Quad guides on a Sigwalt Ideal

Hi All,
I’m ashamed to admit this but I have the hardest time putting my lovely quad guides in place on the tympan because my knuckles get all inky and I can’t see well and the darn edge just tears up my careful slit. I end up taping some makeshift device made out of cardstock or whatever is at hand. I do ok on the side because I can get at it. Does anyone have any tips? Is this a particularly Sigwaltian problem? I’m using traditional tympan waxed yellow paper. I wonder if I used mylar, would it be easier?
Lynn

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You’re talking about the adjustable quad guides as made by Kort or Gardner? Some have bevelled edges, others blunt edges (harder to install). With the blunt-edge guides I always check first to see they open wide enough, and make sure there are no shreds caught inside. I line up the guide at the sheet edge mark drawn on the topsheet, and pencil in another mark 12 or 15 points from the bottom of the guide. Then I cut slits, say, 16 to 18 points from sheet edge and the lower, and with the knife I work the slits up, stretching slightly and separating the topsheet from the underpacking. Place guide into the lower slit first, then forward into the upper slit and lock in position. You push on it to see if there is any slippage.
Lay out the marks carefully, since there is only a small range of adjustment using the slits. For that reason I tend to use Double-grip gauges; the slits can be extended up or down without affecting feeding much. But for heavy stock, long runs, or jobs needing minimal repositioning, the adjustable quad guides are hard to beat.

As with most tabletop presses, there’s very little room to get the gauge pins in place. Using mylar instead of tympan won’t help—it’s that there’s no room to stick your hand in there!

Try setting the pins without the chase or rollers on the press—that should give you a little more room.

Good luck!
Kelly

Why not remove the tympan to place the paper guides? It’s easier to see and easier to avoid tearing the slit, because you can lift the tympan to get a better angle on it. Or if you don’t want to remove it for some reason, just opening the front paper bail helps quite a bit too.
Lisa

Parallel imp,
I have Kort quad guides and they have bevelled edges. The front opening is so tight. I put an edge of a blade in and gingerly tried to pry it open but was afraid I might break it. I’ll try backing it in and prying up the tympan and see if that helps. What is a double grip gauge? I also have the cheaper more commonly seen gauge pins but I seriously can’t work with those.

Mayday studio—I like the idea of removing the chase but removing the rollers with ink on them—not so much. It’s ironic that when you get the rollers up and out of the way the press is in the closed position!

Lisa, I don’t understand—you would remove the tympan and then put it back on with the gauge pins in it? How would you get it in the exact same position? I do like the idea of working on it where you could see better. I guess one could set the pins and then adjust the form in the chase? I read a tip somewhere about using four quoins in the form so you could shift the printing area a little bit…

Thanks for the tips, everybody!

Portraitpainter, yes, you mark with a pencil where the paper guides should go; then remove the tympan and place it over a self-healing mat on your well-lit table, insert the guides, and replace the tympan. If it’s not in the exact same position, you can adjust the guides accordingly. Unless I’m missing something here …
Lisa

Thanks Lisa,
Your idea is so crazy yet obvious—I’ll have to try it! Perhaps there’d be a way to make marks somewhere to help guide getting the tympan back in place. I’m getting ideas….
Lynn

Hey, Lisa!
I tried removing the tympan and inserting the guides. It was so much easier to insert. I got an idea to use a piece of mylar cut the same size as the tympan. All I had on hand was some thinnish transparency type sheets which were not as large as the tympan. I marked by seeing through it where the guides would go and inserted the guides off the press and then taped the sheet right over the image on the tympan. It was easy to line up and the registration was perfect. I’ve since then gotten some heavier acetate and something called duralar to try out as a sort of tympan overlay. The overlay allows for lining up the print area exactly where it should be and wipes clean easier than the traditional tympan. I love the idea of shifting the paper/tympan rather than endlessly adjusting the guides and getting ink all over myself. Thanks, again. Lisa!!

Someone taught me to use carbon paper to help achieve the initial layout. Avoids the “ink everywhere” problem.

Preston

Hi Preston,
So how would you use the carbon paper? Would you tape it onto the tympan to make an impression on that?
I certainly appreciate everyone’s suggestions and I’ve been trying all the ideas out.

Taping onto the tympan would work (so that the tympan is marked by the impression). Basically you want it in place of the ordinary paper, with the carbon facing the tympan. After making an impression to mark the tympan, remove the carbon paper and use your mylar trick. Same thing really, just avoid the ink.

Preston

Taping onto the tympan would work (so that the tympan is marked by the impression). Basically you want it in place of the ordinary paper, with the carbon facing the tympan. After making an impression to mark the tympan, remove the carbon paper and use your mylar trick. Same thing really, just avoid the ink.

Preston