must. kill.

OK, this blog entry is being posted a bit late - I wrote most of it, then went on vacation, yadda yadda. So I'm actually referring here to some printing I did a few weeks back:

I've had a frustrating couple of days in letterpress world. You might remember these calling cards I printed a few weeks ago, which came out decently but overall I wasn't thrilled with the level of impression the paper took. So, I decided to order in some 134# Aqua Cranes Palette paper, since the 100% cotton is supposed to do really nicely with letterpress. It really is tasty paper, and I was excited to try it out. So on Friday I prepped my Pilot with the same calling card plate and mixed a nice deep green color. I pretty much ran into every problem across the board: not enough impression, uneven inking, un-crisp printing, too much ink, not enough ink, etc. It was just one of those days. So, I decided to just pretend it didn't happen and instead try again on my big 8 x 12 tonight.

Unfortunately, things didn't go much better. I'll start with Problem #1: Uneven Print, and excuse the crap photo but I'm too tired to do any better:

See how the print is heavier on either side, like the "www" and "m"s in "com"? It gets lighter/crisper in the middle, but the edges just look really...squishy. I thought maybe it was just an uneven impression problem, so I spent a long time doing some serious makeready - cutting out individual letters from packing to try and compensate. The weird thing is, this exact same problem was happening in the exact same places on the plate when I tried the print on my Pilot at home.
Question: Could this mean that the plate itself is uneven?

As soon as it started to look okay, I ran into Problem #2: Uneven Inking. Basically it seemed like a lot more ink was being laid down on one side of the plate than the other. There's a circular graphic at the top of the card, and it was really apparent that one side of the circle was printing more heavily than the other. Looking at the back of the cards, it didn't seem like the impression itself was uneven (indicating uneven platen pressure), so I thought it must have been the roller just laying down more ink on one side. I tried taping up the rails to raise the rollers on just the bottom of the chase, which only sort of worked. Since I don't have a picture, I'll do my best approximation via Illustrator:


Question: Is it common for uneven inking to occur vertically like this? How can I compensate for this?

This brings me to Problem #3: Un-Crisp Printing. Once again, I'll do my best to illustrate this problem without a photo. The left side is what the graphic should look like, and the right side is how it has been coming out:


As you can see, there are some fine details in the flowers that should remain unprinted. Instead, the flowers are completely filling in with ink. I noticed that the problem got worse the longer I printed, so I'm wondering if maybe the ink was heating up and getting too squishy. I thought maybe the problem was simply too much ink, but when I removed some from the press all I got was a mottled print - incomplete coverage indicating too little ink but the lines were STILL filling in. The only thing I can think here is that I need to dry up the ink a little. I ordered some drier from Braden Sutphin the other day and will give it a try - but does anyone know if I'm on the right track here? I'm pretty out of ideas, and I know that a crisp print CAN happen along with a deep impression.
Question: Is ink consistency to blame when ink amount has been ruled out and fine details are still filling in?

::sigh::

Page's #10 Cards

Note To Self: When you proclaim "I think I'm getting the hang of this," the letterpress gods shall show you otherwise, and chuckle to themselves.
After Friday's successful prints, I went in to work on the big press on Saturday. I mixed a nice orange, I taped the rails, I took some ink off after getting a little slather happy, I got a good impression, and I thought everything was swell. After a few prints I started to notice the tiniest dusting of orange bits on the prints in areas the plate didn't touch. I wiped off the plate and the speckles moved. I taped the rails, I untaped the rails, I adjusted the packing, all the while becoming increasingly frustrated with the tiny speckles plaguing me. Finally, I decided to call it a day with not a lot to show for it. As I began cleaning the press, I noticed that the handy cheapo shop rag I had used to wipe some of the ink off the press mid way through the print tests was leaving little bits of fiber on the platen, which were then transferred to the rollers. The bits were then stuck to the ink on the rollers, picked up more ink from the platen as they rolled, trailed across the plate, and voila - orangey snow effect on the prints.

