Antique No. 6 arbor press/vise?

[Thrumcap]

Howdy all

I spotted this item on the Net, but I don’t think it’s an arbor press! It looks more like an elongated book press to me. Or perhaps not.

Has anyone seen of these in the wild and knows what it is? Says No. 6 on the backplate and a patent date of 1873.


Cheers

Thrumcap

 

[Roberts210]

It's a specialized press of some kind. It's not a book press--book presses are much lower in height so a thick or thin book can actually be pressed when the screw is extended down.

 

[Bigbandguy]

I'm pretty sure it is a padding press... a very nice heavy duty one . Pads of 100 sheets or so separated by a chipboard back are stacked in the press and clamped... looks like that one works from the front. Once clamped, glue is painted on the edge and after drying the pads are trimmed and pulled into individual pads.

Later versions (and maybe this one) locked the material into a removable chase so that more material could be padded faster .

This could easily be a shop built version made by a printer. The pads for things like ticket books, prescription pads, etc are made that way. It could also be used for binding publications like a magazine or catalog bound in the same way as pads. Thats just a guess as I could not find a padding press with an acme thread clamp like that.