Printing presses

I made the press I've been using back in 2011, I think. I made it to use as a nipping press for bookbinding repairs. It's made from various bits of scrap wood and a manual car jack that was dumped at the end of our drive.

When I started printing it made sense to give it a try. The artists I'd come across used etching presses for relief printing (the sort of press that works like an old-school mangle), but I liked the idea of a platen press. Something Gutenberg would recognise. Anyhow, my rough-and-ready press worked quite well.

As with all these things, I made various tweaks as I went along, and stored some ideas away for the “next one”.

So the “next one” ended up being this. The wood is mostly bits of hardwood door and other bits of furniture I'd sort of inherited. I finished just before Christmas.

Improvements include:

1. A sliding bed with side rails to guide it in and out. 

2. A heavy plate with an iron core faced with mdf. This is smaller than the bed so I don't end up printing too close to the edge of the paper.

3. A hydraulic jack, so easier on the arms. The 2 trampoline springs raise the plate when the valve is released. I'm especially pleased with this. I was considering making the press “upside down” with the plate raising to the bed and lowering again under gravity. But that had issues regarding loading paper and registration.

The whole thing is bigger. The new plate is about 40cm x 50cm compared to 30cm x 40 cm on the old one. The bed is around about A2 size, while the bed on the old one is the same size as the plate.

I've still got to make some kind of tympan and registration guide for the blocks, but I'm pretty much ready to go.