What Comes After The Swift Cold Gluing Machine?
Posted: Friday, September 03, 2010
by Richard Norman
eden workshops
About 8 years ago J.M.Campbell of Glasgow went out of business. For many years they had been the manufacturer of the Swift Cold Gluing Machine.
The Swift cold gluing machine was a reliable old workhorse, simple in design and operation; it was used by many thousands of people around the world.
You can still find a Swift cold gluing machine second hand, but they are rare and you have to be in the right place at the right time. Spares are still sold by Norman Haynes Ltd.
But is there life after the Swift? What new cold gluing machine will step into the Swift's shoes?
There are 6 manufacturers of cold gluing machines that I have been able to track down.
One is a Chinese import, cheap, but of dubious quality, though it does come with a years guarantee.
There are in fact several Chinese manufacturers of cold gluing machine but only one could enter into understandable communication with me.
Three are made in America, two of them by long established companies. All of them look to be well made with stainless steel/brass rollers.
I spoke at some length with the American manufacturers, they were very helpful, and made it clear it was straight forward to import their machines into Europe, they also had prices to hand for insured shipping.
Prices indicate it may be worthwhile to consider importing a machine, but remember that tax will be levied upon entering Europe.
Two are of European manufacture, one comes from Germany, and the other is distributed within the United Kingdom by a British company.
I had the chance to look closely at these two machines. The cold gluing machine from the UK is very nicely made, all in brass, with brass gluing trays. But it costs 2000.00 more than the German machine, and for the life of me I cannot see why that should be.
The cold gluing machine from Germany was really nicely engineered, brass gluing trays, brass rollers and pickers; it also carried the European CE mark.
I came down in favour of the German machine, apart from the Chinese import, it was the most economically priced machine available, and was of obvious quality, backed up by a long established company.
So yes, there is life after the Swift cold gluing machine.
I did almost a years research to find the successor to the Swift cold gluing machine, if you would like more detail, current prices etc, do pay me a visit.
By R.Norman
Will This Replace The Swift Cold Gluing Machine?
My name is Richard Norman, I have been a bookbinder for 30 years, now I divide my time between bookbinding and bookbinding related activities on the internet.
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