For nearly a year, we poured ourselves into our second Pearl press. Stripping, sanding, priming, painting, repainting, sourcing parts. This weekend, all the parts were in. The brand new rollers. An original crank. A new connecting rod. Everything was in our hands. Saturday night, our press was finished. Done.
Only, if you follow us on twitter, you know those words have a much different meaning than we could have ever dreamed.
After the last bolt was in place, we added packing, put on a plate and spun the wheel. On about the third spin, there was a deep + loud pop. Kacey slowly spun the wheel again inspecting the mechanics of the press. He took a look at the paper it had just printed. The impression wasn’t even. He looked on the side of the press and there it was. A crack clean down the body of the press.
All of that hard work. All of the money. Gone. The crack too significant and beyond repair. And we never saw it coming. It spun fine all along. Saturday night, though, adding the packing and the pressure of the plate just did it in. We are heartbroken.
It’s finished. Done.
