Is Isn't Easy Being Green

You may have noticed that I'm on a mission to be the world's most eco-friendly letterpress printer. I'm not just talking about using some recycled paper here and there, a little soy ink, and a couple of CFLs. I'm not talking about greenwashing the hell out of my products just to make my clients feel better about themselves. I want to figure out the real and scientific effects I'm having on the environment, identify specific goals for becoming the most sustainable business possible, and educate my clients with the information I discover.

That said, I have to start from the realization that I create products that are not necessary for life. I don't grow food, I don't make clothes, and I certainly don't build houses. I make really stylin' invitations, business cards, announcements, recycled paper, and other goodies. If (when?) the world goes all Road Warrior, I don't think people are going to be fussing about ink colors and paper coordination for invites to their next gasoline raiding party. When you start down the road of trying to be as eco-friendly as possible, you inevitably reach the conclusion that the ULTIMATE solution would be to not make new products at all. We should all stop driving cars, live in huts, eat from our own gardens, and stop our livestock from farting so much.

So sure, if you consider the extreme solution then I should just throw in the towel all together. However, until we all get mowhawks and road bikes, I maintain that art is a necessary part of culture and society. Creating beautiful things is part of what makes our lives interesting, and that doesn't have to mean that we completely disregard our obligations to the health and safety of others and our planet. So starting from the point that art exists and isn't going away anytime soon, I'm going to try and do it in the best way possible.

Now that I've got my philosophical / tree hugger issues out of the way - onward! You may remember my previous struggles with finding the ultimate in eco-friendly letterpress inks. Currently, I've settled with using a linseed oil based etching ink, which to the best of my knowledge is zero VOC, certified non-toxic, and contains no petroleum or other binders. I've requested the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for each of the colors I currently use, but so far have only seen one of them. Probably not that big of a deal, since what I've seen so far doesn't shed a whole lot of light. I was hoping the sheets would provide a list of the exact ingredients/components, so I could do my own research on the potential environmental and health effects. I know that these inks have a high degree of pigment, and I also know that sometimes pigments are made of heavy metals. So far I have been unsuccessful in tracking down exactly what's in these inks, and so I'm currently reaching out to all the science nerds I know to see if they have any idea what I can do. My vision is I'll find some fancypants laboratory (like on CSI) where I can send my various items, and they'll spin them around in some machine that will then produce nifty computer charts.

Here are my eco goals regarding letterpress inks:

1. Find fancypants laboratory filled with very sciencey looking people in white coats to do some analytical chemistry on my inks.

2. From these results, find fancypants environmental people to explain what potential effects these inks could have on the environment and the health of people, plants, and animals.

3. Find fancypants ecology people to do experiments with my printed letterpress items, and see what happens when they biodegrade and/or compost.

4. Figure out what the best way is for me to clean and reuse shop rags saturated with letterpress inks. Does it make sense to have them washed? What happens to the waste water, and how much energy does this use? Can I have them recycled? Can I have them composted?

5. Speaking of rags, I need to find some better ones that aren't made of cotton and bleached. I'm almost out of my current supply, so some research in this area is pending.

Expect science nerd updates, specifics on lab coats, heavy metal (PRIEST!!), and worm poop.

Back At It

You know you're you're done with your website if...a) you can spend all day printing and b) you can write 2 blog posts in 2 days. Woohoo! So, I think I realized that the last time I actually ran a big print job really was several months ago. I was trying to improve upon some business cards I had printed on the Pilot, but the big C&P was giving me quite a bit of inking agida. Many of you, loyal readers, wrote in with suggestions for how I could fix the mysterious inking issues. Even though before I had time to adequately respond to you I was sucked into the time vortex that was my website, I truly appreciated all your ideas. The truth is, I was so frustrated almost to the point of tears that I think part of what I needed was a big break.

