Strong Arm Vandercook

All the way from America to western Europe this Vandercook has traveled, and it’s the latest big acquisition for the studio. She (I prefer to use the pronoun SHE as she’s got a strong arm) made it from Holland and was in the possession of a printer who passed on and whose wife decided the press should do the same. Now, she’s with me in Italy.

She arrived on a pallet in a cargo truck at my country home and got unloaded by a farmer’s tractor. So far so good, right? Then came the feat of getting her through the door into the downstairs studio space. The door was slightly narrower than the press! What to do... We could always break open the wall right?! Instead we decided that prying her handle off the crank would be the easier solution. We lubricated the heck out of those screws and after a week and consecutive days of lubrication, the arm slid right off.

Less of an issue, but one nevertheless was keeping the cylinder from sliding off to the floor as we forklifted her in through the door, we thought it best to remove it and then replace it after she was in. Graphic remnants and deep impressions of previous print jobs made by the Dutch printer was documented on the packing paper wrapped around the cylinder. It took two very able bodied men to lift that cylinder off and back on the press, but they did it! Next, lowering the hunk of love to the ground from the pallet. Friend and husband’s co-worker devised a simple plan which included an electric saw, tree stumps and a positive attitude.

HANDLE JUST CENTIMETERS TO WIDE TO FIT THROUGH THE DOOR

PREVIOUS OWNER’S PACKING PAPER WRAPPED AROUND THE CYLINDER

LOWERING VANDY FROM THE PALLET