From: Rod Fleming (rodfleming@sol.co.uk)
Date: 06/02/00-01:26:43 AM Z
Hi Emily Kate
Amazingly it seems you're right! I will have to turn the pile of raw
ingredients sitting in the garage into the finished article, obviously, and
put the result on my website.
Roughly speaking though, this is what you do;
You will need
1 old-fashioned clothes mangle- it needs to be the type with the cast-iron
chassis and the wooden rollers, not the later pressed steel/rubber roller
type. Mine has a roller width of 20inches BTW but this is not critical.
For the bed you need a sheet of steel at least 1/2 inch thick, but 5/8 is
better. This needs to be the width of the rollers and at least 36inches
long.This is because the plate is loaded into the press on one side of the
rollers, passed through, and then unloaded on the other. It is tedious to
have to wind the bed right out of the rollers on every pass, so it would be
better to have a bed that was too long rather than one that was too short. A
bed of 20x36 inch size will let you pass a 10x12 plate (remember that you
need to allow about 3inches all round for the paper.)
This sort of stock is expensive new through metal stockists, or if you know
of an industrial (not car) scrapyard, 5/8 boiler plate will do- but it MUST
BE FLAT. A fabricating welder is probably the best place to look for help,
and will help out with the other processes. Make sure you test your piece
with a straightedge in all directions. Clearly you want a nice, not rusty
piece.
When you have the plate cut, ask if you can have it plasma cut rather than
flame cut; this will introduce less tension into the metal (from heat) and
will also give a smoother edge- an edge cut on an automated plasma cutter
should be ready to use, a flame cut edge will need grinding. A lot! I
suggest that you have the leading and trailing top and bottom edges slightly
bevelled to reduce the chance of digging into the rollers when the bed is
wound in.
(Please take very great care when handling this plate- it would easily crush
your feet.)
You need a support system for the plate as it moves through the press. The
best thing is a couple of short lengths of roller track as used in factory
production lines, one on either side of the rollers, or you could use some
lengths of wheeled track. Again, this sort of thing you can hunt out at an
industrial scrapyard, or scrounge from local factories. The important things
are that the tracks or rollers are well enough supported to take the weight
of the bed, are levelled so that the plate is only just resting on the
bottom roller, and that they are long enough. Remember that the bed will
have to be wound right out of the rollers to add and remove blankets, so
don't skimp.
The whole needs to be fixed to a strong timber frame and well supported on a
workbench or table.
The plate runs, naturally, between the rollers. You may need to introduce
packing pieces under the mangle springs to up the pressure, or you may need
to buy heavier springs off the shelf, as the ones in it are quite old now.
BTW a tendency for the bed to "creep" its way over to one side or another
usually means the pressures are uneven.
That's about it for the basic version; I saw another which was pretty well
the same but the maker had taken the trouble to sleeve the wooden rollers
with thick-wall steel tube and then had had the assembly turned to true
concentricity. I think that was probably overkill, but remember that if your
rollers are very out of true you won't get an even pressure, and no matter
how much you adjust the pressures, the bed will creep and jam.
Hope this helps
Rod
----- Original Message -----
From: "emily kate" <mle_k8@hotmail.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 03:34
Subject: Intaglio homemade press
> > I have seen a couple of very effective table-top presses made from
> > old-fashioned cast iron clothes mangles, a sheet of 5/8 inch or so plate
> > steel (from an industrial scrapyard) and some home-made support runners
> for
> > the plate.
> >
> > Surprisingly cheap and surprisingly effective, and perfectly capable of
> > managing a 10x8 plate.
> >
> > I have not looked, but there's probably a set of drawings lurking about
on
> > the net somewhere.........
>
> i've been looking and looking, but can't track anything down.
> if anyone has any info on this it'd be appreciated, thanks! emily
>
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