When I went back in yesterday to print the corrugated postcards, I initially had some of the same problems I did a few months ago. Mysterious uneven vertical inking, sometimes even leaving out whole spots in the middle of the plate:


Weird, right? The only thing I've been able to determine so far is that how the base is sitting in the chase seems to be affecting inking. I'm not sure if my Chase is a little uneven (as I'm pretty sure is the case with my Pilot) or the surface I'm using to lockup isn't completely flat, but I seem to be able to achieve some success by gently knocking various corners around once locked up, to compensate for the uneven inking. Whatever I did seemed to work for the moment, which THRILLED me. I mixed up a nice deep orange color for the cards (appropriate, given the date), using some of my Van Son VS Zero Ink for the first time. I was disappointed to find out, earlier this year, that the VS Zero (zero volitle organic compounds) ink would only be released in CMYK colors instead of Pantone mixing colors. I went ahead and ordered some anyway, though, figuring I would eventually get up the courage to put my preschool color mixing knowledge to the test.

So, these tubs I have are HUGE. I think 10 pounds each. When I finally cracked them open today, the ink looked a little runny. I was concerned that I'd have a similar spoogy effect that the Braden Sutphin Earth Pride ink was giving me a few months back, but actually once it was on press it was a little on the tacky side. It printed very nicely on the corrugated, and eventually came off the press with just vegetable oil. Overall, I'm really pleased with how the VS Zero performed. The only thing that's vexing me a bit is that now, 24 hours later, the ink still isn't dry. I'm not exactly sure why this would be the case, but when I touch one of the cards it's still tacky and comes off on my fingers. This isn't a good sign - particularly since I need to go back in on Sunday to print some more cards and they have to be ready to mail out on Monday. If the cards aren't completely dry by tomorrow I'm pretty screwed - because I already printed about 150 cards using this ink and don't have any extra. :: sigh :: I guess I'll see what happens. At least they look nice:


And now to show a little love for my big press, some artsy images:


Sure is a beauty. Now I just have to get up the courage to start using it with the motor on so I don't have to turn the wheel with my left arm the whole time - I woke up in the middle of last night with my wrists throbbing. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it using regular paper - the cardboard was tricky because I had to actually secure it pushing the gauge pins through the middle of the fluting. I wonder how much it would cost to "downgrade" to a foot treadle instead of a motor. I get nervous when the thing is at speed 2 - and it goes all the way up to 15!

Maybe I would feel more comfortable if I had more secure gauge pins. The ones I have are a bit old and rusty, so perhaps I should just get some new ones. Yeah, I'm off to order some right now. Word.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 10/31/09 (Happy Halloween!): Starblood (Cranes).

My Impression

So I wasn't entirely happy with how my Braden Sutphin ink was performing on paper. It just seemed a little...squishy. I read a lot of opinions on Briar Press, e-mailed some fellow printers, and tried to dig a little deeper into the whole "eco" ink debate. I'd like for my shop to be as eco-friendly as possible, as healthy for me as possible, AND have my prints look as rad as possible. I feel like the whole soy ink thing has been pretty firmly rejected at this point as being any more eco-friendly than traditional oil and rubber based letterpress inks. So I started thinking about the "vegetable based" idea some more and read that in the old days, all oil-based letterpress inks were made from vegetable and seed oils. It seems that these days most are made from petroleum oils instead, which is obviously not the friendliest. I read several people promoting the fact that Charbonnel etching inks are still made with linseed oil and a heavy pigment load, which makes them great for letterpress and a lot more like printing was "in the old days."

I also read that Charbonnel inks work well for large areas of coverage, which I'll definitely need for my various holiday card designs. As I mentioned before, I've decided to try out Somerset papers for these cards because they supposedly score/fold well. Today I did a quick test on my Pilot with s combination of Charbonnel inks and Somerset paper, and it did look really nice. The edges were crisp, even with a deep impression.


Speaking of impression, I've come to the conclusion that I just can't get a lot of it with my Pilot. It does a fine amount for small pieces like the one above, but a lot of my designs are fairly dense and I just can't get the pressure I need on my little table top guy. I've tried all sorts of packing materials, methods, and amounts...but when it comes down to it I just can't get enough pressure. I don't want to kill myself or crack the arm of my little guy, so I think I'll just have to stick to smaller designs (like business cards) on the Pilot. Luckily I've got my 8 x 12 C&P also, which so far has done great with impression over larger areas.

