Brazing Friday

Jason reinstalled this sheet deflector on the Heidelberg 13x18 before I could snap a good pic of his repair. This photo doesn’t capture his resourceful but tidy work. He’s been refining his brazing skills at home when working on his bicycle (he has experimented lately by building custom racks and attaching brake bosses, etc) so his skills came in handy after the bracket on the sheet deflector snapped off. He did a great job - his repair blends nicely with the other brazed parts over the 60 year history of this press - it’s hard to find a machine from this era which has not been repaired in this manner. Carefully inspecting a machine of this vintage is like reading a guest log book. If you look closely, you’ll see the signatures of craftspeople from previous generations. When an operator is up against a tight deadline, they’ll do what it takes to keep the press moving, and will find a resourceful way to make it happen. It’s part of the job, part of the commercial craft printing tradition. Now Jason’s signature is on the craftsperson-log-book for the 13x18 Heidelberg platen.

Other happenings: Eric is finishing up the second spot color run of a “Heritage CD Cover”, we’re die-cutting tape cassette blank packaging (Brad Pack in Black) for SP Blanks, Rebecca is busy getting print estimates out (sorry for those of you who have been waiting for a couple of days), Jobs are getting QC’d and ready for shipping, I’m on pre-press duty and am prepping jobs for film and plates, and we’re hoping Chris Chen will stop in later so we can celebrate his future journeys. (though, he’ll always work at Stumptown Printers, no matter what he does)