[6798] in APO Printshop
Re: More new equipment in the shop, adjusting the platen, and
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leonard H Tower Jr.)
Wed Oct 8 23:27:17 2014
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 23:27:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.mit.edu>
To: Molly Kosiarek <kosiarek@mit.edu>
cc: Benazeer Noorani <benazeer@gmail.com>, apo-printshop-manager@mit.edu,
apo-printshop-journeyman@mit.edu, apo-printshop-operators@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <CABZuAzoMcAaggo_tjy9MjBAoMj7YA1aqJbELmy4c3ayaMnGcig@mail.gmail.com>
All:
Molly taking this issue of whether Benazeer should be allowed to level
the platen better or not, to a Chapter meeting is fine with me. I'll
try my hardest to attend to help the actives understand the issue.
Benazeer doing training runs, distributing type of Press Ops who have
left the area, and other tasks in the APOster Print Shop has been and
is fantastic.
yiLFS -len
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 17:37:11 -0400
From: Molly Kosiarek <kosiarek@mit.edu>
To: Benazeer Noorani <benazeer@gmail.com>
Cc: apo-printshop-manager@mit.edu, apo-printshop-journeyman@mit.edu,
apo-printshop-operators@mit.edu
Subject: Re: More new equipment in the shop, adjusting the platen,
and calibrating roller height
Hi Benazeer and Len!
I don't feel like I have enough knowledge of the press to accurately answer
all of these points, but I will try to speak of the ones that I do
understand, and will ask the other active brothers for thoughts in our next
chapter meeting.
I am very happy with Benazeer using the press shop and leaving some tools
in the shop area. The press hasn't gotten much use lately, and it is nice
to see it being of service. Are the tools labeled? (We've had issues in the
past where I can't figure out if things in the APO office are APO's or
someone else's and I have guessed incorrectly.)
As a larger point about supplies, I think it would be fantastic to know
what we have, in total. There is tons of stuff in the press-side of the
office, and I don't think I even begin to know what is in there. There is
also a bunch of stuff in the silkscreening room that looks like it belongs
to the press shop? It's not harming anything sitting there, but it would
probably be nice to know what exists.
I'll look into what "adjust the platen" means. I don't know enough about it
to be able to make a decision about if it should or should not happen/ if
it can or cannot hurt our press.
Benazeer:
Very few brothers are trained in using the press shop, offering to train
brothers/pledges is fantastic, thank you so much for doing so! Hopefully a
few brothers/pledges will take you up on this offer so that I am not the
only trained active brother..
(As a side note, I am personally ok with teaching friends that are not
brothers, as long as you are in the office with them when they are
printing, especially in this time of not much printing - but I cannot speak
for the chapter on that subject. I have definitely taught many people
outside of APO how to silkscreen, and they have loved experimenting it
while I've been there to supervise. The press is much larger, more valuable
and more harmful, so a little more caution should be used, but sharing
knowledge seems like a good thing.)
Is adjusting the roller a simple adjustment that you feel confident doing?
That adjustment does seem quite reasonable to fix.
YiLFS,
Molly :)
On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 11:36 AM, Benazeer Noorani <benazeer@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> I have a few more thoughts on calibration, trucks, etc:
>
>
> * I respectfully disagree with the assertion that adjusting roller height
> is a "fine" calibration issue. When I tried to print with a plate, the
> rollers were inking the base. The plate itself is 1.52mm thick. Type height
> is .918 inches, or 23.32mm. That's at least a 7% difference from nominal.
> No engineer I've ever worked with would consider a 7% or more adjustment to
> be anything but a very coarse calibration.
>
> I also have to wonder how much damage has been done to our rollers over
> the years by the excess force of them being pressed into the type much
> deeper than is necessary to produce even a shoddy impression.
>
> I've been trained/qualified at Boston Paper Collection, and have a
> qualifying run scheduled at AS220, the operators at both consider
> adjusting roller height to be a very basic step in the makeready, along
> with adjusting the bedding on the platen, and alignment and registration.
> It doesn't take long and is very conceptually easy. Of course it is not
> required for every job, just as careful centering of the print on the
> cardstock, or making sure the print is square to the edges of the cardstock
> is not strictly speaking required for operator or equipment safety.
>
>
> * I did some reading on Morgan/Delrin trucks and called a friend of mine
> who has a printshop in Seattle to discuss it. After studying the question I
> really cannot recommend the Morgan trucks for a couple of reasons
>
> * Even unused New Old Stock trucks can have hardened rubber. This
> means functionally they are not any different from steel trucks, except
> that they are more brittle.
