After 30 years in print, many of which spent on Heidelberg platen and cylinder presses, its good to see this craft being maintained and good to see it done well too, attention to detail is everything. I miss my machines ;)
Most people don’t get the chance to see how this kind of work is done. We’ve been making these videos just to show how much work really goes on behind the scenes. Thanks for your comment!
Agreed with Adrock, please keep posting. Also, I want to know which paper you are using in this video for print..?? Can I but it online somewhere, please share link if any..??
As someone who did this manually many years ago and now uses tons of business cards, you’re going to be my go to company for my next batch of business cards. Your skills are impeccable!
I grew up in a print shop that my Father purchased 4 months before I was born. Closed the doors after 39 years. Also worked for his Uncles Print Shop. They rolled letterpress newspaper mats, he had a cylinder, hand feeds and a windmill. Knew nothing about offset, until he got drafted and stationed at Fort Hood, 1963. The joy it brings my Dad when I find Videos of presses that he's always used as reference whenever I ran into a snag, along with my personal gratitude. Having said all that, really unique how you packed the Tympan to achieve impression. I often seen my dad use a torn sheet of paper, run his finger on the side of the press for grease, go behind the platen, add grease and torn sheet to any low-spots, just never seen him make-ready to register.
I loved this video! I'm a printer by trade myself. Of course this press is before my time. Thank you for the video! My dad is also a printer and he definitely would remember this type of printing!
Bro I have no clue why your videos capture my attention, maybe it is simply the fact that the printing press changed the world. You are a master at this craft, thanks for your time and effort.
As a long-time Letterpress printer, with all sizes of the C&Ps - from the Pilot up to the 12x18 we call "Big Ben", I enjoyed the familiar sound of your press running with the old Kemble motor. And, I was pleased to see you practicing pretty nearly the same techniques that I was taught over fifty years ago. Although we were taught to "kiss the paper", and not make as deep an impression as is popular today, your impression appears to be just right for the paper you printing on - and your register is indeed "dead-on" or, as we tend to say "dot for dot". Very pleasing video passing on some very correct techniques of this craft. Thank you.
Thank you Alan! The only thing I would've done differently is mounted each plate upside down so that they were right side up as they were being delivered. Just as type is supposed to be: reverse and upside down.
Love the gizmoness of that machine. Hand feeding looks sketchy. Be careful. Love these videos. Really neat to hear how they used melted wax back in the day.
it is so nice seeing the process and how the skill is needed on the swift pass through of paper. really cool result on the font off set...with perfect image. It really stands out!
the machine is a beauty. When I studied graphic design in the late 80ies, I were taught all the old and basic techniques and this sure brings me back on memory lane (-:
H. Jima I’d say that styles has changed a lot, but there are still some basic “rules” to work with. Don’t use too many fonts at the same time, keep the design simple and consistent and don’t be afraid of showing the (white) paper. (I know that it’s been trending with words of wisdom written with all sort of fonts, but if you look close you’ll see that they go together, but only because they’re kept in same colors).
Jukebox Print Yeah, I’m sort of a typography nerd too. I love fonts and designing logotypes, even though it’s harder to keep a business with all the freebies on the internet. I’ve designed a few logos that are still in use +30 years later. I love your old print machines. The Heidelberg you have is called a “flyswatter” in Danish 😂
Nice and interesting ! Cool to see those antique machines still working in a precise and silent way. Lucky guy doing an artistic job. Thanks for sharing
I love these presses. When I was in school I graduated in 1988, I wanted to get into printing so bad with this style printers, unfortunately, I could not find a job and we were transitioning from old to new but I'm 50 now and still wish I could do it I just love the way they look work everything.
I was trained in letterpress printing at a Tech high school here in CT in the 1970's. I loved it and resisted the move toward offset printing, but letterpress was a 'dying' art. I had a small shop for a few years in my parent's basement with a 6x10 kelsey. I can only imagine all the type cases emptied, used for arts and crafts and the type melted down for fishing weights. 😳 I miss having the equipment around as it would be fun to print jobs that are appreciated for the impression marks! I love it. Thanks for stirring up some good memories. I could use some and those were good times. Cheers, Pete
We remember the days of our Adana 5x8 in the attic with just a case of 12pt Caslon to learn with... We're years away from that now but not much has changed! Thanks for your comment Pete.
you made me so happy to see one working again, I operated one of those for 20 years and then they got a Kluge, after I retired the company sold all of them, they could not find any one that could operate them.
