For the past year I've been wanting an old printing press. My life is surrounded by technology and I needed something more analog to occupy my time so I figured this would be a neat project. The problem however was actually finding a working printing press since most got destroyed when computers started taking over. I researched a lot of presses and got it narrowed down to a few models I'd settle for but like I said, it's not like there's an abundance of them around. I tracked down a guy that collected printing presses and had a few of the ones that I really liked so I emailed him to see if he'd want to sell off some of his collection. I was actually surprised to find out that he was just about to start downsizing. He was located 7hrs away in St. Louis so I made the trip over Thanksgiving weekend. The press was a mess, covered in 100+ years of oil/grease/dust/funk but it worked and it was complete so that was the main thing.
The press weighs around 500lbs and is an absolute bitch to take apart. I spent the last month cleaning and getting it presentable. I wanted it to be the focal point in my home office so I totally redid the room as well to really set the press off. Now I just have to learn how to use it.
Watch my inspiration on Linotype:
