Letterpress heaven

Just yesterday I went to my letterpress print museum. I live in Victoria Australia. I currently have a Heidelberg T platen at home. I went to the museum because I have found some limitations with my press.

Getting a good (deep) impression with large solid areas is proving a very difficult. So I went in search of something else, thinking that maybe a cylinder could handle it - and there it was a vandercook. Not only was it the most beautiful thing I have ever seen but it produced the most wonderful print I have ever seen - I was in heaven.

Does the t platen have these limitations with large flat blocks of colour?

I now need to find a press like this. Does anyone know how I might find something like this in Australia?

Thank you,

Meaghan

Vince - design & letterpress in Australia
www.vinceprinters.com.au

Log in to reply   3 replies so far

It is a simple matter of physics. For a large solid area, a cylinder is much better than a flat platen. On a flat platen, the pressure is applied all at once over the entire area. On a cylinder press, the pressure is applied on only that portion of the area that is passing directly under the cylinder as it rolls over it, thereby enabling it to concentrate more pressure (and hence a better image for solid areas) as it travels over the form. Perhaps a better way to explain it is that the cylinder is applying pressure to a much smaller portion of the overall image at any given time during the impression.

Hope this helps explain the basic difference in the processes.

Meaghan
Foolproof explained it well.I have both cylinder and platen but seldom use ink on the cylinder as it usually diecuts.Short runs with large solids can often be done on the platen by running through twice(must use guides they are dead on Heidelbergs used to do 4 colour processon a regular basis).First pass with little ink(helps to stabilize the image area) second with the ink and impression you require.I came up with this idea because of problems foil stamping large solids I run the job with heat and impression only the 1st pass and use foil on the second.
Mike

Ahhhhhhhhh…Thank you everyone this makes complete sense. My friendly volunteers at the Melbourne Museum of Printing have allowed me to hire their press - at a fair price - for the day to do some work. I hope this will be an ongoing arrangement…until I can find my very own vandercook.

Thank you,

Meaghan Barbuto

Vince - design & letterpress in Australia
www.vinceprinters.com.au