Been a press operator for 20 years on everything from the Heidelberg windmill letterpress to a modern sm74 and I've never seen baby blue ink forms before
Mannnnn..... U reminded me of the days when I started to train on this machine..... So many times my fingers got caught between the plates.... 😂😂😂😂 It's nostalgic for me.
one more cool video. Than the last one, since this press is lot familiar (what I often see here in shops), it is more interesting to watch how it is done. Loved it :)
nostalgia y recuerdos de mis inicios en las artes graficas... esto si era arte desde su armado tipografico has la limpieza de la maquina ... =) excelente video ademas....
I have a newfound love and respect for the time & effort that goes into this craft and line of work. Honestly mindblown 🤯 new subscriber and look forward to watching more vids 🤘🏼
i deal with antiques and you cant beat the old school way of doing things. sure you can do it other ways and faster, but odds are the new machines will be in the landfill in 10 years.
I like the fact that 'voda' is Chech for water, so is 'woda' in Polish and 'вода' in Russian (all pronounced the same) and the third color in the large V forms a droplet.
@@waterunderthebridge7950 that because -ka added when you wan't to make something shorter, smaller, cuter or not so serious. Baba - Babka - Babushka. Voda - Vodka - Vodochka - maximum of cuteness :)
@@SergeyRAD Yeah, except in my language there is a stepping away from the root in the process, the o becomes ó [u], and the d is voiceless (as in [vutka] for wódka). But I digress... :)
I own a clamshell diecutter which works exactly like that press. You could easily register the next workpiece by placing a carbon copy paper on the moving mold and let the plate strike it to create impressions onto the background paper, then hollows out a piece of your to-be-printed stock at key locations of the image and align them to the striked image on the mold and move the holding clip to that paper's resting position. It sounds complicated, but its actually more precise and gets the job done in one go.
I know exactly what you're talking about. We'll use carbon paper for large forme die cutting and to feel out registration and impression on more complicated work - but for something as simple as this it isn't exactly necessary. We can't show every possible step in our videos and everyone seems to have their own style of preparing their makeready. Clamshells are good fun, especially the 40" ones with foil... Thanks for your input!
Pensé que nunca volvería a ver una de estas,y menos imprimiendo en linotipo en 3 colores, maneje una de estas durante años, saludos y felicitaciones por el vídeo.
Believe it or not, vintage machines like these are still used commercially in my country. We had a printing business back in the day. My dad was a veteran in the field with over 30 years of experience. We had 2 Heidelbergs KOR and KORD. The KOR was one of the earliest models, and a manual Victoria press like this one, removed the printing parts and repurposed just for die-cutting.
We used this press as our main die cutting machine for many years before adjusting the bed height for printing. A manual Victoria press would be a dream to have. I love presses with perfect parallel impression.
I ran letterpress for many years, and this press was my first. I’m sure the deep impression is intentional in this case, (pun intended) but it wasn’t when letterpress was the prime printing method. We were chastised if you could feel the image in the backside - we were told - “this is printing, not embossing.”
The catch is, our clientele now expect deep impression and without it we receive complaints. It would be nice to really finesse the makeready for fine kiss printing but there's no pleasing people with that!
Beautiful work! When you overprint, does the plate not pick up any of the still wet ink from the paper? I use Caligo Safe Wash inks and wonder if they would contaminate even the rollers and disc if I overprint the second colour right away.