This was the first time I've actually PRINTED in over a month or so...I've been so busy doing backend planning and such. It felt really nice. Cleanup of Charbonnel using only vegetable oil went about like it had for all other inks - took a while, but worked pretty well in the end.

My holiday card designs are for sale on the Goode Green website, even though I haven't actually made any plates, bought any paper, bought any ink, OR tested any of the prints. Scary! This is me practicing jumping into something without overanalyzing and overpreparing, and seeing what happens. I DID spend forever pricing those suckers, though. Man is it complicated. Now I'm off to work some more on my website...cheerio!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 9/16/09: "First Train Home" (Imogen Heap). Seriously dude...the Alice In Wonderland references that keep popping up in my life are uncanny.

An Ode To Vegetable Oil

Oil of veggie you kick so much ass,

Your yellow demeanor belies your true sass.

Letterpress cleanup is always a chore,

But you make it so easy to do and what's more -

There are no toxic fumes burning inside my nose,
And my small future spawn will not come with webbed toes!

Your myriad of uses really is quite a stunt,

You polish wood floors, and you make a great bundt!

Veggie oil, I hope that we're friends for all time,
Now this is the end of my a-ma-zing rhyme.

First Custom Job

As I mentioned last post, I'm currently working on several custom jobs. Today I set about printing, and I'm pretty happy with the results of this calling card:

It's referred to as a "calling card" both because of the simple amount of information, and because it's slightly bigger than a regular business card at 2.5" x 3.5". I had been wanting to try out French Paper's Muscleonte paper (140#), and since Barbara wanted an aqua color this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was curious to see if the extra heavy weight would take an impression well, but it seems it was a little too "muscular." I finally got a decent impression after adding a lot of packing, but I probably won't use this paper again.

As for ink, I finally dove in and bought some Earth Pride from Braden Sutphin last week on a recommendation from a fellow letterpresser. It's vegetable based, contains less than 5% V.O.C.s, and comes in all the regular Pantone colors, unlike Van Son's VS Zero which I was previously excited about. I decided it would just be too difficult to try and mix colors using only the CMYK of VS Zero, but since I bought some I may test out some of the solid colors at some point. Overall, I'm really happy with the Earth Pride. It doesn't really smell like much, which makes my headache-prone sinuses very happy. It's a little on the soft side, but not unworkable. It definitely forms a crust in the can and isn't meant to be left "open" on the press for extended periods of time, but neither of those things really bother me. Cleanup was really quite easy using only vegetable oil. I'll probably continue to experiment with other inks, but for now I'm pretty happy with what I've got.

As long as I had all the packing and everything set up on the press, I decided to go ahead and test print using some of my hand made papers recycled from junk mail. At some point I'd love to be using all my own paper, and after this exciting test I think it will just be a matter of figuring out how to produce sheets with consistent thickness. My various papers took impression much better than the French Paper, and I think the textural elements look really snazzy:

I was a little afraid of ink bleed on the hand made papers, but as you can see the print stayed really crisp. This means that either the papers rock, the inks rock, or the combination of the two rocks! I'm really excited to see that it worked, because I was starting to think that printing on my own papers wouldn't be feasible. WOO!!

Note to self: Rubber bands are your friends, until they're not.
I've realized that it's pretty necessary to use a rubber band across the grippers of the Pilot, because I rarely use a sheet of paper big enough to be held on by the grippers. This was working well, as I had the rubber band positioned perfectly across the middle of the card where there was no printing. Until about the last 25 cards or so, I was getting pretty frustrated by an indentation in the cards I was sure was due to some uneven packing under the tmypan. Then the rubber band slipped a little and actually blocked out part of the print, and I realized it had been sitting right where the impression was happening.

