Update — etching press w/ photopolymer plates
Hey guys — some of you might remember a post where I was wondering if I should buy an etching press for a new business (including wedding invitations, fine art posters, business cards, etc). I did buy the press, and it arrived yesterday.
The results are good! Here are some photos (with more details):
http://imgur.com/a/0e1Kk
The press is a Conrad E15. I can’t complain. I love it. It did arrive a little over a month late, which was really stressing me out… but it’s here, and very nice.
I’m definitely significantly slower due to hand inking, which was the most problematic part of it… until I got in the swing of things (I haven’t actually printed anything for 6.5 years before this), like remembering what the right amount of ink feels like, I was going way too heavy. I also had a couple problems with parts of the plate getting ink that weren’t supposed to (even though I had bars on the side to hold up the brayer)… if I forgot to check, I’d almost be guaranteed to have an otherwise perfect print ruined by random ink spots. It was easy to deal with when I remembered to check though. Right now my avg rate is about 30 impressions/hr, but I got a lot faster towards the end of the run (150 to get ~110).
I’m excited that I’ll be able to do larger and different stuff on the etching press! I would definitely be open to adding a platen in the future :)
looks good.