Cool counter-rotating ink discs. You don’t see many that are actually functional these days, not that they were a big hit back in the day or that they make much difference. You can definitely see and hear the wear in the press- visually in the backlash of the ink-disc and audibly in the various clanks on the press. The ratchet on the back side of the ink disc is creating some of those sounds, but there are others. When you run enough of these presses for long enough, you start hearing things... Speaking of sounds, I thought I heard the air pump on a windmill running in the background during some of those clips... The motor is struggling a bit- basically the pulley is too small -the arc of contact is too small and the belt slips, more at times and less at times. That’s why you hear the motor speed up and slow down as the load from the press changes. Dollars to doughnuts, your drive pulley is super polished from the belt slipping. There is no harm in this except premature wear of both belt and pulley, but they are easily and cheaply enough replaced. And the only solution would be a half shaft to step the speed down in two steps. (Assuming you wanted to keep the motor/speed controller original and not go 3-phase with a VFD). Great video. Keep up the good work!
"Printers used wax because tape hadn't been invented." Haha! We had masking tape but still used wax in the 70s and 80s. Your press is in great shape. Excellent work!
I like that, "Never ever consider reaching for it!" did that once on a 10 x 15 Windmill, when sheets kept dropping off the pickup vacuum tubes. I still have the scars........
I ran job presses from 1952-54 until I joined the Air Force in 1954. I fed a lot of business cards and envelopes. The school got us jobs when we turned 16. Up until then, we would have a week of classes, and then a week of shop.
That’s such an incredible process, I really like the results of the overprinting. I have two questions about the process, first is about the printing plates, do you make them yourself from a design sent in to you or do you design the whole thing? And second is about the ink coverage on the press, do you need a specific amount to work or does the ink roller and rotation combination adjust the amount of ink that gets transferred to the paper?
This design was made in-house but almost all of our real letterpress work is ordered by our clients. For the ink coverage... It's really just going by feel and sound. The rollers make a very subtle "velcro" kind of sound when they roll up over the ink disk and when this sound is just right - I know there's enough.
Perhaps there is a video out on it already, however, where to how to do you produce the plates themselves? Looks like they might be one-time use deals?
You will only give these out only to customers/clients that either preordered a product/service. Giving these out is like giving out trophies. Customers got a earn it. If not, snap a picture and give it back.
You tend to get a feel for it over time. It’s also kind of a sensory thing where the sound and feel of it lets you know. If there’s too much, we just clean off one or two rollers.
These videos are eye openers for those of us who are not ex pro printers. Great work. I'm curious what solvent you use to wash away the ink and clean the presses ?
Fantastic vid, what kind of base do you use? I was looking at buying a Boxcar base (from the US - I'm in Sydney Aus) but figured I can probably just buy something local. What thickness in mm is it?
We use a couple different base heights depending on the thickness of the plate or the process we're doing. You can't go wrong with a boxcar base but almost any solid chunk of aluminum that is ground down to .875" inches would work well.
Are you able to just feed these letterpressed cards through a more modern printer pressing or does all of the printing have to be done by letterpress? Also, what is the process for making your plates; is it in house or outsourced?
If we use a paper that is 20pt or thinner we are able to digitally print a design first and then add a hit of letterpress afterward. We do a lot of printing that has full color digitally printed elements and then add a center area that is letterpress ink or foil. The plates are made in a different department for "plate-making" where film, developer, and acid etching takes places.
What is the stock that you used? It took the debossing crisply and there didn't seem to be any ink migration along the fibers at the edges. I would have also like to have seen how you set the plate/platen spacing to achieve the debossing. Do you machine the plates in-house?
Somewhere on TH-cam there’s a video of a woman running a hand fed platen press at a really frightening speed. I did a bit of letterpress back in the ‘70#, but always slowly.
@@srfurley I remember reading in an old Golding & Co. manual that an experienced operator could handfeed a press at 3000 impressions per hour. Most people don't even run their motors that fast...
After 30 years in print, many of which spent on Heidelberg platen and cylinder presses, its good to see this craft being maintained and good to see it done well too, attention to detail is everything. I miss my machines ;)
How many price of this machin
Never realised it was such an involved process until I saw these videos. Great to watch
Most people don’t get the chance to see how this kind of work is done. We’ve been making these videos just to show how much work really goes on behind the scenes. Thanks for your comment!
Took me back 65 years to my first year as as a apprentice printer. Did a 7 year apprenticeship-Love the Chandler and Price-will never wear out.