I moved said rubber band higher up on the card so it just barely hit some of the crop marks, and all of my problems were solved. No more random impression, no more uneven print. I got a decent amount of prints done once I had fixed the problem, but I wish I had noticed it sooner. I can't wait until I've been doing this for a bit longer and I have all these things stored up in my brain. Someday my prints will be perfect...or closer anyway. I find that in general, letterpress is a really good lesson in imperfection for me. And with that - I'm off...maybe more printing this weekend!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 6/5/09: Depeche Mode (Hole To Feed).

Busy, busy!

Well, it's finally back to business after several weeks of vacation and general discombobulation. Currently I've got four custom print jobs I'm working on: 2 stationery, 1 calling card, 1 menu (more on that later), and I'm almost at the stage where I can scrunch all the images together to make film then plates. Once the plates are made, I'll be sure to provide updates on the print progress of each. I'm hoping to have all 4 done in a few weeks, in addition to a stock item I'll be re-running.

These "Yay" cards are from my "Peggins" series, which was one of the first sets of designs I came up with for my store. Since it's graduation season, I'll be printing up a whole bunch of them for sale:

If anybody wants to buy any - please let me know! I've actually printed these before, but it was my first ever try on a platen press and so they didn't come out quite the way I intended. Hopefully, now that I've got my own presses, I'll be able to spend an assinine amount of time perfecting the registration and colors.

Speaking of colors, I've have finally ordered some of Van Son's new VS Zero ink through Fuji. It sounds fantastically "green," and is vegetable based. According to the techs, here's an approximate breakdown:

Rapeseed Oil - Approx. 46%
Linseed Oil - Approx. 18%
Oticica Oil - Approx. 6%
Pigment (Dry) - Approx. 20%
Additives - Approx. 7%

The hope is that I'll be able to clean this ink off the presses using only vegetable oil or other non-toxic cleansers. Unfortunately, the inks aren't going to be made in the regular lineup of Pantone colors, so I'll have to see what I can do with mixing CMYK myself. I guess I'm sort of confused as to how I might go about this, seeing as how CMYK inks are intended for 4 color process prints (i.e. 4 different plates, registered perfectly). I've asked the folks on Briar Press if they have any suggestions for how I might do this, or if I'm insane for even contemplating it.

In other news...after my most recent meeting with a business counselor, I penned "The Retroactive Roadmap To Tweedle Press." My counselor suggested that I write out exactly where I'd like to be with my business a year from now, and then works backwards from that to create some goals and milestones for myself. It was extremely eye opening, and let me know that I'll really have to get moving sooner than I thought with starting to take more days per week to work on the business. Scary, but exciting! As soon as I've got a rough draft of the business plan, I'll talk more about it here. For now though, I've got a date with the Chicago Public Library to do some research on my target market, and these are some rough upcoming dates for the rest of this year:

June: ink research/testing, finish business plan, print custom projects
July: new website launch, print stock items
August: begin marketing, start to take web orders!
September: go down to 3 days a week at current job (yikes!)
October: start marketing and taking holiday orders
November: print and ship holiday orders
December: end of year money stuff, print stock items

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 5/29/09: Bon Jovi (Livin' On A Prayer). Don't laugh - I played Rock Band last weekend and it's been stuck in my head ever since. HELP ME!!!

Ink: A Comparison

So, after letting the "Shit / I'm sorry" cards dry for a while I've decided to take a closer look at the performance of the water based ink vs. rubber based ink. Here are some closeups:

I must admit that I'm not 100% sure the card on the left was printed with rubber based ink, because I printed at The Evanston Print and Paper Shop before I had my own presses. It could have been oil based, but the two look very similar when dry so I'm not sure it matters much except in the cleanup department. Anyway, here are some points for comparison:

1. Workability: How do the inks distribute on the rollers? Does the ink begin to dry as it sits on the press? What about the contents of the can?

Water Based Inks: Since I haven't had these too long it's hard to say if any crust will develop in the jars, but I'm going to guess not. It's a nice consistency coming out of the jar, and is very spreadable in the ink disc. Starts out a little glommy on the rollers but eventually evens out and is nice. I noticed no drying while it sat on the press.

Rubber Based Inks: Develops a top crust while in the can, and is very tacky going on the rollers. Doesn't seem to dry out when on the press.


