The Artistamp Perforator Museum

Mail Art Groups

2011-12-05T11:22:00.001-08:00

I found mail art back in 2001 by joining a yahoo group called Artistamp Mailing List. The group of kindred spirits I found there have become cyber friends and a joy to share art with. If you are new to Mail art and don't know where to begin- try joining . Here are two groups that have tons of links to other groups
Artistamp Mailing list
International Union of Mail Artists

do YOU have a perforator you would like archived here?

2011-12-04T12:26:00.001-08:00

If you own a perforator and would like share it's story, Please email me ar btdart@gmail.com and I will post photos and your story about how you found it, where you got it or anything you would like to share about your perforator- thank so much

How come there isn't a commercial table top perforator available?

2011-11-27T10:48:00.001-08:00

The letterpress industry has boomed with talented amateurs learning to print and professionals who have purchased old table top presses, large presses and everything in between, and you would think that any type of binding equipment to support that industry would have a market . In the past, to find a perforator was like finding a needle in a haystack - It takes dedication and a lot of phone calls and emails.

As Mail artists we need to remember that perforators are binding equipment used by the printing industry and in the last 5 years, hundreds of print shops across the country have gone out of business. I was able to pick up a Rosback perforator in my small town and find a mail artist for it.

Now is the time to make phone calls. There are a few things you should know about the printing industry and the pressman and printers that own the perforators we want- They don't remember they have them most of the time and if they do liquidate their machines, they don't think those old machines are worth listing online- so call every print shop liquidation listing you can find- don't rely on lists of equipment

available. When I found mine, it was 3 phone calls to the same old guy in Chicago before I could get him to look in his old shop for the perforator he thought he might have.,I even offered to send him a batch of his favorite cookies - Seriously. After all I was asking him to find it, pack it up and ship it across the country- In the end I got my perforator and it's my pride and joy- and totally worth the hassle and time to find. If you want one, you have to do the leg work. One the biggest problems is shipping it to you from where ever you find it- It can cost as much or more than the perforator -And if you live is a small town, don't assume they don't exist there. Be bold, and good luck, may the force be with you.

cool stamp links

2011-07-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.stampnews.com/
http://research.moma.org/mailart/
http://www.linns.com/
http://www.cinderellastampsforum.com/

The National Postal Museum article on Early Perforation Machines

2011-05-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

National Postal Museum

154 Years ago last February The US introduced perforated stamps. Before that
one needed to use scissors to separate them-

Check out the National Postal Museum if you are ever at the Smithsonian - Then let me know how it was-

NEW PINS!!!!!

2010-10-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've just ordered new pins for my Perforator from Rosback, The salesmen was very helpful and even sent me this old ad for my perforator. The Pins were $158 for 250 + shipping. Actually more than I paid for the perforator- but I think they will add many more years to my perforators life and greatly improve it's perfing!

Latham Perforator 1907

2010-04-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

I found this in the publication "the Inland Printer"
a periodical for the printing industry. 1907

Where do I find a Perforator For Sale?

2010-04-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is the question I am asked the most. Several posts on this blog have information about where the owners found thier perforators. Ebay seems to be the place where most perforators show up for sale on the internet. In the past year I have had the opportunity to purchase 1 perforator in my town because a print company went out of business. I was able to purchase it and resell it the same day- I did'nt make a profit, I simply did not want to see it go to the dump and that is were it was headed.
Look for printing equipment sales, liquidations and check the equipment classified in the major towns near you on a regular basis. Light a candle, say a prayer. You never know it could help.

Dora (short for La Perforadora)

2008-09-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-10T19:33:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-10T19:30:00.001-08:00

Ben Mahmoud

2008-02-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-10T19:24:00.003-08:00

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

Jas W Felter Jas Cyberspace Museum

2008-02-10T19:22:00.001-08:00

Patented August 7, 1888

Do you know how old it is? patented Aug. 7, 1888.

Manual paper feed, foot pedel. Foot pedel broke when a visiting artist was using it - So I replaced the spring with one of those heavy duty rubber fasteners for trucks. (thick strip of rubber with an S hook at each end -works fine.

Has straight pins - took 2 of us to pick it up in Eastern Washington State (It had been located in a farm in Manitoba and delivered to Eastern Washington State where Ed Varney and I picked it up on a two day trip from Vancouver.
It was located via e-mail - sent to everyone I knew who might know where there was one. Took 4 of us to move it into the studio -Have cleaned it up and oiled the pins (98% of them were still there). Have not refinished it. I had some of the removable bars (which permit the pinsto depress) and had them cut to different sizes - to permit pre-determined lengths of perf lines to be created, up to the maximum of 19.5". I perf one sheet at a time - simply because I prefer the control.

