Kluge & C&P

Hello all.

I am a letterpress newbe and instead of dipping my toe in the waters, I am diving right in. I just bought 2 presses:

a Kluge 10 x 15 autofeeder
and
a C&P 10 x 15

(don’t worry, I am lining up instruction for these beasts before I do anything as I want to keep all my filangies)

I am in the process of having them delivered and was wondering how much space I need around them to opperate them comfortably and to be able to get to them if work needs to be done. My garage isn’t huge and I don’t want to back myself in a corner, literally.

Thanks for the help.

- Court

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I’m running my Kluge now and have 18” on each side and the back with the press closed. That gives me access to all the oil holes and the pump. It’s tight but it works. I keep mine on a pallet I made so we can move it when needed but I’m 6’ 4” and the extra 6” is nice. We had a C & P a long time ago and I ran it with the same. This is tight. The more space the better. I feel you may need more space if your experience level is low. Good Luck!

Thank you so much. That is very helpful. After measuring, I should be able to get about 2 feet on all sides. Hopefully that’ll work!

Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

- Court

Court- Congrats on your new presses. Two feet all around should be perfect for service access.

About your relative newbieness and keeping your digits: You are wise to get proper instruction prior to operating these machines. The two you bought are infamous for their ability to bite.

I’d also like to caution you to secure the flywheel with a bungie cord prior to working on them. Some old machines have a tendency to rotate unexpectedly, and can bite you even if you are not printing….. The bungie-cord routine has saved me more than once. (Actually, even a lever press like a Pilot can move unexpectedly if not secured. Not too long ago, I was working on my Sigwalt and nudged the lever just wrong…. causing it to flip up and blacken my eye! Yikes!)

Congrats,

I started with a Kluge 10x15 a few months ago, if you have any specific questions about it maybe I can help you, from one beginner to another. Also there is a guy on ebay named dcshop that sells original manuals for the kluges.

>…that sells original manuals for the kluges.

But look on the Boxcar site first, as they’ve posted PDFs of a lot of manuals, including for the Kluge.