11 January 2008

Roll Roll Roller Wheels!


My new "trunnions", as they are called in my original Kelsey Printer's Guide Book, finally came in today from NA Graphics out in Colorado. I've been waiting patiently and today was the day! My experiments with the old trucks (see previous posts) didn't go well, so I'm glad the new parts are now here and ready to be used. I put the nice shiny new ones on this afternoon and gave it a quick lubrication. Everything is sliding nicely and I did a quick test impression without ink. The impression screws look like they need some adjusting.

Now, I just need more type case storage!

10 January 2008

Information Suburbia

Like a cul-de-sac, its fun to do a few donuts and move on...The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. Found via Crankylog.

05 January 2008

Always a good time

I made the trip out to Letterpress Things this morning. I really love being able to jump in my car at 9am and be walking up the stairs by 10am. In the letterpress world having such a huge resource so close by is a true luxury and I always appreciate that on my drive over.

This fine winter morning I ran into Kelly of May Day Studio, who was doing another one of her fantastic workshops. We talked inks today and I learned about the pros and cons of both oil and rubber-based inks. In the end, I picked up some little tubes of Kelsey ink in Peacock Blue and Bronze Embossing. I had my eye on some VanSon tubs originally, but the alluring color names and Kelsey brand of the smaller tubes did me in. Who could resist Peacock Blue?



Anyway, no luck picking up new trucks to fit my new rollers so I am still sans-printing over here. John B. did have some good suggestions for work-arounds in the meantime which I will try after my son goes to bed tonight. I think I have the necessary metal file and I know I have twine. I can try filing notches into the old trucks so the roller arms will fit onto the roller cores with the trucks in place.

As of right now, the trucks can't slide far enough onto the cores due to the notches on the cores without the corresponding notches into the truck. I can also gain some grip by looping twine between the core and the inside surface of the truck. Luckily, I do have an extra truck (for some reason the press came with 5) so I can experiment on one first. We'll see what happens.