We had two of these in our print shop class in junior high. NO! Nobody ever got hurt. Respect.
Please post MORE. I love this content, the presentation, the filming and editing. So good!
Agreed with Adrock, please keep posting. Also, I want to know which paper you are using in this video for print..?? Can I but it online somewhere, please share link if any..??
I love these old machines, the gentle quiet movements are fantastic, glad to see they are still being used to produce high quality prints.
As someone who did this manually many years ago and now uses tons of business cards, you’re going to be my go to company for my next batch of business cards. Your skills are impeccable!
Thank you very much! It took years and years of practice and learning to adapt to all the different designs that come through!
Jukebox Print I can tell you work hard at it! I love your videos
I grew up in a print shop that my Father purchased 4 months before I was born. Closed the doors after 39 years. Also worked for his Uncles Print Shop. They rolled letterpress newspaper mats, he had a cylinder, hand feeds and a windmill. Knew nothing about offset, until he got drafted and stationed at Fort Hood, 1963. The joy it brings my Dad when I find Videos of presses that he's always used as reference whenever I ran into a snag, along with my personal gratitude. Having said all that, really unique how you packed the Tympan to achieve impression. I often seen my dad use a torn sheet of paper, run his finger on the side of the press for grease, go behind the platen, add grease and torn sheet to any low-spots, just never seen him make-ready to register.
That Impression on the Paper is so Beautiful.
M Umair thank you! It takes a while to level the press for that kind of impression. It has to be just right!
Sure brings back memories. I haven’t used anything like this since the 70's
Love the colours and the simplicity of the card.
I loved this video! I'm a printer by trade myself. Of course this press is before my time. Thank you for the video! My dad is also a printer and he definitely would remember this type of printing!
That is awesome!
I love, love, love the old press! Old machinery in general, but the o'l press looks and sounds amazing.
We love them too!
Bro I have no clue why your videos capture my attention, maybe it is simply the fact that the printing press changed the world. You are a master at this craft, thanks for your time and effort.
As a long-time Letterpress printer, with all sizes of the C&Ps - from the Pilot up to the 12x18 we call "Big Ben", I enjoyed the familiar sound of your press running with the old Kemble motor. And, I was pleased to see you practicing pretty nearly the same techniques that I was taught over fifty years ago. Although we were taught to "kiss the paper", and not make as deep an impression as is popular today, your impression appears to be just right for the paper you printing on - and your register is indeed "dead-on" or, as we tend to say "dot for dot". Very pleasing video passing on some very correct techniques of this craft. Thank you.
Thank you Alan! The only thing I would've done differently is mounted each plate upside down so that they were right side up as they were being delivered. Just as type is supposed to be: reverse and upside down.
Love the gizmoness of that machine. Hand feeding looks sketchy. Be careful. Love these videos.
Really neat to hear how they used melted wax back in the day.
I went to a museum that had an active print shop with these machines, and now I'm here. I kinda want to learn how to do this now.
Find yourself a "print finishing" shop and tell them you're willing to learn!
Wow that's printing system was very brilliant i miss them we have that machine 20 years before and accuracy was amazing i miss that printing machine
Digital printing just doesn't compare!
Learned letter press in high school
It was very satisfying. Its a true art Ran large offset for 35 years.
Beautiful indeed... I'm a manual typesetter as a profession, so I have a very warm feeling in my heart seeing this. :-)
I like the way you show all those fixtures that we don't know they exist. greetings from El Salvador (Central America).
Rodolfo Cabrera thank you! I try to be as detailed as possible.
this was the most satisfying video I watched in a while. Love the old school printing machines and techniques.
So fascinating! I could watch this for hours! Thank you for sharing!
Inspirational! Love your press, I have never seen an ink plate like that and four rollers, wonderful.
I like how the text takes advantage of this too.
it is so nice seeing the process and how the skill is needed on the swift pass through of paper.
really cool result on the font off set...with perfect image. It really stands out!
the machine is a beauty. When I studied graphic design in the late 80ies, I were taught all the old and basic techniques and this sure brings me back on memory lane (-:
any books you recall that you'd recommend for Graphic Design?
