Base for Mixing Ink on

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I’m new at Letterpress, but I would use White Acrylic, polycarbonate, a white cutting board, stainless steel, white marble. I am curious to what answers you get!

Go to Home Depot and buy a smooth white flooring tile…. a 12x12 or an 18x18….. they are cheap, and work like a charm.

i used to mix ink on the back of a galley, then i tried glass with white paper under it, now i use white chipboard, after mixing the ink i put it in dixie cups, throw the chipboard away, easy cleanup. Dick G.

I use a piece of glass, found in the as-is section at IKEA. Best .50 ever.

I don’t think the glass has to be that thick. I repurposed a fireplace door, which is only 1/8 inch thick. If you’re going to move it around, for safety’s sake it should be tempered and have polished edges. Maybe you can find something like refrigerator shelving. The IKEA shelving sounds, good, too. And if I hadn’t found the fireplace door, I would have used Winking Cat’s tile. I imagine that colorful ink on a white tile is a happy sight.

Barbara

I use an old tempered-glass shelf from a medicine cabinet, but any piece of glass or tile should work - just make sure that it has a smooth surface

I would avoid the “White Acrylic, polycarbonate, … or a white cutting board,” the ink knife will scratch them and they’re harder to clean than a hard surface like glass or glazed tile. Marble is marginal. A good (the $4.00 one) razor blade paint scraper makes clean-up very easy as well.

n/a

I use on old thick piece of glass. It has smooth edges and once was used in a fish tank we were throwing out.

Works a charm!

Devil Tail, i use a old litho stone for locking up my chases, they sure are heavy, i use the bed of my cutter, i tape a piece of white chipboard to the bed (had the scoot around problem) works well and cleanup is easy, dick g.

I use a glass cutting board (about 3/16” thick) that I bought for about $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond. The underside is frosted, so no need for white paper and it has rubber feet on all 4 corners so no slippage.

My grandpa gave me smooth white ceramic tiles to use. Small ones for small amounts of ink and big ones for larger amounts of ink. You can’t cut yourself on a piece of tile like you could glass and if they break (which I’ve never had one break) its a much safer and easy clean up. Plus they are super cheap and easy to handle and wash up is a breeze. Check for a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in your area. They have tons of tiles for super cheap!

i have a marble topped kitchen ‘thing’ in my printing space and had 3 picture frames that were old and gross— I just used the glass from those (small, medium, and large) to mix my ink. Since the marble top is already a bright white, it’s perfect.

tiles have worked well in the past (before I got the marble xmas present from the in-laws)… and are as cheap as $1.50 at lowes for the largest ones.