At this point I was already halfway done cleaning, and didn't fancy a run to Home Depot for lint free cloths, another inking, another printing, and another cleaning. So, I came back today to finish the job. I was very careful this time to make sure there was hardly any dust or rag lint on the platen or rollers before inking, and sure enough my friendly orange bits disappeared. I suppose that's one more thing to add to my ever growing mental list of letterpress troubleshooting tidbits. Man, by the time I'm 80 I'm going to rock at this! Here are the results of my 2 days' labor:


Some beautiful #10 note cards in chartreuse and pool, with a nice deep orange print color, for Page. Next purchase - a print drying rack to prevent ink transfer onto the backs of the cards. Blah! Other than that, they're gorgeous.

I just realized that I've now printed for 3 days in a row. Holy crap. And I'm not even remotely joking about letterpress being a workout. Since I continue to be timid about using the motor or my 8 x 12, there is a lot of wheel pushing and foot planting that goes on in addition to the cleaning. You know those little diagrams on the weight machines at the gym showing you "muscles trained"? Here's what one would look like if they had a platen press at the gym, based on where I'm currently feeling the most pain. 200 reps!


Pulp & Press Soundtrack 6/21/09: "Freetime" (Kenna), "Map Of The Problematique" (Muse), "Feiticeira" (Deftones).

Letterpresser or...mechanic?

Today was my first attempt at getting my C&P 8 x 12 New Style up and running. To refresh your memory, here's a video of it running with the motor from a few weeks ago. So obviously it goes, now I've just got to get it printing well. The newly re-ground rollers looked beautiful when I first put them on:


After inking up, here was what I worked through today:

1. Problem: Too much ink on the plates.

Solution: You guessed it...taping the rails. I started with many, MANY layers of Scotch before I found some of that nifty strapping tape like the guy uses in the Boxcar video. I was being super anal about making sure I had the same number of layers on each side, until I realized it was OK that the right rail was more worn down than the left one. Must...learn...to be OK with unevenness. It's not like I give away my last one in a handful of M&Ms if it turns out to be an odd number. What??

2. Problem: Rollers popping out due to the grabber shaft sticking.

Solution: OK, "grabber shaft" isn't really the technical term...but I've searched the C&P parts diagram and can't find the piece I'm talking about. It may be the roller frame or roller arm. Here's the wonkiness that was occurring:


Basically, the sliding shaft that allows the roller frame to go up and down as the rollers make their way across the ink disc and down over the plate was getting stuck in the up position. This led to rollers flying everywhere and totally bizarre ink patterns. I oiled every conceivable hole to no avail...then finally realized that the large spring under the shaft had a piece of metal sticking out of the end that was getting caught. A little twist, and all was well again.

3. Problem: Throw-off arm stops the machine dead in its tracks, instead of switching from "trip" to "print."

Solution: This one stumped me. Once again, this probably shows my lack of experience with platen presses...but I was pretty sure that pulling the throw-off arm towards me was what was supposed to make it print instead of just inking the plates with no platen contact. Instead, pulling the arm towards me caused the press to stop being able to move all together. Since it's a little noisy in the warehouse with the heater going, please enjoy my Marcel Marceau demonstration of the problem:

It doesn't seem like a part is sticky or not sliding properly - it really seems like pulling the throw-off lever is supposed to put the brakes on the machine instead of allow it to print. Do I have the wrong idea here? What am I doing wrong? How do I switch from "trip" to "print"?

In better news, a friend commented that I looked like a mechanic with shop rags and WD-40 in my hands. Hot.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 4/3/09: Sadly, Jizz In My Pants (The Lonely Island) was the only thing trapped in my head all day. Next time I'm bringing my Tivoli and iPod.

A Sticky Situation...

Anyone have any suggestions?

Don't worry, this isn't turning into a "vlog" or whatever the term is - I just thought this problem would be best illustrated by moving images.

And now I proudly introduce a new blog feature, The Pulp & Press Soundtrack. Otherwise known as what's occurring in the room or in my head during today's work and/or blog post, maybe this will help to get my dear readers in the mood.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/18/09: Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution (AC/DC)

It Goes!

