It certainly is hard to not stumble across the Adana series of printing presses when looking into Letterpress. In 1922 Donald Aspinall set up the Adana Agency to design and manufacture small tabletop platen presses, aimed at both a hobby and small commercial market. Several variations of the presses were created and continued to be manufactured well into the 1980s until digitization finally took its toll. Caslon purchased the company and brand in 1987, and due to a resurging interest in Letterpress, began to manufacture a brand new version of the most popular press, the Eight-Five (referring to the size of the chase, 8 inches by 5 inches), in 2017.1
I had certainly had seen Adana presses floating around before – the technician in the University workshops had several on display on top of his bookcases, and many small-scale practitioners make use of the Eight-Five to great effect. They are pretty bulletproof little machines according to some who use them, and incredibly capable considering their size. As such the demand for these presses is still competitively high, with a good quality Eight-Five easily going for £450-£500 online.
One afternoon chatting to a letterpress printmaker, the conversation turned to the Adana presses, and he mentioned that he had a smaller variation collecting dust in his studio and said very kindly that, if I could repair it and make use of it, I was welcome to. The effort and expense of putting it back to operating order would be impractical for him but could make a great little project for me.
What I therefore now find myself in possession of is a Five-Three – practically identical to the Eight-Five, only with a much smaller chase size, but still with the same platen operation and self-inking mechanism.
Cool or what though!
As I think about what to do, I am faced with two ways to potentially approach this as a project. I can do a classic nuts-and-bolts restoration to put this little press back to as it would have been brand new from the factory. Alternatively, I can use this as a research task, applying my practice to the restoration and giving it some of my style.
I think we all know, it’s going to be option 2.
Reviewing the starting point
Before I do anything to the press at all, the best thing to do is to take stock of the starting point and to document thoroughly.
Searching online at pictures of other presses, and finding the original instruction manual on an owners group webpage, I can tell that the press is mostly intact.
The most obvious missing components would be the inking rollers and the axle trucks that go with them – which isn’t all that surprising, almost always these are long gone for any that come up for sale, or the rubber has perished so that they are completely unusable. Caslon thankfully does make replacements, though they do cost a bit, and aren’t always in stock. I have already elected to just straight up buy new rollers – it isn’t worth messing around trying to make or cast my own, I can guarantee that I’ll waste more time and money trying than to just get some professionally made.2
The runners however I have chosen to not purchase (which I may later come to regret). These are turned steel wheels that bring the rollers up to type-high and ride on bearer strips that sit on either side of the chase block. As these are fairly simple, I’m going to try and either turn now ones myself or to 3D print replacements, for which there is precedent online of others already doing.3
Aside from the roller assemblies, what also appears to be missing is the paper gripper – a metal arm that during the print cycle helps to hold the paper against the platen and prevent it from sticking to the inked type when the mechanism opens back up. This again shouldn’t prove too difficult to replicate or source.
According to the Caslon parts manual for the Eight-Five, these are the same on both presses, and there are people selling spares online (including 3D printed versions).4 However there may be a better/alternative way to explore, as the metal gripper arms were notorious for crushing the type of an unwary operator.5
Restoration versus Renovation
Restoration would be to put everything back exactly as it was – renovation would be to take what was and “improve” upon it.
This forms quite a key idea in my approach to my work, and my putting quotation marks around “improve” is deliberate. What I decide is an upgrade upon an original may well be down to opinion, or may well turn out to be the wrong decision as new knowledge is gained. There is an argument for restoration as it preserves originality to be passed on to others and future custodians of, in this case, the little Adana press.
In my opinion, this creates a form of gatekeeping, keeping this object held in time at the point of its creation for the purposes of preservation. Instead, this is a tool that was designed to be used – and through use, it may well have been adapted to suit the needs of its operator. To continue to be used, the same may have to happen. If I could not buy the rollers, then I would have no choice but to adapt others not designed for this press to fit in order to make it operate again – rendering it unoriginal, but useable for its original purpose once more.
Let me know in the comments your thoughts!
References & Resources
1 – “Adana: About Us” – https://www.adanaletterpress.co.uk/about-us-1-w.asp
2 – “Genuine Rollers and Runners” – https://www.adanaletterpress.co.uk/genuine-rollers–runners-4-c.asp
3 – “Unofficial Adana Rollers” – https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/203243290642
4 – “Adana Eight-Five Spare Parts Breakdown” – http://www.caslon.co.uk/Adana_8_x_5_Spare_Parts_Breakdown.pdf
5 – “Small Presses: Getting the most from the least” – https://britishletterpress.co.uk/letterpress-guides/printing/the-process-of-printing/small-presses-getting-the-most-from-the-least/