2. Cleanup: How easily to the inks clean off the press? What sort of materials are required?

Water Based Inks: Most of the ink comes off with a dry cloth before using any solvent at all. Vegetable or baby oil can be used for final cleanup, though I found even after this step the rollers still had a little bit of ink on them. The cleanup process is great for avoiding toxic inhalations, but requires a bit more patience towards the end.

Rubber Based Inks: Requires a fair amount of elbow grease, even when it has been loosened using Crisco. Mineral spirits are the best way to get everything completely clean, but do produce toxic fumes.


3. Print Durability: Do the prints smudge when dry? How long does it take to become fully dry?

Water Based Inks: The prints did withstand the "cat test," meaning a brief scramble of paws across the top. So it's not like the ink is running all over the place, and normal handling didn't produce any visible smudges. However, if your hands are the least bit damp it definitely smears the ink. Seemed pretty dry within 24 hours.

Rubber Based Inks: Once it's dry, it's not going anywhere...even if you are a sweaty monster. Initial drying goes pretty fast, and complete dry within 24 hours.


4. Print Quality: Does the ink bleed? What's the coverage like?

Water Based Inks: In the end, print quality will really determine whether a particular ink is viable or not. Unfortunately, I'm just not won over by the water based inks' mottled appearance. As you can see if you click the photo to enlarge, it just seems a little...blobby. The edges seem like they are bleeding out just slightly, and it's just not particularly crisp. It's possible the mottled-ness might be remedied by using a less textured paper (the photo is Luxe from Waste Not Paper), but I feel like a good ink should hold up to this type of paper.

Rubber Based Inks: Obviously these are one of the standard letterpress inks because they print well. The edges are crisp (minus the, ahem, slight over-inking spooge on this particular print), and the coverage is consistent. At this magnification some of the same mottled appearance is visible, again likely due to the paper, but it's not as significant as the water based ink.

Conclusions: Well, it looks like my search for a non-toxic ink with non-toxic cleanup and good print quality will continue. Still to try: soy inks, rubber based inks with non-toxic cleanup, oil-based inks with non-toxic cleanup, acrylic inks with non-toxic cleanup. Cleaners to investigate: baby oil, California wash, Ivory soap. Are there any other ink types or cleaners I'm missing that should be tested?

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/20/09: Black Hearted Love (PJ Harvey & John Parish).

N.I.B., Production Technician

I think I can safely say that this was my first "official" day of letterpress production. Even though I'm still in the test phase with the water-based inks, if these notecards turn out well and not too smudgerific I'll probably put them up for sale.


These would work as a great all purpose stash if you just want to tell someone "crap, I'm an asshole" or even "sorry your dog died." I have some more handy lessons I've learned from today's printing on the Pilot:

Lesson #1: Don't clean the Boxcar base with oil.

After my last printing session, I guess I got a little carried away with the canola and wiped down my Boxcar base to get the last traces of ink away. In my letterpress classes they always warned me not to be tempted to wipe down the base with anything really, even mineral spirits. Sure enough, when I went to stick the plate back on today it went sliding around, totally unsticky. So I had to use some serious elbow grease to um, de-grease the base before the plate would stick again.

Lesson #2: Distribute the ink on the disc and rollers BEFORE putting the chase in.

This probably seems obvious, but is a small breakthrough for me because I had been cranking away on the arm to distribute the ink after putting the chase in. This meant I had to be very careful not to let the rollers ALL the way down or I'd ink the tympan. If you work it out before putting the chase in, it's a lot easier. Duh.

Lesson #3: Slow pressure yields better ink coverage.

I went through a lot of test prints before arriving at the method that ended up working pretty consistently, and found that a slow OOOOOMPH on the print yielded better results than a quick SNAP. Not really sure why.

Lesson #4: Rubber bands are your friends.

It took some practice, but finally I got the rubber bands across the grippers in a place that was helpful and not in the way of the print. The only problem I ended up having was that the rubber bands I found were old and a little sticky, and the paper kept glomming onto them as I pulled it away from the plate, whacking out and creating interesting random ink stripes from hitting the rollers. Eventually (as in, after I took this picture) I ended up taping a piece of paper to the top rubber band so my cards slid free more easily.


