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Hi John. I made a mistake with a date in the previous comment. I went to Cape Insulation in 1971 with Bob Webb and not George Meredith, I went there with George the previous year,1970. The Cape Insulation works was in Stirling, Scotland. Chippy Aston.
(Ed: Regrettably, no photos available of the Cape Insulation press). John B
Hi John! I remember THIS one, I started the build of this press in the new fitting shop! Why is Geoff Davies in the photo, it should have been me, and is that my ‘black box’ he’s standing on! Hee! hee! I can only assume that Geoff came over to help on the build and was around at the time the photo was taken. I had a lot of problems setting up the press frame and getting it level; that was until I found that, I’m sure, someone had loosened one of the retaining nuts on the block level for a prank, and so no matter what I did, I was never going to get it levelled correctly! I can’t remember how I found out what the problem was, but I seem to remember Pete Sutton was getting a bit agitated as to how long it was taking me to set it up. So maybe he had a look at things and found the lose nut, I really don’t remember. I do remember Mary, the crane driver, getting somewhat fed up with me asking her to lift the frame up and down for me to change the packing under it, she could be quite ‘vocal’ sometimes! As can be seen in the photo, the frame was made of large plates clamped together with tie rods and spacers. There were four cylinders to raise the platens. From what I remember, it was a fairly simple press design, a frame, four cylinders, platens, pump and pipework. Also at the side were the steam pipes for heating the platens, and these would move like a knuckle joint as the press went up and down. I can’t remember who installed the press once it was finished, but I know it wasn’t me, maybe Geoff did it? Are you out there Geoff, if so, let us know! I remember I went up to Cape Insulation with George Meredith to work on the 3 column press they had for pressing asbestos boards in the summer of 1971, so maybe it went to site at that time. I still have my trusty old ‘black box’!! Chippy Aston.
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