Typographic Desk Reference
&
The Elements of Typographic Style
H. Jima
I’d say that styles has changed a lot, but there are still some basic “rules” to work with. Don’t use too many fonts at the same time, keep the design simple and consistent and don’t be afraid of showing the (white) paper.
(I know that it’s been trending with words of wisdom written with all sort of fonts, but if you look close you’ll see that they go together, but only because they’re kept in same colors).
Jukebox Print
Yeah, I’m sort of a typography nerd too. I love fonts and designing logotypes, even though it’s harder to keep a business with all the freebies on the internet. I’ve designed a few logos that are still in use +30 years later.
I love your old print machines. The Heidelberg you have is called a “flyswatter” in Danish 😂
Nice and interesting ! Cool to see those antique machines still working in a precise and silent way. Lucky guy doing an artistic job. Thanks for sharing
I do like it. Have started this process since 1978.
I am glad your video pop up into my suggestions. Keep going.. we would love to see more.
I love these presses. When I was in school I graduated in 1988, I wanted to get into printing so bad with this style printers, unfortunately, I could not find a job and we were transitioning from old to new but I'm 50 now and still wish I could do it I just love the way they look work everything.
What a mechanical marvell these machines are, love watching them whirr away 👍
Amazing really!
Found out about this channel yesterday! Love it, definitely some great explanations and videos.
I was trained in letterpress printing at a Tech high school here in CT in the 1970's. I loved it and resisted the move toward offset printing, but letterpress was a 'dying' art. I had a small shop for a few years in my parent's basement with a 6x10 kelsey. I can only imagine all the type cases emptied, used for arts and crafts and the type melted down for fishing weights. 😳
I miss having the equipment around as it would be fun to print jobs that are appreciated for the impression marks! I love it.
Thanks for stirring up some good memories. I could use some and those were good times.
Cheers,
Pete
We remember the days of our Adana 5x8 in the attic with just a case of 12pt Caslon to learn with...
We're years away from that now but not much has changed! Thanks for your comment Pete.
you made me so happy to see one working again, I operated one of those for 20 years and then they got a Kluge, after I retired the company sold all of them, they could not find any one that could operate them.
Fifty years for me.
i like the way you make it look easy, real smooth
Been a press operator for 20 years on everything from the Heidelberg windmill letterpress to a modern sm74 and I've never seen baby blue ink forms before
I'm in love with this process
Mannnnn..... U reminded me of the days when I started to train on this machine..... So many times my fingers got caught between the plates.... 😂😂😂😂
It's nostalgic for me.
that right hand should be awarded for consistency 😁
Please continue with the videos, learning so much.
one more cool video. Than the last one, since this press is lot familiar (what I often see here in shops), it is more interesting to watch how it is done. Loved it :)
Nice press and speed control rocks!
nostalgia y recuerdos de mis inicios en las artes graficas... esto si era arte desde su armado tipografico has la limpieza de la maquina ... =)
excelente video ademas....
I have a newfound love and respect for the time & effort that goes into this craft and line of work. Honestly mindblown 🤯 new subscriber and look forward to watching more vids 🤘🏼
i deal with antiques and you cant beat the old school way of doing things. sure you can do it other ways and faster, but odds are the new machines will be in the landfill in 10 years.
Wow, amazing. There such a beauty to this craft. ❣️
After all it is wonderful. Exact location. Cool color. Great. 모든 내용을 다 이해는 못했지만 너무 잘 봤습니다.
Great video!What a cute little machine! Great video!What a cute little machine!!
Thank you 🤗
I can play all day with this machine. Thanks for sharing these videos.
Wow! Great press, wonderful skill! I have a C&P power guillotine form that vintage. I want to computerize the backgauge, lol.
Reaching for it is how the Chandler and Price I ran in the past got its name. The snapper.
You have to treat these machines like a wild dog. Never get too close!
fallen in love with letterpress. just. like. that. :-)
That's how it starts!
You are in Toronto! That's great news.
NOT EASY, it's a DELICATE process... and NICE FINAL PRODUCT !!!!
Another fantastic video!!
