ADANA QFB - Quarto Flat Bed

I spotted this on eBay and just couldn't resist even though it's not a looker! It's an earlier model of the Adana QH. You can see more pics here on my flickr

After reading through John Ryder's Printing for Pleasure in which he talks about this machine I really fancied one, never thought I'd find one!! I should be able to print up to A4 size now with my wood letters and hopefully some lino cuts (when I get the time).

I have a mentor John who's a retired compositor who's helping me with my presses so I took my Kelsey and the Adana over for him to take a look at, the Kelsey's working like a dream and I was doing everything right but it took us a while to get a good impression on the Adana. We tried all the packing techniques it said in the manual, make ready, everything but just got inconsistent results until John came up with the idea of using some spongy old litho blanket and then an off cut of some vinyl cushion flooring (with the spongy side facing the type) which worked even better!

I printed this card for my friend (who by the way looks fabulous and not a day over 30) and I did a few extra to try in my shop when I finally decide on my name!

The manual for this press is available on Briar Press

Letterpress SWISS Packing

For my packing on the press I was so confused with all the info on the net and where to get it from so I decided to try Swiss Packing from Happy Dragon Press. All the info is on their website but it basically consists of a top sheet of fogged x-ray film which can be used for several jobs and a bottom sheet of second-hand litho blanket, for the in between use whatever if right for the job, 2 or 3 sheets of hard (eg tracing paper) for metal or soft (eg. newspaper, blotting) for wood, nylo or lino cuts. The packing is designed to resist wear on your type and press!

My packing arrived accompanied by a lovely letterpressed newsletter and list of display faces they have for loan, plus some notes for using my packing. They are really helpful and if your having any problems they'll be happy to give you some advice.

I've done some experimenting which I'll post shortly and anybody out there tried any other packing techniques let me know how it's going and what you use!

You'll notice (TOP PIC) on my Kelsey I have 2 bails on my Platen to hold my packing in place which is really easy, on the Adana it seams a lot more fiddly!