Rubber Rabbit's Lapin

2008-02-10T19:20:00.001-08:00

My perforator which I call Lapin so that it fits in around here with all the bunnies!The photo is as it looked when I purchased it from a man retiring from the publishing business last year. He told a few other printers about it and I heard about it through this list and purchased it from him in Michigan; had it put on a pallet and shipped to me in Oklahoma. The shipping was five times the purchase price!

When it arrived it was dirty but not rusty or not working. However the printed decided to help me out and oil it, thus clogging all the pin-holes. By the advice of Greg Byrd and with my husband's help I dismantled the top, cleared each hole, reassembled and adjusted it so that it was level and it began to perf properly. However, years of unlevel perfing had really worn the pins so I contacted Rosback and was able to purchase replacement pins.I only put new pins in about half the top, as I don't perf anything that is 27 inches wide, and I use only one piece of backing paper to assure flat backs to my perfing. I can perforate anything between one and four sheets at a time. RubberRabbit

Ebay item 2003

2008-02-10T19:18:00.007-08:00

What make is it?   Rosback
Do you know how old it is? Manufactured after 1915
Please tell me how it works? for example,

Is it electric or manual? electricDoes it have a handle, or foot pedal?.

on/off switch
Straight pins?, Rotary Wheel?   Rotary
Is it table top or stand up?. Upright
How much does it weigh?   About 600 pounds

Did you refinish it? rebuild it? purchase extra parts etc.. Do not own
These were built to last, but since they are
electric, would require more maintenance than a manual model.
How long have you had it? Do not own it
Where did you find it?   Ebay auction item - Chicago area

Perforator listed on ebay on 2002

2008-02-10T19:13:00.003-08:00

What make is it?   Rosback
Do you know how old it is?   probably 1930
Please tell me how it works? for example, Is it electric or manual?   Electric

Does it have a handle, or foot pedal?.

Has a foot pedal that activates a single line perf
Straight pins?, Rotary Wheel?   straight-line
Is it table top or stand up?.   Upright
How much does it weigh?   About 600 pounds

Did you refinish it? rebuild it? purchase extra parts etc..   do not own

Have you done any upkeep?   do not own How long have you had it? This is currently for sale...$2,200
Where did you find it?   New York

Adde at Garterland

2008-02-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Adde at Garterland How it works:

1. Put a sheet of scrap paper under the

page(s) of artistamps to enable the chads

to fall out completely. In other words, to

result in sharply cut perforations

rather than a rough backside on the artistamp page(s).

2. Snug the papers up to the cast iron guide bar on its left.

3. Slide the page(s) of artistamps (backed by the scrap paper) under the line of metal
perforating pins.

4. Step on the foot pedal to lower the pins and pierce the
papers. Proceed to push the papers in further and step on the pedals again.Repeat. Turn the paper sideways to make perforations that run at right anglesto the original lines or in diagonal directions.

I usually perf only 1 or 2 sheets of artistamps at a time because I getsharper perforations that way. Also, if I make a mistake, only 1 or 2 sheets
don't look so great. Practice aides in accurate placement: It can be hard tosee exactly where the pins will come down and pierce the paper. If you leave
extra space between the artistamps, there's less risk of perfing into thestamp itself. Perhaps some people use pencil guide lines.My machine stands on cast iron legs. The wooden bed is oak. It did not need
refinishing or any other remedial work. It is hard to see in the JPEG, but
there's an identical flat oak table surface attached to the other (far) sideso that when the papers have been slid under the pins, they have a surface on
which to rest. The wooden corners can barely be seen in the photo. Under thetable, there is also a long, narrow wooden drawer that catches the chads.

I've had it for a couple of years. I bought it from a fellow member of ourlocal graphics art society. We sat at the same table at our annual dinner
meeting, and he casually mentioned he had an old cast iron flatbed press and
another antique item he didn't suppose I'd be interested in...a perforator. I
bought both.

Best,
Adde at Garterland

Arky of Toast

2008-02-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

Greg Byrd.Arky of Toast :

Perforator is being operated by Reed of State of Being. Greg was kind enough to send the perforator pictures and information about perforators #3 & #4

What make is it? Rosback

Do you know how old it is? Made in Chicago, Pat. 1888, but probably assembled about 1900,as the serial number is 4042

Please tell me how it works? for example, is it electric or manual? manual

Does it have a handle, or foot pedal?. foot pedal

Straight pins?,Rotary Wheel?   straight-line

Is it table top or stand up?. stand up

How much does it weigh?   about 300 pounds assembled

Did you refinish it? rebuild it? purchase extra parts etc..

It was stored in a wet space so was badly rusted. I completely refurbished it,

by disassembling it, cleaning the cast iron with a wire brush and the steel parts

with Rustoleum. I then repainted with an outdoor paint for metal, lubricated the

few moving parts, and reassembled it. The whole process took less than 4 hours, as this is a fairly simple machine.

Have you done any upkeep?   Not since initially refurbishing it.

How long have you had it?   Nearly 10 years

Where did you find it?   It came out from the Midwest.