Print and Foil
We are a little new to all things letterpress and need to ask a foolish question. I know, I ask a lot of these lately. Can the same plate made for a hot foil job also be use for printing a cold ink job. We were not sure if the dies are made in the same way for both applications or not. Normally we print with a Photopolymer plate but if a mag or copper plate can be used for both applications is does add additional utility to the plate and can expand it’s potential uses and cross platform application.
In short, yes, the same die can be used to print or apply hot foil. Provision must be made to properly mount the plate to make it the proper height for each use, however, as some mounting plates for hot foil stamping are designed to mount unmounted plates, and a similar (or the same) mounting method would need to be utilized for printing.
John Henry
Thank you for the feedback. We have an extra 6 x 9 hot plate I recently shorted and fried We had pulled the wiring and noticed it made a good mounting base for the 1/4 foil die we had been trying to use. I was not sure if the dies were the same setup for both types and thouqht best to ask.
I would be willing to buy that hotplate from you. or, some sort of trade including, either a honeycomb, of at least that size, or solid aluminum base, milled to a thickness you spec. Drilled and tapped for bunter posts.
Thank you for the offer but for now we are first going to see if we can get our other hot plate working. We may need to put the damaged one back together. We having problems with the other hot plate with the heat probe. It is a larger unit with a Boss Controller (Watlow) and I need to see how this plays out when I finish redoing the cartridge heaters and wiring.
okay. keep my offer in mind. if you need help with present project let me know.