>
> * The rails are worn unevenly. Adjustable trucks will raise the
> rollers to compensate for average height but cannot compensate for divots
> in the rail itself.
>
> * They are very fiddly and hard to adjust. All of the tools and
> maintenance I have done or would like to do has been with the goal of
> making it easier and less frustrating, for everyone not just me, to do the
> makeready, not harder.
>
> * That said, every operator should make their own decisions about
> things not related to safety. Morgan trucks, or their competitor Delrin's
> trucks, will in fact raise the rollers, as Len said. Whatever method you
> choose of raising the rollers will alleviate problems with letters filling
> in, will prevent ink from getting on the chase and furniture, will allow
> you to go longer before needing to re-ink the plate since ink isn't getting
> wasted on the chase and furniture, and will make it easier to clean the
> type as there won't be ink on the shoulders of the letterforms. Whatever
> tool you use, this is all goodness, for the equipment and cleanup time/your
> sanity!
>
> * If you want to try the Morgan trucks and Len isn't around to show
> you how, I found a scan of the original user instructions here:
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/thearm/335361179/in/photostream/ A bit hard
> to read on the screen but perfectly legible if you download them and print
> them out. Good luck!
>
> * Of course hard tape is superior to masking tape, which will deform under
> compression, and will also get brittle as it ages, but UMHW tape is
> $1.55/foot from NA Graphics. Other suppliers have it for $6/12yard roll,
> with a minimum order of 12 rolls. I just do not have that kind of money for
> tape when masking tape is a cheap and reasonable substitute, especially, as
> Len pointed out, given the other ways in which the press is worn
> (well-loved I say!) and no longer printing in like-new condition. Again as
> Len pointed out, 99% of the users of the press do not need accuracy down to
> the micron, which is what the difference between masking tape and hard tape
> will get you.
>
> * A note on that durable and re-usable equipment: the equipment I've
> bought should be considered on loan to the APOster shop. It has always been
> my intention to purchase a press and set it up at the artist co-op I know
> of, largely so that I can train friends of mine who are not APO brothers,
> but also so that I can ethically charge money for the items I print. I have
> purchased close to a thousand dollars worth of durable equipment that I am
> happy to let the fraternity use in exchange/barter for the amount of space
> it takes up in the shop. Molly, other actives, if this does not sound
> reasonable to you, please let me know immediately so we can work out a
> rental payment agreement or so I can remove the type and tools immediately.
> To be clear the equipment I am talking about is one and a half typecases of
> type, an aluminum block 8" by 12" and 21mm thick, and a roller gauge, .918"
> in diameter at its widest point about about a foot and a half long.
>
> * A little note, but an important one, I am not an "alumnus" of anything,
> I am an alumna. Latin, like it's descendant languages, has gendered nouns.
> An alumnus is a male graduate of a school, college, or university. Alumna
> is the feminine form. The male plural form, alumni, is used to described a
> mixed-gender collection of graduates, but an all-women gathering should be
> referred to as alumnae. I personally use any of the English language
> synonyms such as alum, graduate, or even cruft to avoid the risk of
> accidentally assigning the wrong gender to someone. This is also more
> welcoming and compassionate to our transgender brothers.
>
> * I would be very grateful for the names and contact information of
> specific shops that allow outside press operators. I know of Boston Paper
> Collective (very expensive and also does not have a clamshell style press)
> and AS220 (in Rhode Island and therefore outside of what I would consider
> "the boston area"). I also know of the letpress mailing list and the
> briarpress forums, where I've found the names of a number of shops. I've
> emailed or called about twenty shops in the past year and a half and all of
> them have told me the same thing: they are private studios and only the
> owners and fulltime employees are allowed to use the equipment. If there
> are truly publicly accessible shops, I haven't been able to find them, in
> spite of a great deal of effort looking, and again, I would be very
> grateful for specific names and phone numbers, not a generic and unsourced
> assertion that they exist.
>
> * I re-iterate, if the actives and my fellow journeyman feel it is
> inappropriate for me to continue using the shop, I will remove my projects
> and belonging immediately. I will take silence as assent to continue
> printing and offering to train new brothers.
>
>
> YiLFS
>
> Benazeer
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 10:25 PM, Leonard H. Tower Jr. <tower@alum.mit.edu
> > wrote:
>
>> Molly:
>>
>> * Leveling the platen, if not done very carefully, could damage the
>> large press and leave it unusable for a very long time.
>>
>> I am opposed to Benazeer trying. But the decision is the active
>> members, They have trusted you to manage the Press Shop. Consult the
>> other actives?
>>
>> Let us know what you decide.
>>
>> Questions?
