No, I didn't win the lottery. However, I was in the right place at the right time. One of our activities is selling things at a local antique mall. One afternoon we dropped by and one of the owners showed me a flyer of someone wanting to sell a handpress. He thought it would look good as a display item. I tried to tell him that it weighed over 1,200 pounds and was all rusty and in a dozen pieces. He must have noticed my heavy breathing and asked if I'd be interested. The press was on the south side of Chicago about 15 miles from us. No phone number on the flier, just an email address. Rushed back to our studio and sent an email to this mysterious stranger. I didn't hear anything for about 3 days when I got a cryptic email with an address and a time to come and look at it. The press was in a shed outside the owner's home. Lying around in pieces, some quite rusty, others in not so bad condition was a Paul Sheidewend Printers Proof Press #2. I knew that I wanted it. Now came the hard part, no price was mentioned in the flyer. I searched my memory for sources of money, tempered with the idea of convincing my wife that we needed this press. After looking at it for about 15 minutes (my mind was made up the moment I saw it) I asked "what do you want for it?" He looked at me, looked at the press, looked at me again and said "would two hundred be too much?"
It took several weeks to arrange the move. I called several riggers and was told it would cost about $2,000 to move and set it up. Finally in a moment of desperation I resorted to Craig's List and got 3 guys for $100. They showed up on time and with a lot of groaning managed to move it in our studio. Only one 3 inch step. It was in about a dozen parts and were all over the place. At the time I had no idea if it was complete, I'd tackle that problem when it became necessary. Fortunately, Richard-Gabriel Rummonds' book Printing on the Iron Handpress has many diagrams which allowed me to know what was what and how the parts went together. Everything other than the frame was rusted, especially the bare metal ones. The bottom of the bed looked as if it left out in the rain and had a heavy layer of rust. The platen and bed surfaces had rust but they looked flat and without pits. My plan was to have the press cleaned and repainted. I had hoped to have it CO2 blasted but the cost and no reasonable way to move it, quashed that idea, the same for walnut shell blasting and even sandblasting.
I was left with the novel idea of doing it all myself. I got a small heavy table and whenever someone strong dropped by, I asked for help either lifting or moving one part at a time. A plastic tent was built to help control the dust from flying all across our studio. With a six inch wire wheel and with a hand drill and a stationary grinder, I managed to clean all of the bare metal parts. That part took several months of very part time work. Next I attacked the platen, rail, bed and rounce. It took me forever to decide on what paint to use and finally decided on Rust-Oleum semi gloss black. Some primer, slow careful painting and soon the press was looking better that I imagined. finally I refinished the wood parts and polished the brass finials which went on top of the frame. All this took about a year and a half. See pictures
There was still one more thing to be done, the press had no tympan nor frisket. I looked into having one made, but the cost was far beyond my means. After doing all the work I had the confidence that I could make one. Searching on the internet I found two sites where tympans and friskets were made by two clever individuals. It was doable. I spent several weeks figuring out what I needed and where to get them when once again I was the recipient of a major bunch of luck. When I originally purchased the press, the owner was worried that I was going to sell it off for parts. I somehow convinced him that I was going to restore it, and promised I would let him see the results. I sent him a picture of the press and mentioned that all I needed was to build the tympan and frisket. A week or so later I received a reply that he had the original tympan and if I wanted it to just come down and get it. The next day I drove to his place and he gave me a box with the tympan hinge and the wood parts of an old tympan frame. Upon returning home and looking at what I had, the end was in sight. To be continued...
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