I'm still not ready to discuss gauge pins, but clearly I had a bit more success with them today as I was at least able to produce consistent prints. I probably just need to investigate some pins that are easier to work with - perhaps the ones I have are particularly irritating.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/27/09: Talons (Bloc Party). We're going to see them tomorrow night at the Aragon. YES!

Lessons From The First Day of (Attempted) Printing

Wearing my trusty Friday overalls and acceptably indie/chic This American Life tee, I set about my first real day of letterpress troubleshooting on the Pilot.

Lesson #1: Me and gauge pins? Not friends. I'm assuming that since we don't know each other very well our relationship can only improve. But right now we're not really speaking to each other.

I'm super paranoid about denting my Boxcar base, and I'm not really sure which parts of the pins should absolutely NOT contact the base. I'm also not 100% sure about which parts are supposed to hold the paper, and they just never seem particularly secure to me. I'll probably do a whole post specifically about these little fuckers, but right now we need some space.

Lesson #2: Taping the rails is fairly painless, and has fast results.

When I first started inking the plate for my "shit / i'm sorry" notecard, ink was getting all over the place. In the Boxcar video on taping the rails, the guy uses some fancy nylon strapping tape, which I don't have at the moment but may look into. Instead I added about 4 layers of scotch tape to the rails to raise the rollers a bit. This improved things dramatically, but there were still some places being inked that shouldn't have been. Another layer or two, and the plate was inking perfectly.


Lesson #3: I have a lot to learn about packing a platen press.

The first couple of prints I pulled, there seemed to be good ink coverage around the edges but not in the middle. So, I kept adding more and more packing thinking it must be the problem. However, the more packing I added the less even the print was. After a few hours, only about the bottom half of the print was coming through clearly. What the hell? I even tried using makeready buried under the tympan just under the top half of the print, but then things got even screwier. Finally, I thought "this can't be right" as my packing bulged and there was barely any OOMPH when I pulled the arm to print.

So, I went backwards about 11 steps and left only a small amount of packing. This did the trick for the most part, and I didn't even have to use any additional sheeting under a specific section of the print. I'm sure all of this has some very technical explanation to do with pressue distribution, but I'm just not used to such things yet having mainly worked on flatbed presses. Exhausted but somewhat accomplished, I finally produced a mostly acceptable print:


Lesson #4: The jury is still out on print quality and smudginess, but water-based ink cleanup sure is a breeze.

Seriously, 90% of the ink came off using no solvent whatsoever. I used a small amount of vegetable oil towards the end just to make sure everything was ship shape, and no stinky mineral spirits (which I'd like to avoid in the interest of preventing future flipper babies). I'll have to wait for the test prints to dry before I can really speak to the smudginess factor, and I'm not 100% thrilled with the ink coverage. However, the colors are nice and I think it's worth continued testing.

Lesson #5: My neck hurts.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/20/09: Take Back The City (Snow Patrol), Don't Drag Me Down (Social Distortion). Yeah, Mike Ness rocks balls. I wonder if he needs anything letterpressed.

And So It Begins...

The water based inks don't come in Pantone mixable colors, so I decided just to pick 4 basic colors to test with. There could be some issues with post-drying smearage, if the prints are handled by anyone with "sweaty hands," so I didn't want to invest too much in a lot of the stuff just yet.





I finally sent in my Dead Things artwork for film and plates, and picked it all up from The Evanston Print & Paper Shop today! They look great of course. I cut up one of the beast bones stationery for test printing on my Pilot, and stuck it to my brand new Boxcar base. I did a quick first lockup in the chase, but realized after it was in the press that it needed to be shifted so that the base and plate were in the upper right hand corner. I'm still not quite used to the idea of printing with a platen press where I'll need to use gague pins to hold my paper in place, as I've got much more "real" experience on a Vandercook. I'm taking things really slowly because I do NOT want to dent my base.

