This popped up in the mimeograph facebook-world a few weeks ago and Chris, the person making the offer, requested I post it here. If you’re in Southern California and looking for a free mimeograph machine, read on!
FREE TO A GOOD HOME in Southern California: A new old stock AB Dick 565f electric mimeograph that was made (probably) in the 80s, and was military surplus. The machine is assembled and working with caveats: 1) the rear panel (backof the machine) is cracked and falling off (the plastic became brittle with age and broke in the packing box.) Doesn’t affect function of the machine and you can jerry-rig something to keep the panel in place. 2) the connection mechanism from the drum to the rotating mechanism was also bent in shipping. I have bent it into position as best I can with pliers — it mostly stays put — but occasionally the drum will dislodge while running copies. If you are smarter and more mechanical than I am, I am sure you can figure out how to fine-tune it. 3) this particular model is a variant that only uses fluid ink — not paste ink. There is paste ink inside the drum because I didn’t know it was a fluid ink unit until I had already squeezed a tube of paste ink inside. So it will probably need to be hosed out and cleaned — and I have no idea how to do that. But when I ink up the ink pad manually, it makes great copies. Also — it is RIDICULOUSLY heavy. There is no shipping this thing — it barely survived the shipping to me in the first place. I hate to get rid of it but it takes up too much space. So if anyone in SoCal wants to drive to L.A. and pick it up, you can have it. Otherwise, sadly, it’s going to end up in the trash…
If this is something you’re interested in, please leave a comment below and I’ll pass your email address on to Chris.
2 replies on “Free to a good home in SoCal”
Having no idea what that unit looks like, I went looking, and found…
https://www.etsy.com/ca-fr/listing/787387017/rare-antique-ab-dick-company-mimeograph
(No drum? not all there??)
and a company called TZSupply evidently has some “newer” units occasionally.
My crowd collects lawn mowers… I understand the problem… 😀
The one in the picture that you found is an earlier AB Dick model (manual, not electric). And, well, you know me, I don’t ultimately know a whole lot about the different makes and models. There’s one of the mimeo-clan in The Netherlands, though, Erwin Blok, who knows everything Gestetner inside and out. He’s a force of nature and a walking encyclopedia. Pretty darned unbelievable to see his shop and hear him talk about the machines he’s working with. Anyway, if you know anyone in Southern California who wants one of these things…