Two Sigwalt Chicago 10s
I acquired two Sigwalt Chicago 10s in poor condition a couple of months ago, one had a complete gripper mechanism and on the other the gripper mechanism had broken off.
I cleaned up the one missing grippers and used 152 photopolymer plates stuck onto hot foil base and it worked a treat. The disk was missing so I hand inked and not having grippers I could easily access the packing.
I didn’t need two presses so I sold this one on and cleaned the other press. I am disappointed with the more complete one as the grippers cannot be moved out of the way or removed so I’m losing nearly 15mm off the width of the chase print area. Also the grippers are in the way when opening the packing.
I’m thinking of removing the grippers. The screws on the two grippers and the opening cam can be loosened and I presume I can then knock out the shaft they sit on. Has anybody done this?
A point that may be of interest to other Sigwalt 10 or 11 owners is that I found to get to kiss impression with the handle pushed right down I put a thick rubber tap washer on the bed retaining screw. Both of the 10s had thin fibre washers and the platens never closed to the full extent.
Okay - I’ll comment on this one. The Number 10’s are single roller presses - toys to play around with and keep for parts. I say sell the second press and buy a Kelsey Model N 3x5 on ebay. Your photopolymer base will work quite well with proper adjustments to the platen. I have both Sigwalt and Baltimores No. 10 & 11. I don’t use ‘em - collector items I guess. Get serious - otherwise all you have is a letterpress rubber stamp printer.