Awesome video. Thank you!
I like the fact that 'voda' is Chech for water, so is 'woda' in Polish and 'вода' in Russian (all pronounced the same) and the third color in the large V forms a droplet.
Marcin Zdun i like the fact that in these languages “water” is just a “k” away from vodka
@@waterunderthebridge7950 that because -ka added when you wan't to make something shorter, smaller, cuter or not so serious. Baba - Babka - Babushka. Voda - Vodka - Vodochka - maximum of cuteness :)
@@SergeyRAD LOLKA :B
@@SergeyRAD Yeah, except in my language there is a stepping away from the root in the process, the o becomes ó [u], and the d is voiceless (as in [vutka] for wódka). But I digress... :)
Same in serbian😄 вода
I own a clamshell diecutter which works exactly like that press. You could easily register the next workpiece by placing a carbon copy paper on the moving mold and let the plate strike it to create impressions onto the background paper, then hollows out a piece of your to-be-printed stock at key locations of the image and align them to the striked image on the mold and move the holding clip to that paper's resting position. It sounds complicated, but its actually more precise and gets the job done in one go.
I know exactly what you're talking about. We'll use carbon paper for large forme die cutting and to feel out registration and impression on more complicated work - but for something as simple as this it isn't exactly necessary. We can't show every possible step in our videos and everyone seems to have their own style of preparing their makeready. Clamshells are good fun, especially the 40" ones with foil... Thanks for your input!
Love it, keep them coming
Pensé que nunca volvería a ver una de estas,y menos imprimiendo en linotipo en 3 colores, maneje una de estas durante años, saludos y felicitaciones por el vídeo.
Believe it or not, vintage machines like these are still used commercially in my country. We had a printing business back in the day. My dad was a veteran in the field with over 30 years of experience. We had 2 Heidelbergs KOR and KORD. The KOR was one of the earliest models, and a manual Victoria press like this one, removed the printing parts and repurposed just for die-cutting.
We used this press as our main die cutting machine for many years before adjusting the bed height for printing. A manual Victoria press would be a dream to have. I love presses with perfect parallel impression.
This is amazing! BRAVO!!
I ran letterpress for many years, and this press was my first.
I’m sure the deep impression is intentional in this case, (pun intended) but it wasn’t when letterpress was the prime printing method. We were chastised if you could feel the image in the backside - we were told - “this is printing, not embossing.”
The catch is, our clientele now expect deep impression and without it we receive complaints. It would be nice to really finesse the makeready for fine kiss printing but there's no pleasing people with that!
This is the content i signed up for, love it
Voda means water, in cyrillic languages, if anyone's questioning why there's a drop in the logo.
Cyrilic? I think you means slavic.
Beautiful work! When you overprint, does the plate not pick up any of the still wet ink from the paper? I use Caligo Safe Wash inks and wonder if they would contaminate even the rollers and disc if I overprint the second colour right away.
Love that Impression!
Great video and information. Well done.
Glad you liked it! Thank you!
Cool counter-rotating ink discs. You don’t see many that are actually functional these days, not that they were a big hit back in the day or that they make much difference. You can definitely see and hear the wear in the press- visually in the backlash of the ink-disc and audibly in the various clanks on the press. The ratchet on the back side of the ink disc is creating some of those sounds, but there are others. When you run enough of these presses for long enough, you start hearing things... Speaking of sounds, I thought I heard the air pump on a windmill running in the background during some of those clips... The motor is struggling a bit- basically the pulley is too small -the arc of contact is too small and the belt slips, more at times and less at times. That’s why you hear the motor speed up and slow down as the load from the press changes. Dollars to doughnuts, your drive pulley is super polished from the belt slipping. There is no harm in this except premature wear of both belt and pulley, but they are easily and cheaply enough replaced. And the only solution would be a half shaft to step the speed down in two steps. (Assuming you wanted to keep the motor/speed controller original and not go 3-phase with a VFD). Great video. Keep up the good work!
MARAVILLOSO TRABAJO DE ARTE... YO CUENTO CON UNA CHANDLER Y LA USO PARA SUAJE Y DOBLEZ... ESTA ES UNA EXCELENTE IDEAAA, GRACIAS
Really cool
I would love to see more and I’m a first timer watching and new subscriber.