Anyway, so finally I got the lock looking good so that the gague pins could sit in the lower left hand corner of the tympan paper and not hit the base, which is in the upper right hand corner of the chase. I started to realize it was going to be hard to get everything exact with this particular print because I've only got about 1/4" between the print end and the edge of the page. Also at 5.5" x 8.5", this size paper is really pushing what the Pilot can do - so this stationery might be better left for my 8 x 12.

Regardless of whether I continue with this big print or test something smaller, I've still got to figure out how to prevent my grippers from smashing into the base. Supposedly I ought to be able to turn the little cranks to loosen the gripper arms and adjust them, but they're in a really awkward position and extremely tight. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to loosen them, so I posted on Briar Press and will hopefully get some suggestions.

Brad suggested that it also seems like my new rollers may be a bit oversized. They're even being lifted off the rails as they pass over the chase, so I may have to investigate taping up the rails to prevent over-inking and roller sticking. Oh, the troubleshooting begins!

In more successful news, the other day I went about trying to make some paper that remained consistent in color and thickness. I decided to stick with mostly black and white junk mail like credit card offers (though they are fewer these days...), and it actually tured out pretty well. After following some drying advice from a group of paper makers, my press bar / sponge time was greatly reduced and I came out with fairly flat, nice sheets.

My favorite thing about recycling paper is that if you don't blend it up TOO much, you're left with a few letters scattered here and there.

The Benefit Of Working At Home

I'll just let these photos speak for themselves:

Today I worked on cleaning up the images for the gift tags, coasters, stationery, and envelopes in my "Dead Things" series. I need to have 3 sets of film/plates made, so I filled in the extra space with 2 cards I'm working on for the "In A Word" series. Here's what it all looks like squished up together for the film:



After the plates get made, I'll cut it up and stick the polymer to my lovely new Boxcar base. Then it's into the Pilot for printing! I sent in my old rollers with cores and one set of trucks each (both Pilot and 8 x 12) to Roll Crafters to have new rubber rollers made, which should take about a week. Now all I've got left to do before printing is buy some of the Akua water based inks to try out!

A Quick Note

My new base from Boxcar arrived! Man, they did it fast too. I went with the size they recommended for Pilot presses - 8.5" x 5". However, now that I'm looking at it with my press I realize I probably should have measured the distance between my grippers because it's only 8". Maybe there's something I'm missing here and it will work out - but I do NOT want to dent my base. Oh well...I suppose if it doesn't fit in the Pilot I can always use it with the big C&P.

Actually, now that I'm looking more closely at the grippers it looks like they're probably adjustable - just held on by bolts. Hopefully I can move them so I can use this size base! It would be just perfect for a flattened out A2 size card (4-1/4" x 11"), provided I don't do a full vertical bleed on both sides at once. Most of my cards just have the Tweedle Press logo centered on the back anyway.

Tomorrow I'm planning to call Roll Crafters to see about getting some new rollers for both the Pilot and the 8 x 12. I've pretty much decided on rubber, on advice both from some folks at Briar Press and Akua Water Based Inks . These inks are supposedly non toxic, and can apparently be cleaned off using vegetable oil (instead of water which could rust the press). I'm going to give them a try to see if they work well. This Friday will be my first official day that I begin taking off from my "real job" (aka the one that pays me) to work on Tweedle Press and Chicago Locavores, so I'm psyched!

What To Buy Before Printing With A C&P Pilot

OK, I've been doing research into the additional items I'll need to purchase along with my new presses in order to actually print on them. I'm hoping some of the smaller items will come included, but it's possible I may have to hunt down everything myself. I'll start with the C&P Pilot, because that's the one I'll likely have first since it won't require any special shipping arrangements (it "only" weighs about 200 pounds). If everything goes well I could be bringing it home this weekend!

I found this awesome Operating Instructions and Parts List for Chandler & Price Pilot Press on the Dolce Press website (thanks guys!) which has helped a lot.

