Getting type-high

Hi all.

I’m relatively new to letterpress and using an Adana 8x5. All is going well. After about a year of not being able to get anything out of the machine, I went on a brief course with the St. Bride Foundation in London which was invaluable.

Everything is fine now, but one of the things giving me problems was the fact that several ‘letterpress’ blocks I bought weren’t actually type high, so they were never going to work!

Some of the blocks are up to about 5mm out. My question is this, is there a standard or recommended way of increasing the height of these blocks? I had thought about mounting them onto several thick sheets of card stock and then trimming to size.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly received.

Thanks in advance,
Jamie

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Cut some card down and break out the pritt stick! Keep going until you reach type-high. You can use a piece of type as a guide, but make sure it’s not worn out too much.

If this is something you expect to have to deal with regularly, I would suggest hopping on good ol’ ebay and getting yourself a type-height gauge. This will be invaluable to you in making sure your cuts are of the proper height.

Find a g shape micrometer you will get the hang of reading it !

Thanks everybody for your help and advice! I think I will be pritting it up and trimming the excess down this weekend!

Thanks again
Jamie