Amber at Flywheel Press runs a windmill workshop in CA.
https://www.facebook.com/flywheelpress/

My favorite part is the same…meeting such a great group of people and being completely inspired! I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten to geek out so much over letterpress and it was amazing!

I LOVE the Mild Citrus Thinner from Eco-House. It cleans and degreases really well and actually smells good. They also have an almost completely odorless thinner. It’s certainly pricey, but I can’t stand to use anything else.http://www.eco-house.com/citrus_thinner115.html

Update…I finally had someone come out to look at the problem. He adjusted the bearings (exactly the same as we had done). The form roller height continued to change between print and trip, but the mechanic said there was no mechanical reason for this. So he lubricated the bolts at the pins/bolts at the end of the form rollers and it fixed the problem! The press works great now and there is not a single issue with form roller movement!

I also get back pain from working on the press, and I’m definitely not very well endowed. It seems like something that just comes with the territory – the repetition of printing. I built into my business expenses time with a massage therapist once or twice a month, especially at the end of a really intense week. This seems to help. I also try to take breaks for 5 minutes every hour or two to stretch (sometimes yoga stretches help). It seems like taking on an intern or a trusted friend for a few hours each week might help, especially if you set up the press and just have them work on production.

I live closer to their shipping center than you do, so maybe I’m the one who is spoiled 🙂 Hopefully you have better luck this time.

I order online directly from Crane and it always arrives 2-3 days after I place the order. You can log into your account to see if it has shipped, although they usually send me a tracking number. And right now they have free shipping on orders over $75.

I hear you. I now have a clause in my contract for clients who are providing me with a design that says the design must be original and/or they must have a license for reproduction. I don’t know that this solves the problem, but I can’t possibly know what every other press is doing. You’re lucky to have caught that before printing.

Hmmm. I agree with your about thinking that the process is clever, but I also don’t like that it’s called letterpress. Letterpress is defined as “the process of printing from an inked raised surface especially when the paper is impressed directly upon the surface”, but I would go a step further and say that there should be an actual press involved. I think what she’s doing is actually embossing/debossing. It doesn’t look like she’s embossing the text, just the images, which make sense because her system of registration can’t be that accurate without a press.For me this issue is similar to letterpress work that is offered by non-printers and not fully disclosed. The work may actually be letterpress printed, but the designer doesn’t mention that they don’t own a press and outsourced the printing (maybe to some of us!). I don’t know why this would bother me, other than the fact that I bust my butt printing on a daily basis.

I agree with Kelly. I always get a 50% non-refundable deposit and the balance is due before shipment. If the client is in a hurry I let them know they can send final check the week before shipment and I also started taking credit cards. I’ve been burned once or twice when I was overly generous with a client, but quickly learned my lesson!

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