Gordon Letterpress

Hello all! I just acquired a Gordon press I am assuming it is a new style Gordon judging that it has a throw off on it. The press moves freely just a little sticky from sitting in storage for the past 50 years. I am missing the chase, rollers, and trucks for this press. Being that these presses are a little less common I was wondering if the old style C&P rollers, trucks, and chase would work on my press.

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Since no one has offered to help you, I will ask a few questions aimed at getting an answer for you. I don’t have a Gordon press but maybe we can get someone else to chime in.

Could you post a picture or two?

Do you have an idea what size press it is?

What are the dimensions of the bed (the flat machined area below the ink disc)?

What is the distance between the two roller rails?

How wide are the roller rails?

I assume there are little “hooks” or “claws” cast into the bottom of the bed to hold the bottom of the chase?

Is there a chase clamp at the top of the bed in the middle?

Can you get an idea what size roller shafts the roller hooks have been run with? If nothing else you could buy a few bolts about 4 inches long and of different diameters at the hardware store, and hold the non-threaded part of the bolt up in the roller hooks, and see which one fits snugly but still can be rotated.

What is the distance between the outsides of a pair of roller hooks, measured across the press? (This, plus a little extra, will be the length of the roller shafts).

Once we know or can make an educated guess as to the size of the press, with the rest of the info requested above, we should be able to come up with a roller and truck combination which should work. The exact diameter of the rollers can probably vary a little, but once that diameter is chosen, the trucks have to be made to accommodate the chosen roller diameter.