Teaching your press to count November 14, 2007
A while back we came across a post on Briar Press about adding a counter to a C&P Pilot. While many people will tell you not to bother with adding a counter since the Pilot is not a production machine, we think that there is a place for one especially when printing more than just a few cards.
To our surprise, the C&P Pilot we purchased already had a counter installed on it which just goes to prove that even commercial printers had a use for counting on a Pilot. Here are a few pictures of the counter installed on our C&P in case you are interested in adding one to your press.
There are a few ways to install a counter and it is more about what kind of counter you have than anything else. If you’ve got a small one like ours then you could attach it to a bracket and screw the bracket to the feed board. The movement of the lever arm after each impression, when the press is fully open, will push the small lever of the counter thereby keeping track of the number of impressions you’ve made.
An alternative to a counter is to lockup a numbering machine in your chase in an area that doesn’t touch your print. The benefit with this method is that you can use the numbering machine whenever you want and it can be installed just as easy as a plate for printing. The drawback with the numbering machine is that it will limit the printable area of your press which might be a problem depending on your design.
As always, if you’d like more pictures of our setup or have questions for us, we’re here just send us an email or leave a comment.