Model Printing Press

This project, by Uchicago undergrads Evan Mayer and Andrew Jaffe, was a class assignment for HIPS 17400: Science, Culture, and Society with professor Adrian Johns.

Evan says:

“Andrew Jaffe did all of the 3D modeling except for the movable type (by me). His design is based on a combination of a few types of 17th century printing presses, taking the most cues from the Blaew press. I set up and oversaw most of the 3D printing, being more familiar with the Makerbots. There were four print jobs, each in excess of 6 hours, which opened us up to issues with print head jamming. Our greatest challenges were minimizing large part warping and attaining the correct tolerances for slip fitting parts in the assembly (especially the movable type). Further iterations could cut down on the considerable post-print filing and sanding to this end.”