Best Day of My Life

Monday and Tuesday were snoozers compared to today, so I'm not going to dwell on them for long.

Monday
Helped Alex edition Patrick's print. Watched baseball with Patrick (actually rooting for the Brewers against the Cardinals because it hurts the Cubs). Went into the studio around 9pm and stayed until 1am editioning the SNAP!!! print.

Tuesday
So tired. Had to be at Tamarind early to sponge for Brandon on the pro-side. It was a Jim Dine print but just a boring background flat so I was falling asleep. Had class with Marge. Learned about Contract work versus Publishing. Got our Workshop Proposal assignment for the end of the semester. Watched baseball, worked on proposal, went to bed early (10:30pm).

Wednesday
Best Day of My Life! I know that doesn't say much for the rest of my life... but it really was a great day. We finally got to go visit Takach Press Corporation which is located on the SW side of Albuquerque.



Make sure to click below. TONS of juicy pictures behind the cut!


For those of you not familiar with Takach Press, it is a family run company located in Albuquerque that builds printmaking presses, rollers and other miscellaneous printmaking equipment. They also supply inks, papers, drying racks, flat files, you name it. As their name implies, they are known for their lithography and etching presses. I'm not really sure how many other companies in the United States are currently making printing presses, but everyone I know that has either purchased a press or wants to purchase a press wants a Takach Press.

We arrived at Takach around 10:30 and were greeted by Dave Sr. Dave started the business back in the 70's when he was working as an Engineer at the University of New Mexico. According to the legend, he was approached by a couple of guys from Tamarind who wanted to build their own press. The press went over so well that soon other printmakers were asking Mr. Takach to build them presses. And before you knew it, he had quite a bustling business for himself and his family. Here's Dave Sr. with Dave Jr., discussing important business matters, I'm sure.



After introductions, we first looked at a couple of presses that were being assembled. Here is an etching press without the bed on it. To the left, you can see a smaller etching press with a captain's wheel instead of a crank.



At Takach they have most of the components of the presses made beforehand and then they are assembled as they are ordered. There were lots and lots of parts laying around:





Our next stop was the ball graining room where we watched Tamarind Professional Printer and Takach Employee Aaron Bass demonstrate how they grain aluminum plates for use in lithography. Again, for those of you non-printmakers, ball graining takes a smooth sheet of aluminum and puts a rough grain or tooth on it so that it can be drawn on with a litho crayon or used similarly to a litho stone. These are the types of plates we have been using in our projects so far this year.

Here is Dave Sr. next to the giant bed. The only thing I can think to describe it as is a huge billiards table on hydraulics with rubber lining it instead of felt. In this picture, you can see the ball bearings on the right side. The plates are the silver rectangles and the rubber bed is the red part.



I got pretty good video of the machine in action. You'll see that the machine is turned on and the ball bearings start to roll across the bed and agitate over the plates. At the end of the clip, you see Aaron pouring in water and aluminum grit to help with the graining process.

During the process, Aaron started throwing some sort of powder over the bed. I'm not sure what it was, but it looked good.



About fifteen minutes later, we came back and watched Aaron unload the plates from the bed. The machine tilted up and he scooped the ball bearings out of the way. Then he removed the plates and fed them onto a conveyor cleaning and drying system. According to Mr. Takach, as far as he knows, they're they only company currently making ball grained plates in the United States.



The next stop was the machine shop where we watched Dave's son, Keith, machine the rust off of a steel cylinder used on the presses. Here are some of the cylinders in their natural ugly state:



And here is Keith making them beautiful. Look closely and on the right of the drum you can see how shiny and sparkly it is.



We stopped into the wood shop area where we learned about the Takach Press beds and how they are assembled and sanded down to be ridiculously level. This is the sanding unit they devised. You see a bare press bed on the unit. The sander moves back and forth over the wood of the press bed and takes off a little bit at a time. Eventually, they mount some sort of aluminum and composite top layer to the wood.



On our way back through the shop we visited with a welder who was working on welding the inner-parts of an upper-drum for a press.



Another interesting thing at the welding station was the jig that they use to create the signature Takach press legs. The jig enables them to get the press legs welded together quickly and in the same configuration each time.



Our next stop was in the roller room to visit with Dave's son-in-law Joe. Joe and his son build the sweet Takach rollers and brayers that we all love to use. I think Mick is trying to slip one of those pretty brayers in his pocket.



Joe explained that the rollers are actually hollow metal tubes with rubber around the outside. Most of the weight from the roller comes from the rubber. Here are various sizes of the tubes waiting to be assembled into rollers and brayers:





And here are some with the rubber attached:



There was lots of other fun stuff laying around, but nothing quite as pretty as all the cans of ink just waiting to be shipped out to little printers all over the country:



After the tour, the Takach family was nice enough to treat us all to a delicious home-cooked meal. Dave Sr's wife, Helen and their daughter Peggy did all of the cooking and it was fantastic! Patrick sure did enjoy it anyway:



Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, we were given free t-shirts.

Okay! Okay! I'll buy a press from you. Geez. Twist my arm.

Seriously though, good marketing considering probably at least half of our group will drop $10-20K on one of their presses in the next five years.