Needs For The C&P Pilot Letterpress

1. I've been told that it needs new rollers. I've done a little research, and come up with these options for where to buy them:

NA Graphics (Colorado) C&P Pilot 6 1/2x10 Form Roller, new core, rubber, $101.20 C&P Pilot 6 1/2x10 Form Roller, new core, vinylith, $87.30 So, I guess I'll need to find out if the rollers need new cores as well - I'm inclined to just buy new everything, but I suppose I should try to save money where I can. The prices on the NA Graphics website are "estimated," so I'd probably have to call them to get actual pricing.

American Printing Equipment (New York) 6-1/2 x 10 Pilot Press Letterpress Rubber Rollers Set/2 with Steel Core, $145 Definitely seems more expensive than NA Graphics, but I guess I may not have the real NA Graphics price yet.

Republic Roller Corporation (Michigan)
These guys are listed on Briar Press, and it's always good to find suppliers in the next state over. I'll probably give them a call to see if they have what I need and how much it would cost.

There also 10+ other listings on Briar Press for people supposedly selling rollers, so if I don't have any luck with the ones I've listed I can always check for more there. There's a good guide on rollers too.

2. Tympan Paper: according to this discussion on Briar Press, there are a lot of alternatives. However, due to my love of rules I may opt to at least start out with the real thing before I start experimenting. It looks like I can get the correct size from American Printing Equipment.

3. Gauge Pins: these little buggers are one of the main reasons I've been reluctant to buy a platen press at all. I'm sure my relationship with them will evolve, as I really haven't done too much platen printing compared to the amount I've done on Vandercooks. I just feel like there's no possible way gauge pins can reliably hold the paper in place for proper registration because they're just so tiny, yet I know it must be possible. So, I suppose I'll just have to get over it. I'm hoping to acquire a few of these with the purchase of the presses. If not, it appears they're readily available and not too expensive.

4. Furniture: even though I'll likely be doing most or all of my printing using polymer plates, I'll still need some furniture to lock up the Boxcar base in the chase. Probably only a few pieces - but I do really like the big furniture cabinets so I'll probably just go ahead and get one. Plus, I can see myself buying some type eventually, and you never know when you might find a perfect woodcut you want to print with.

5. Speaking of Boxcar bases, I'll be needing one (or several) of those. I dealt with Boxcar one before when I had them make some plates for me, which were kind of expensive but they were really nice and helpful. Dang these things are expensive! Looks like they recommend a 5 x 8.5 for a Pilot ($175) and a 6 x 9 for an 8 x 12 C&P. That page I just linked to also has a lot of good general information about using Boxcar bases with platen presses. I'll definitely be poring over that. The Boxcar Printing Manual also has a lot of good tips.

6. Roller gauge(s): I hadn't really thought of these, mainly because up until now I have pretty much judged roller height based on how prints look. I suppose it would probably be a good idea to grab one, though, plus they're pretty cool looking and not that expensive. Also, the Boxcar base letterpress starter packs come with one anyway, which sounds like a good deal.

7. Ink: I'll probably go with rubber based ink to start off with, but will likely end up experimenting at some point. These starter ink packs from Boxcar sound pretty cool, so I'll probably end up getting one of them. There is an interesting (and at times unnecessary aggressive, as internet discussions tend to be) thread over on Briar Press about ink alternatives and possible effects of various toxic letterpress substances. This is definitely of interest to me, as I will likely be having my own minis in the not too distant future. Someone mentions that water based inks work well for them on their Pilot, so maybe I'll investigate even though I'm not sure they're meant for use with polymer plates.

8. Cleaning supplies: another area in which to consider possible non-toxic-ness, and one in which I'll certainly have to experiment based on the types of ink I end up using. I'll also need to procure some of those nifty rags all letterpress studios seem to have, as well as figure out how to get them cleaned. I'll probably be asking my friends over at The Evanston Print And Paper Shop for suggestions on this one.

OK - that's all I've got for now. Is there anything else I'll need to start printing on my Pilot? I'm assuming, of course, that all the parts will be working and I won't have to do any major repairs or replacements. I'd like to clean and restore the press to it's best possible working condition, so I suppose there may be a few other things I'll need to get (oil?) to keep it happily maintained.