>>
>> (I am out of town until next Thursday 2 Oct 2014, but am reading email
>> most days.)
>>
>> * If you decide to let Benazeer do this, I can offer her some guidance
>> to lessen the risk.
>>
>> * The shop is for the use of students. Both presses have fulfilled this
>> need as they are. Quite well. Without being "finely tuned". Neither
>> press can be restored to do really high quality work (even close to
>> factory new condition).
>>
>> Better to have the press working for the 99% + jobs people want to do,
>> than this high quality job alumnus Benazeer wants to do.
>>
>> * The small press was damaged this way, when an attempt was made to
>> level it's platen. By an alumnus with a mechanical engineering
>> degree, and much experience designing and building machines with
>> gears, etc. Machines like the presses.
>>
>> The alumnus also had more experience printing in the shop that
>> Benazeer has had. The alumnus was sure they knew how to adjust the
>> platen. The alumnus didn't.
>>
>> It took a while to replace the damaged bolts. We eventually had some
>> machined. Expensive in time and money.
>>
>> * Both presses have excessive wear. Though not as bad as presses that
>> have been used for die cutting. (Though I have wondered, if this was
>> done some at the presses prior homes.)
>>
>> ======================================================================
>>
>> Benazeer:
>>
>> * Please do not try to adjust the platen until we hear from Molly. It's
>> likely you'll break it.
>>
>> * I'm not opposed to the other things you want to do.
>>
>> * There are some Morgan Expansion Trucks in the shop. And maybe some
>> replacement rubber "sleeves". I'm not sure what condition they are
>> in. They are another solution to roller shrinkage/wear. I think they
>> are in one of the two drawers in the desk above the left of the large
>> press.
>>
>> * It's better to use metal tape, than masking tape, to "pad" the rails.
>> It lasts longer. But the Morgans are an easier way to go.
>>
>> * There are other presses in Boston, in better condition than ours. And
>> you would find compatriots in doing fine art letterpress printing.
>>
>> yiLFS -len
>>
>> Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:41:27 -0400 From: Benazeer Noorani
>> <benazeer@gmail.com> To: APO Press <apo-printshop@mit.edu>
>> Subject: More new equipment in the shop, adjusting the platen, and
>> calibrating roller height
>>
>> Hi pressops!
>>
>> As I mentioned earlier this summer, I purchased a* base for printing
>> with plates*, from Boxcar Press. It now lives on top of the boxes
>> behind the spare rollers, on the top of the shelf above where the
>> chases live.
>>
>> I'm *planning to adjust the platen* either this weekend or next,
>> since even with the roller height calibration described below, I'm
>> still seeing some uneven impressions. If you're interested in
>> watching or contributing give me a shout so we can coordinate
>> schedules.
>>
>> I also discovered, printing my first plate, that the rollers are very
>> dramatically set at the wrong height. There's a couple of reasons for
>> rollers to be too low: rubber shrinks over time, and the trucks and
>> rails wear. (Rollers can also be too high if you have the wrong size
>> trucks for your press, or if the rubber is too thick. That's a harder
>> problem to solve and as far I have been able to learn, means
>> replacing the part. Luckily that's not the problem we have.) So* I
>> bought* *a roller gauge* -- a disk of precision ground aluminum
>> exactly type high in diameter, on a long rod. You can use it to
>> *calibrate the roller height* like so:
>>
>> 1) with the press inked but nothing in the chase bed, run the gauge
>> between the rollers and chase bed. The roller should leave a stripe
>> of ink 3/32 of an inch wide on the gauge. Wider and the rollers are
>> too low, narrower and the rollers are too high.
>>
>> 2) Repeat step one with the rollers at a variety of positions on the
>> rails, and across the width of the roller, wiping the roller gauge
>> down between each test, obviously.
>>
>> 3) If the roller is too low, adjust its height by applying masking
>> tape to the rails, to lift the trucks and roller. You will probably
>> need to apply different amounts of tape to the two rails, and
>> different amounts along the length of the rails.
>>
>> I have already done this, and have seen a dramatic improvement in how
>> easy it is to get a clean impression. I've gotten far fewer filled in
>> characters or smudgy impressions. Yay! That said, all the rollers are
>> differently worn, and it's not wrong to recalibrate for every
>> job. Feel free to play around with this -- the masking tape won't
>> hurt the press and is easy to remove!
>>
>> The roller gauge right now lives on a tiny shelf underneath where we
>> put torn off edges of LSC posters and where we hang the grippers and
>> spanner wrench. Eventually I'll get around to widening the hole in
>> the gauge so I can hang it from one of those pegs.
>>
>>
>> YiLFS
>>
>> Benazeer
>>
>
>
