAS, but we had a nice market niche for quite a while.

Unfortunately, everyone is moving to cloud-based products now and we did not have the resources to move MainBoss to such a model. Over the past few years our existing customer base has moved to other products, leaving us with little income and no choice but to pull the plug.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be moving the source code for MainBoss to Github so remaining customers can choose to do their own software maintenance if they so choose.

It is a bit of a shame because MainBoss was designed to allow (relatively) easy adaptation to other UI models (for instance, using a web browser instead of a Windows application) but we never had the resources to develop the adapter for another UI.

Some of the code will live on, though, at least for myself, since I am using the MainBoss infrastructure for two of my own applications.

One is the accounting/CRM application we use for the Papertrail, an outgrowth of the old MS Access Forms application we started with.

The other is an application I’m using to track my inventory of Monotype matrices. Though this is still very much a work in progress, so far all it really has is an inventory of the ornament display matrices I have, including specimen images. Development of the information here should go hand-in-hand with the software I’m developing to accompany my Monotype computer interface.

I’m not ready to retire yet, and it would be nice to have a bigger retirement nest-egg, so I’m now looking for employment. I don’t have the personal drive to be self-employed or work as a consultant, so that means another real job. I’m working on a resume and sprucing up my LinkedIn profile in preparation for submitting job applications. I’ve never actually had to apply for a job, as this career was pretty much offered to me unprompted, so this will all be a new adventure for me. I hope I can find someplace to hire an old fart like myself, if only to give the kids someone to say “OK, boomer” to!

Sorting Donated Linotype Matrices

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Type Casting — No Comments ↓

The Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum recently received a donation of type, spacing, and Linotype/Intertype matrices from Steve Ecker, I believe of Smithville, Ontario.

While other volunteers at the museum started sorting the type and spacing into appropriate cases, I had 6 jugs of loose matrices to sort through. At the time I took these photos I had sorted two jugs to some degree, but here are the remaining ones hiding under the rear step of our Linotype:

The matrices aren’t completely mixed, but they are not completely sorted (one font per container) either. At this point I had sorted one of the clear round jugs and one of the large square jugs (only about half full).

The job starts by just stacking the matrices into a tray so they are all on edge. I follow this with a pass reorienting them so the top (with the notches identifying the magazine position) is facing the back of the tray. A second pass turns them all with the casting face down. Finally, I go through them separating them out by font, generally identified by the pattern of grooves and notches on the bottom edge, which is facing me for easy visibility.

The first jug I sorted turned out to be mostly an Intertype face called “Ideal” in 6½ point (IIRC the identification stamped on the side was “6½Pt 1553”). I ran these through the Linotype caster into a empty magazine, and had to pull three mats that did not run properly and instead jammed in the magazine channel.

After sorting the second jug my trays looked like this:

The four and a half rows in the front tray are 10-point Linotype Baskerville. The dozen or so mats in the front row are more 6½-point Ideal, and the rest of the mats have yet to be sorted. Many of these seem to be fonts of all pi mats, too wide to run in a magazine.

Since the photos were taken I’ve also sorted the small white jug from the first photo, which included a whole other tray row of 6½-point Ideal. It is nice to find these because the mats already run into the magazine seem incomplete, with few or no mats in some of the channels. I’ll be leaving that magazine on the caster until I’ve sorted all the mats and found everything that belongs in the magazine. Then (because we’re short on magazines) I’ll move those back to a tray, and run the Baskerville into the magazine to find problem mats and missing/short letters. And again the same for whatever fonts I find in the last three jugs. Though perhaps before unloading the magazine I should cast each font in its entirety to look for problems like hairlines due to worn cheeks.

Altogether it looks like I have about three more Saturday mornings of mat sorting ahead of me.

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BOUND Book Arts Fair, Sunday December 3rd in Toronto

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in BOUND Book Arts Fair, Past Events, Us — 2 Comments ↓

The Arts & Letters Club in Toronto will again be hosting the BOUND Book Arts Fair, this year taking place on Sunday December 3rd, from 11am-4pm. The Club is located at 14 Elm Street, near Yonge & Dundas in downtown Toronto.

