progress report.

I finally ordered some additional parts: trucks (these attach to the ends of the rollers - I had 3 of the 4 I needed, but like tires, it was better to purchase new ones as a pair), the boxcar deep relief base (which is what polymer plates sit on instead of locking in lead or wood type), and a roller gauge (to make sure everything is at the right height for printing). Next, I ship the roller cores out to have them recovered in rubber.

With all my focus on trees in the last couple days, including some reading I did on Paper University about the trees grown and used for paper-making, it was funny to me that Boxcar Press had an option to purchase a tree for one dollar at the end of their ordering flow.


So, I did. I can't say enough how thorough and helpful Boxcar's site is for new and potential printers, and maybe even for well-established ones. I finally spent some time perusing their FAQs and tutorials, their online printing manuals and so forth. There's also a link to: Flurry: A Journal Among the Printers.

diagram of a platen press.

Sometimes a picture does the job much faster than a string of words - this is a diagram of a press nearly identical to mine, labeled. Clicking on the image will open a larger view.


In one of my workshops at San Francisco Center for the Book, we received copies from old instructional manuals, which have some great retro-looking (and helpful!) diagrams throughout.

Happy Sunday.

road trip!

Since letterpress as a hobby is more about the journey than the destination, I thought it was appropriate to share a little of our journey, literally, between San Francisco and Los Angeles - roundtrip in approximately 15 hours - to pick up my new (er, old!) printing press. (Clicking on the pics significantly enlarges them.)



1. We flew into Orange County Saturday morning, rented a mid-size SUV, and drove to Garden Grove. We found the press, thrillingly, in beautiful condition and strapped it into the back of the car. Shortly thereafter, we turned around to head back home.


2. We drove home via I5, some 460.6 miles, stopping for lunch at a taqueria in Los Angeles where, incidentally, we also had a Jimmy Kimmel sighting. Afterward, the horizon was in the distance, the sun setting to our left, and we passed cacti and cornfields, feeding cattle and open countryside. There were vineyards laden with grapes, and we smelled onions, and passed trucks hauling tomatoes upstate.


3. We stopped for dinner at Harris Ranch, where I hadn't been since my adolescence. The tomato beef salad hit the hunger spot.


4. And then, finally, the Craftsmen platen press met San Francisco, sometime after midnight. Some names were discussed, including Shirley and Henrietta, but I prefer calling her plain old "Red." And she's not just red -- rather, as her former owner said, she's "red hot." A shade I've heard referred to as "ox blood."

A huge thanks goes out to my husband for his company, and for keeping his calm - even when we nearly missed our flight and went running through the airport, were pulled out of the security line and boarded our plane with minutes to spare; and when, before that, the long-term parking lot was full; and for all those times I freaked out on the 405 because LA drivers are a different breed. Another big thanks to my brother Mike for driving out Sunday morning to help my husband carry the press into our apartment. For all my weight training at the gym, nearly 200 pounds of free weight in an awkwardly shaped package was more than I could handle.

It was a long day, but a good adventure, and the journey, as it were, is just beginning.