Stamping press

I’m looking at getting this press, it’s a Modern steel die & plate stamping press, it has not been used for about 10 years but complete and has many dies that comes with it. What is the pros and cons on this press ? I’m new to this but it looks you can do some nice work on this press.

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If you want to use it for it’s intended purpose, to stamp (diecut) shapes out of thin steels etc, you’re in the wrong Forum. Move over to Practical Machinist.

If you intend to Print with it, you’re in the right forum with the wrong Press. Only it’s cheap doesn’t mean you can repurpose it for printing. The Throat clearance doesn’t allow type in it.

Read this site, there is, following the Index, enough information to give you an inkling of what you need and what printing entails.

Can’t tell from the pic but is this a press for steel engraving? looks like paper roll to clean ink of plate.,
Not much of a market for steel engraving these days
“casting pearls at swine”

The Modern is an engraving press, and in no way a die cutter. This would be an excellent press to produce engraved work but from Rozahills previous posts and my correspondence with this individual, its use may not be fully understood. The press looks complete with die wipe still in place, and with existing dies to experiment with and some advice from someone who is in the engraving business, this could work nicely—but not for letterpress.

Several printers have added engraving to their offerings and it expands the options. The engraving field is still supported by the Cronite Co. This press can use both the standard 1/2” thick steel dies or the thinner copper plate dies. Here’s a link to what a typical steel die looks like:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53177163@N00/4458889383/lightbox/

This is about 6 x 7 picas in size and is the logo for a Colorado railroad from the WW I era, but still very usable, and resides in my desk drawer.

Fritz

️️Thks for all the insight, yes my interest in the early Industrial age is where I’m going and try to preserve the history of some of the lost trades, I have tooled leather and love old iron so I’m sure I can tool steel lol thks fritz yes I have interest in railroading too!

And the picture is of the back of the press. It is hand fed from the other side we can’t see. This has an ink fountain that can be seen in the picture.

Fritz

Here is the front and some of the dies

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Indeed, a nice press and a useful collection of dies, all wrapped according to the proper engraving protocol, except for the unwrapped ones. Usually there are a lot of business cards and envelope return addresses that are of little use unless there is still an active customer for that die. Some of those dies are for a larger press and there are a number of 2 color dies. Engraving done on cards on a small press like this one are done 2 up meaning one impression on each end of the card. This leaves finger room for feeding so that the card is run through once, then start over and run the remaining blank spot through a second time, and when dry, cut apart. There is no margin for error on feeding one of these—a finger caught in the impression cycle will be smashed beyond recognition, and that is the serious safety concern.

fritz