"Printers used wax because tape hadn't been invented." Haha! We had masking tape but still used wax in the 70s and 80s. Your press is in great shape. Excellent work!
Excellent.
Many thanks!
These are great
Love this video
I like that, "Never ever consider reaching for it!" did that once on a 10 x 15 Windmill, when sheets kept dropping off the pickup vacuum tubes. I still have the scars........
Ooouch!
must of been on a Heidelberg
I ran job presses from 1952-54 until I joined the Air Force in 1954. I fed a lot of business cards and envelopes.
The school got us jobs when we turned 16. Up until then, we would have a week of classes, and then a week of shop.
Yes i would like to see moreeeee and moreeeee
Nice content
Old model but best model
Thank You, Kindly share. Keep up....
FANTASTIC!!!!
Glad you like it!
That’s such an incredible process, I really like the results of the overprinting.
I have two questions about the process, first is about the printing plates, do you make them yourself from a design sent in to you or do you design the whole thing? And second is about the ink coverage on the press, do you need a specific amount to work or does the ink roller and rotation combination adjust the amount of ink that gets transferred to the paper?
This design was made in-house but almost all of our real letterpress work is ordered by our clients. For the ink coverage... It's really just going by feel and sound. The rollers make a very subtle "velcro" kind of sound when they roll up over the ink disk and when this sound is just right - I know there's enough.
Did not know that I needed to subscribe to another channel. :-)
God I love those machines.
You said it.
Perhaps there is a video out on it already, however, where to how to do you produce the plates themselves? Looks like they might be one-time use deals?
You will only give these out only to customers/clients that either preordered a product/service. Giving these out is like giving out trophies. Customers got a earn it. If not, snap a picture and give it back.
Do you have a video of how the plates are made? I would love to see that.
I am wondering how do they know how much ink will be needed. Very interesting to watch. Please post more.
You tend to get a feel for it over time. It’s also kind of a sensory thing where the sound and feel of it lets you know. If there’s too much, we just clean off one or two rollers.
Thank you for telling me. It is very interesting.
Hello my son, I remember my youth, when I finished this machine there was no internet system in my country at that time, now I remember my machine
Dad?
wow, very cool !
Thank you!
..."our antique Chandler & Price letterpress" ....I'm 46....I used these in 9th-12th Grade.....sooo many memories, old ANTIGUEY memories lol
What named this machine?
These videos are eye openers for those of us who are not ex pro printers. Great work. I'm curious what solvent you use to wash away the ink and clean the presses ?
Exallant job....!
Thank you!
Fantastic vid, what kind of base do you use? I was looking at buying a Boxcar base (from the US - I'm in Sydney Aus) but figured I can probably just buy something local. What thickness in mm is it?
We use a couple different base heights depending on the thickness of the plate or the process we're doing. You can't go wrong with a boxcar base but almost any solid chunk of aluminum that is ground down to .875" inches would work well.
Are you able to just feed these letterpressed cards through a more modern printer pressing or does all of the printing have to be done by letterpress?
Also, what is the process for making your plates; is it in house or outsourced?
If we use a paper that is 20pt or thinner we are able to digitally print a design first and then add a hit of letterpress afterward. We do a lot of printing that has full color digitally printed elements and then add a center area that is letterpress ink or foil. The plates are made in a different department for "plate-making" where film, developer, and acid etching takes places.
What is the stock that you used? It took the debossing crisply and there didn't seem to be any ink migration along the fibers at the edges. I would have also like to have seen how you set the plate/platen spacing to achieve the debossing. Do you machine the plates in-house?
Thanks for the clear explanation and sharing the techniques on letterpress printing!
Somewhere on TH-cam there’s a video of a woman running a hand fed platen press at a really frightening speed. I did a bit of letterpress back in the ‘70#, but always slowly.
@@srfurley I remember reading in an old Golding & Co. manual that an experienced operator could handfeed a press at 3000 impressions per hour. Most people don't even run their motors that fast...