New cabinet!

Funny how things work.... On Sunday, I went with some volunteers (Bob Cmarik, Lauren Emeritz and Eric Karlins) to go pick up a donated "freestanding platen press." I pictured something like this:

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a tabletop platen press - and in very poor condition:

Since we already have 3 tabletop presses that still require work, we declined the donation. We ended up taking something that is actually more useful - an empty type cabinet to house our various loose drawers.

An action shot of Bob and Eric loading it into Bob's truck:

And the cabinet in it's new home:

(Still could use a little elbow grease to clean it up a bit!)

Thanks again to Bob, Lauren and Eric for their help!

Maintenance Day photos!

Huge thanks to all the volunteers that braved the 20 degree weather and came out to our maintenance day:

Beth Schaible, Steve Cole, Aly Hurt, Beck Levy, Bob Cmarik, Jamillah Abdullah, Angelica Temoche, Bea Jackson, Robin Childers, Elizabeth Levenson, Marty Ittner, Daniel Zadorozhnny and Morgan Ward. 

Apologies for the poor photo quality... I forgot my camera and was stuck taking pictures with my phone!

Here's Aly and Elizabeth working at cleaning the bed and bearings of the Universal 1:

Look at the gunk they scraped off:

Here's Steve and Beck cleaning the 4T's lockbar's disassembled parts:

Nice and shiny! Wish I'd taken a "before" shot...

Former Letterpress Associate Beth Schaible working with Bob and Jamillah on the 4T:

Screenprinting Associate Marty Ittner swept and mopped the floor between and behind the presses:

Thanks, Marty!!

It's hard to believe that with all the hours and elbow grease we put in today, the presses could still use a lot more! We hope to have another maintenance day in six months or so to really get these guys in tip-top shape. Melanie, Leslie and I hope to see you at the next one!