We will be there along with about 3 dozen other vendors selling private press books, printed ephemera, cards, prints, paper, and materials and equipment for the book arts. Look for us upstairs in the studio.

Please note the updated opening time: 11am.

Howard Iron Works Print Expo & Fair, October 14th, 2023

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Howard Iron Works Print Expo & Fair, Past Events, Us — No Comments ↓

Howard Iron Works will be holding their annual Print Expo & Fair this year on Saturday, October 14th, from 10am to 4pm, at 800 Westgate Road, in Oakville Ontario.

The show will feature about 20 vendors, including ourselves, selling paper-, printing-, and book-related items and materials. There will also be demonstrations, hands-on activities, workshops, and of course their extensive museum of old printing equipment will be open for you to explore.

Admission is free, and there is free parking available on-site and on the street nearby.

Can anyone answer a Whitlock question?

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mystery Parts — No Comments ↓

The Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum maintains a print shop at the Wainfleet fairgrounds in Wainfleet, Ontario, and one piece of equipment there is a Whitlock 2-rotation cylinder press.

Note that there is a different model of Whitlock press that is generally similar but has some differences, in particular as to how the printed sheets are delivered, so I’m not sure how relevant it would be to this question.

My question concerns the delivery mechanism for the printed sheets on the press illustrated here. As they come off the cylinder, they are carried by a series of tapes A (essentially a conveyor) over a comb of long fingers B. These fingers then rotate half a turn on a shaft C, flipping the printed sheet over and dropping it face down on the delivery table D. A pair of stacker blocks E & F then close up to keep the stack of printed paper neat.
One stacker block (E) can be adjusted to suit the size of the sheet being printed, so for smaller paper, E would be moved towards F, and the latter is always in the same location. However, the conveyor tapes always carry the sheet right up to shaft C, and so when the sheet is flipped it would land on the delivery table right close to the shaft rather than between the stackers.
It seems to me that there should be some sort of stop or guide which limits how far the tapes carry the sheet so that when flipped over it lands between the parted stackers.
However, there are no such guides on our Whitlock, nor do any show in this illustration. It looks like it would perhaps be a couple of small stop tabs that attach to the fingers to stop the sheet motion. They can’t be too bulky because they must fit between the tapes when the fingers are in the position to receive the sheet, and they must also not strike the stacker block E when the fingers flip over to drop the sheet.
So is anyone familiar enough with this model of press to provide any hints or photos? How do other cylinder presses with similar delivery deal with this? An easy design change would have been to have E be the fixed guide and F be the adjustable one; the downside would be that the operator would have to reach farther to remove the stack of printed sheets.
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Marshville Heritage Festival, September 2nd-4th 2023 in Wainfleet, Ontario

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Other people, Past Events — No Comments ↓

The Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum maintains a print shop at the Wainfleet fairgrounds in Wainfleet, Ontario, and each Labour Day weekend, the Marshville Heritage Festival takes place there, where the Museum volunteers open up the print shop to demonstrate the machinery.

In addition to the demonstrations, we will also have some items available, including old cuts, random wood type, typecases, printed cards, and a year-at-a-glance calendar, in trade for donations to the Museum.

Demonstrations will include operation of the Ludlow Typograph, which casts a single line of text from hand-set matrices. In trade for a donation, we can cast a line of text of your choice mounted in a wood display stand.

There will also be a small Adana table-top press, which you will be able to use to print yourself a keepsake card.

Finally, we will also have our Whitlock cylinder press in operation from time to time to print more of the calendars. This press was manufactured in the 1890’s and used for printing the Thorold News for many years before it was bought out by the St.Catharines Standard.

Promotional Illustration of the Whitlock Cylinder press

So come out and see us (and the rest of the Festival) next weekend!

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