Wednesday 23 October 2013

Letterpress: Pimp Ur ADANA

Adana eight-five from 1953
Have you had ever the idea to print a book with your Adana 8/5?
Have you be frustrated because of the limitation of the printing-size?
I've been so. So I started pimping my Adana.
1. I made a block of wood in the size of the original Chase.
2. At the same place, where are the pins in the Chase, at the sides of the block I made a hole and turned 2 screws into. Then I cut the heads of the screws, but let a pin of 3 mm looking out of the side. I used 4.2mm screws, 4.9mm would fit better.
3. Removed the upper Inking Roller.
4. Put the block of wood into the slots of the Type Bed
5. Very careful, I watched the way of the single Inking Roller and sanded the block parallel to the Roller Bearer.
6. Took it off again and glued a piece of photopolymer in the size of 20 x 12 cm on the block.
7. Put ink on the Disk, inked the Roller and the Ink Disk smoothly.
8. Put the block with the letterpress-plate into the Adana again... and start printing!

The wooden block with "pin" and letterpress-plate.
As block I used 22mm wood, the letterpress-plate is about 1.5 mm.

One print in 20 x 12 cm = two pages... means book making with fun. For this test, I used the same text two times ;-)



Adana with the wood-block in the size of the Type Bed.

Indeed, a better size of the letterpress-plate would be 20.5 x 11.5 cm. 12 cm is a little bit too long, but the Roller could ink 20.5 cm!
  
What will come next?
I'm thinking to enlarge the both Roller Bearer... we will see...

It would be nice, to read about your experience with your Adana.