I was remiss in my documentary duties last Friday, forgetting to bring my camera as Paul gallantly helped me take my big press off the pallet using only a car jack and metal pipes. I snapped a few (unintentionally artsy) photos of said tools with my phone:
Yeah, you can just pretend you know what's going on there. Today I took a much more exciting vid of the press GOING:

This is pretty much the sweetest, most badass thing I have ever seen. Alan at Roll Crafters has offered to have both my Pilot and 8 x 12 rollers reground to the proper truck size, so those went off yesterday. Now I suppose I'll just have to wait another few weeks, twiddling my thumbs, before I can print anything. I should probably get to work on redoing the Tweedle Press website in the meantime...

A Fresh Start

Today I spent most of my time cleaning and reorganizing my office/studio, which really needed to be done. I've been attempting a massive purge of unused craft supplies in order to create more empty surfaces upon which to work. I'm pretty much done, and as you can see my closet now closely resembles the one in The Berenstein Bears And The Messy Room. This book clearly marked me as a child, and I blame all my perfectionist tendencies on it.

My letterpress and paper making studio area is small, but working for now. I've got the most basic (and cheapest) table from Ikea holding the Pilot, drying rack, and composing area. Below is boxey storage for paper, furniture, paper making supplies, and other stuff. Above I've just installed a nifty wall shelf unit that's very functional but also cool looking. I use it to store design related books, letterpress bits and bobs, and a few objets d'art.

On another side of the room I've got another desk (this one nicer, from Crate and Barrel) that holds my paper drying press and paper cutter. I intended for the Ikea table to also be where I could make paper, but now that I see the arrangement I might be a little nervous about getting so much water so close to my cast iron press. So, actual paper making may be relegated to the dining room until I can get a "real" studio.

And speaking of other spaces, today I received a text message picture of my 8 x 12 C&P, which has now been officially moved into it's "home" in the warehouse at my design job. It looks like from the picture that it's near a big window, which will be nice and maybe not make me feel too "warehoused." Storage above and to the sides - now I've just got to get Paul Aken to come help me get it up and running. Very exciting!!



Next order of business: I got my new rollers in from Roll Crafters. They were very nice and helpful on the phone, and a few weeks back I shipped them my existing rollers so they could use the cores and see the trucks before making new rollers. They finally arrived this week, and boy did they do a job with the shipping packaging! It took me a solid 10 minutes to unwrap the layers of cardboard, which were literally screwed into end blocks of wood, which themselves had holes drilled in them to keep the rollers steady. I certainly appreciate them making sure they wouldn't get damaged during shipping. The first picture is what the rollers looked like when I finally got them out of the box, with my trucks taped to the ends. Next is after I popped them out of the wood blocks, and finally after I unwrapped the paper around them. Beauties!

I did a quick ink and print just to test them out, with the same type I had locked up earlier. I'll definitely have to do a bit of troubleshooting - there were a few issues with the rollers inking the furniture in the chase, and the whole process being a little sticky. I think I initially may have had the rollers in the wrong graboids (technical term) so after switching them things seemed a little smoother. This was after I had already cleaned the press, though, so I didn't test them again yet.

I can't remember if this was happening with the old rollers, but they seem to get stuck at the bottom of the chase before the arm is all the way back up. I can push the arm up, but I feel like they should be able to continue all the way to the bottom by themselves. I'll probably ask Paul when I see him.



Here's right where they get stuck:

And here's where they end up when the arm is all the way up:

The trucks appear to be mostly in line with the pieces they roll against, though slightly off. I wonder if this has something to do with it.




All in all, a very productive day...and I can't wait to start pressing my "Dead Things" onto these nifty coasters I just received. I'm waiting on my Akua water based inks to arrive to test those out - though they mentioned there could be some concern with the inks smearing from "sweaty hands." Obviously not the best choice for coasters, but I'll try them on some note cards and gift tags. I've also recently been told that rubber inks can be cleaned with crisco and vegetable oil, so that might be an option too. WOO!

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.