Perhaps the more important question to ask is what am I interested in printing/think I can make a living printing.  Are you looking at wedding/stationery?  Broadsides/posters?  Business cards etc??

Surprised your friends didn’t gush about Vandercooks, since that seems to be a very popular press.  The FAG is the Swiss version of the Vandercook.  The cylinder proof press (which is represented by Vandercook/Asbern/FAG is great for highly controlled printing (in terms of ink, impression, and register) but they are slow and ill suited for long run work (50 +).  Unless you have a fully automatic version, you will be cranking the roller carriage a lot, to the point where it presents an occupational health problem.  They are also highly coveted and tend to be more expensive to acquire. 

The Chandler and Price, and other platens of similar (Gordon patent) design have their own problems, namely the danger of injury from getting the hands caught in the closing platen.  However, they are a much faster machine, better suited for longer runs.  They are not as strong for printing large solids, and will struggle with large impressional loads on soft papers (Lettra).  Platens are much cheaper to acquire, and are generally more robust if kept up.

So far as the whole starting a business thing?  Well, that’s a giant can of worms for sure and I imagine many others are conversing with you about this issue.  Best of luck with that.

A lot would depend on your composition imposition process.  If you are running polymer and working with a digital front end, then digital proofs should be more than sufficient.  However, on a high end job, or using a “new” brand of paper/ink/plate, proofs would be valuable in evaluating results in house, or to spec with customers.  

If you outsource your platemaking, proofs would be a good way to ensure there are no plate defects, before the job gets down to deadline and you find out the fine lines in that script face got washed out.

In a metal shop (which is what I do) I find proofing (an old Challenge roller press) to be invaluable for proofing linecast composition.   It is also the only mechanism I have for making customer proofs.  Before I got that press, I didn’t do much proofing, and I made a lot more mistakes.

If you are a one press shop, and that happens to be a cylinder proof press (Vandy, Challenge, etc) there is the challenge of creating a proof without tying up the press.  For that, I’d suggest getting some chases and try to develop a process flow where forms can be built on a stone/galley/etc and are not on the press. 

Proofing (digital or actual) is the first and most effective defense against rerunning jobs, and is the cheapest means of testing job integrity.  It should be a part of the process flow for every shop.

I should note that I am talking about copy proofing (check of spelling, image laydown, etc).  I am not referring to a full press proof–which would be an extra cost item (customer must be present at presstime as well).  Education is required to ensure the customer knows the difference between the two–proofs are not identical to the final product (except the image should be).

Michael Seitz

Quality Letterpress Printing

Missoula MT

In most production shops, a sheet such as this would be printed on an envelope, so there’s a handy place to keep samples, art, revisions, proofs and whatever other stuff winds needing to be with the job for future reference.  Mine are printed on 6 x 9 inch envelopes, and while needing to have a few revisions (customer info), here is a sample of the layout.

Job Ticket JPG–Flickr

Michael Seitz

Quality Letterpress Printing

Missoula MT

Actually, a flat spot on a Morgan Expansion truck would merely have the roller ride harder on the form.  A flat spot on a roller (caused by leaving the rollers on the ink disk) will cause complete non-inking that does move around.  I changed out a roller with a flat spot and it vastly improved things–now to get rid of the other roller that has a pit in it (old rollers).

NEVER leave rollers on the platen when the press is idle.  If you are worried and like the have the platen closed (so fingers stay out) remove the rollers first.  BTW this applies to Heidelbergs too (just flip the roller tracks up on the top if you leave the platen closed during non-use).

Pardon my frumpy production questions but:

How long are the print runs you intend?

Big Solids?

Need to print quickly?

Have a lot of time to devote to printing?

Frankly, from a production point of view, I’d certainly recommend the C&P’s, but if you’re biggest run in 30 or so pieces, better to devise a frisket/register system for the Challenge or Poco.  The proof presses also are handy if you are not nimble or comfortable hand feeding a platen (the C&P’s), which has serious negative consequences if your hands get caught in the works.

I would second the workshop–or at the very least try to visit some of the shops around you and see what they do and how comfortable you would with the equipment you see. 

For long term storage it’d be metal or glass.  For medium term storage WAXED paper cups.  Under no circumstances is plastic really good, as the ink solvents will outgas through the plastic, leaving the ink as  a skin on the outside of the cup.  Plastic is good for a day or two, but for more than that, use something else.

You would pretty much create a die line that is 5 or 10 percent larger than your art and have a steel rule die made.  When die cutting, if you can do it right, you can “kiss-cut” the label stock so that you have a waste lip that can be peeled back, rather than a full cut out label that you have to separate the adhesive layers on.  Of course a lot (but not all) label stock is split on the back to make removal of the backing paper easy.

Generally all steel rule dies are custom,  unless the die maker has some generic shapes (circles, squares),l in stock, however they will probably all cost about the same.

Well, congratulations!

 

That said, I presume that your business has risen to the level where it is making enough money to pay the monthly rent of having a commercial space, or that you intend to invest enough effort to create inventory to run a retail operation.

 

I can certainly see the advantages of having the shop at a different location from the house, the reduction in distractions would be tremendous and allow one to focus more on just printing.  I guess the thing I would go for is a storefront shop with living quarters upstairs.

 

One problem I can see, that I’ve noticed with a local letterpress retail shop: the inability to get work done because customers are always coming in and need to be taken care of.  You either will have short retail hours, or a second person to field the customers–or print at night.

 

Michael Seitz

Hmmm…

 

   When I change rollers, I do the following:

 

   Pull chase and run rollers to halfway down the chase area–this is where the springs have the least tension.

 

   Remove the single roller first, otherwise it gets in the way later.

 

   Working at the right side roller saddle/bracket, put my thumb at the top corner of the saddle and lever out the saddle until I can get the roller lifted out–then carefully do the same on the left, hoping that the truck(s) will not fall off and land on the floor underneath the press.  If the little rod on the right hand saddle is present, this is a whole lot simpler yet.

 

    Repeat for the bottom roller–though it should take little effort to get that one out.

 

    Replacement is the reverse of removal.

 

    IF you are running a KLUGE–you will really want to the nifty roller removal lever-as the springs on a Kluge are extremely hefty and no fun to do by hand.

 

 

 

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