Letterpress Baby...

Hello!

I know it has been a little bit since I've provided an update but work and life sometime collide and the time just gets away from me before I realize it. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post - we bought a Chandler and Price 10x15 Letterpress with an automatic feeder last fall.

In between the day job, and dealing with the sciatica pain in my leg, I've been burying myself in Letterpress research. To get it the press up and running, we've had the original rollers recovered, the motor re-wired, purchased a Boxcar base for the chase, and a sample polymer plate (which is a lot like a stamp) that we would use for our print test. 

Placing the Boxcar Base into the Chase

Finally, this past weekend we pulled the press out into the center of the garage for a test run. 

After oiling the 100 plus locations (because you are supposed to oil the press before each run) we attached one roller, inked the disk and put it through the paces. 


Here is a picture of placing the Boxcar Base being setup in the chase. We used blocks of wood called furniture to hold it into place. 

Boxcar Base and Chase in place 

When we ordered the base we also ordered a sample polymer plate that we could use as our test image. 

So once the chase was placed into the press we attached the polymer plate (which has an adhesive that allows it to stick to the base). 










We then attached a roller (a topic I'll save for another day), threw on some ink, figured out the automation (another lengthy topic I'll share in the future) - all I can say is THANK YOU to my hubby, daughter and her wonderful boyfriend because without them I don't think we would have had a test run. With their help we finally fired our Letterpress Baby up!

Here is a video of our last test run. The boyfriend is the person in the red shirt monitoring the paper feed. 

One of the coolest features about our press is that after each cycle it rings a bell. I love that! 

Bell hidden away in the back of the Letterpress

I'll take a snapshot of the polymer plate we used and a sample of what our very first test run looked like tomorrow.

So do you think about Letterpress? Part of me thinks I am crazy and completely in over my head to the point it is laughable - yet I think I'm falling in love...

Thanks so much for stopping by!
JD