Category: Letterpress for beginners
Later topic: Choosing a Press
Earlier topic: Base for Mixing Ink on

ADANA PRESS LOVERS! I need your opinion

Hello!
I am on the verge of purchasing my first letterpress! The press I have my eye on is the Adana 8x5 Printing Press. Does anyone have any advice for a novice? Is this machine great for a beginner? Is it worth purchasing? Is this machine good with printing with Polymer Plates? Recommend any sites to buy parts for this machine? What inks work best with this machine, as far as clean up goes?

Thank you for all of your advice!
Cocadinha

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  • RMG
  • on 20 Jun 09 (17:04)
  • Updated 20 Jun 09 (17:05)

hi Cocadinha,

That looks like a very nice press! I think you will find much information on this site and others (such as British Letterpress) after doing some searching. I use photopolymer plates with my eight five with no problems. That press looks very complete and I doubt you will need many parts , but you can still order parts from caslon and sometimes find parts on ebay. I use charbonnel inks and clean up with odorless mineral spirits. Does not take much to clean up. Enjoy!

I just bought and Adana 8 5 and also need help getting started!

In theory you shouldn’t need spare parts for this machine. Most of them have been running and are still running without having to buy anything but new rollers. These are available through different outlets. Caslon in the UK still holds some spare parts if ever needed. Keep it oiled and free from dust etc. Manuals can be bought from Caslon or downloaded from the Briar Press website. It’s a very easy machine and most things explain themselves. Perfect for photo-polymer plates as well. Adana published some very useful books and you might be able to find them on Abebooks.

Thank you ALL for your help!

Hello I just purchase my Adana 8x5 just pulled it out of the box. I purchased it from England used. Are there any manuals or anything on the operation of the machine???
Can I use polymer plates with it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Manuals can be downloaded from this site. And yes, you can print from photopolymer plates as well.