Dora (short for La Perforadora)

Boog Highberger sent in these pictures of Dora his perforator - Thanks Boog 

Dora (short for La Perforadora). One shot shows her in her natural habitat and the other shows her being transported by mad bicycle scientist Eric Farnsworth to a local (Lawrence, Kansas) collective art space called The Percolator (http://lawrence-percolator.blogspot.com/), where she was the star of a show on mail art & artistamps this May. She was made by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler,  and I would guess that she is around 100 years old. I got her from a local printer named John Naramore, who had bought it at a going-out-of-business sale at a small Kansas print shop & had had it sitting in his barn for years.

Great project- it was fun reading about other people's machines. I think everyone should have one, and I wish it were possible.

Boog Highberger

Brian Queen, Castle Paper & Press

Brian Queen, Castle Paper & Press

   This is my Franklin brand straight pin perforator which is similar to a Rosback and about the same age, roughly 100 years old and operated via a foot pedal. I purchased it for $300 from a printing equipment dealer in Toronto and had it shipped across the country to Calgary where it now resides in my studio. It perforates a line 20” long with 303 pins but 50 of them were missing so I purchased the minimum 500 pins from Rosback and replaced them all. My pins are 40 thousands of an inch in diameter while the holes in the bottom plate measure 45 to 55 thousands of an inch which indicates that this machine has perfed a lot of holes! As a result I get mostly hanging chads unless I use a backing sheet. A friendly engineer at Rosback told me that the holes should only be 1 thousands of an inch larger than the pins so I’m looking into having a new die plate machined to complete the restoration.

   The front and back plywood boards were in bad shape and not original so I replaced them with MDF but these new boards clash with the antique look of the rest of the machine so I plan on replacing them with stained solid wood boards.

 

B Anne Envelope's Table Top Perforator

 What make is it? Rosback. How old is it? I sent a picture to the Rosback Company and a representative contacted me and said that it was between 75-100 years old. It's a hand operated table top. It weights 30 pounds and has a 12" row of pins.

 I bought it from a gentleman in Illinois for $150.  I haven't refinished it. It does have some problems with the veneer surface of the table  that I may fix. I've had it  since Jan.2002.   Bev Dittberner

The Whizbang - Loon Island Post Office

Ben Mahmoud

Here is what I did to get my perforator.  I called the largest bindery supplier in Chicago. When I explained what I wanted, he lost interest immediately.  No wonder.  However, I pushed him to give me information about where I might find an old Rosback.  He gave me a name.  That's all. I called information in Chicago to no avail.  Then I started calling info in the suburbs.  Third call was a hit.  Called an old fellow that bought and sold old printing and bindery equipment.  He had a Rosback, and wanted $150for it.  All I had to do was drive 40 miles to get it, and dust it off.

Kathy Phelps Omn at Illusionaria

This perforator (manual, foot pedal, straight line, pinhole) is a Rosback. Just a guess, but because its plate says it was made in Chicago, I think it
might be at least 97 yrs old, as the Rosback Company moved from there to Benton Harbor, MI in 1905.  There's also another tiny add on plate which
states, Sold by American Type Founders Sales Corporation, Branches Everywhere.
I first heard of this machine (located in IL) in late February of this year (2002) via information I read on the Artistamp Mailing List. The perforator was in good shape when it arrived (in NE via shipping truck) except for its three tables (front, back, top) which had been poorly replaced with plywood scraps.  My husband cut new hardwood which we stained and varnished.  We made the tables a bit smaller than the originals might have been, mainly to save space.  I esp like the top table, which can be optionally lifted off along with its hardware.We didn't do any other refurbishing, except for washing off the iron parts with soap and water.  (There are a few small areas where the paint is starting to peel a bit ... maybe *some* day we'll take it apart and repaint it. ;-)

It came with all of its pins, though I'm hoping to buy a new set from the Rosback Company to lay away until needed.  The current pins do a good job; a couple of backing sheets take care of any hanging chads.

Omm at Illusionaria

Bill & Kathy Porter The Olathe Poste

Our perforator was manufactured and shipped new to the B.B. & Spindler Co. of Omaha, Nebraska on December 21, 1916. The unit still operates today, as it did then, with a 220 Volt a.c., 3-phase electric motor.  Everything is original.  Kathy and I spent a week cleaning it, tinkering with it, a local electric motor shop cleaned 85 years of crud from within the motor and adjusted it for proper, 1100rpm operation and, Kathy refinished the table tops to furniture quality.  

The pin-holes are .0415" diameter (approx. 1/24th of an inch O.D.) and spaced approximately 1/32" apart.  We have purchased replacement pins for it and discovered how to make it just as new in the perforating dies as the day it rolled off the assembly line at Rosback (in Benton Harbor, Michigan), for clean, crisp perforations.Our perforator is an F.P. Rosback EXTRA HEAVY MOTOR DRIVE POWER PERFORATOR (Rosback's original name for it).  From their literature, it is "similar in general appearance to the 28-inch Rosback Footpower Perforator."   This particular model perforator was manufactured to customer motor requirements and was made available with either a.c. or d.c. voltages. t's a sweetheart and we are truly proud of it!  (And I hate to say this, but Kathy can actually do a better job at perforating with it than I can.  It must be because she takes more time and doesn't need eyeglasses (yet) for the close-up work.)

Bill Porter ~ The Olathe Poste