Tip #12

While in a perfect world, this wouldn't be necessary, a recent experience has convinced me that when planning to print in a light color, it is probably best to do a preemptive cleaning before inking up.

I was trying to print my logo on some yellow envelopes. Lately, I've been taking to adding just a little bit of ink of the same color to create an effect in between doing a blind deboss and inking in a darker color. So, I inked up with a small amount of yellow.... 

The rightmost print was my first run. Obviously, someone had left the press with a good amount of blue or green ink on the rollers. So, after a round of cleaning, I was able to to print with a very light yellow (middle print). In the end, I wanted something a little less subtle and added some more yellow (left print). If I had done the round of cleaning before inking up, I would have saved time and ink.

Of course, if the person before me had cleaned up properly, this wouldn't be an issue.........

Maintenance Day!

In light of my post yesterday.... It's time for another maintenance day!

Saturday July 2, 10am - 2pm

To Do List:

• Tackle the gripper bar on the 4T (schematic above)
• Clean off another layer of grime and funk
• Assemble the 4T's lockup bar with replacement parts
• Organize the studio
• Sort type

As always, volunteers will be rewarded with volunteer hours (to exchange for free studio time) and pizza!

If you plan on coming by, please RSVP by emailing us!

**UPDATE: Please note that Maintenance Day has been changed from May 22 to July 2**

Tip #10

With all the traffic lately the studio and the presses have sort of taken a beating. Which makes it time for a naggy post about cleaning! So, here's a tip, plus a bunch of reminders:

Tip #10:
Remove the lockup bar (or push it to the front of the press) when it's time for cleanup. It commonly sits at the end of the press bed - so when you roll out the carriage for cleaning, oil and solvent can drip onto the lockup bar:

Which can result in gunky oil build-up and/or rust (below):

Reminder #1:
Dirty rags (i.e., rags that have any amount of ink, oil or solvent) go in the red fireproof bin in the Printshop. They do not belong on the table:

Nor do they go back in the clean rag drawer:
They go in the fireproof bin because they are a fire hazard!



Reminder #2: 
Put away furniture, quoin, key and other tools!

Reminder #3: 
Be gentle with our Boxcar bases. They are not indestructible, so please do not make cuts on them, drop them, drop other stuff on them, etc. Our large base (which cost over $500) and our small base are showing some damage:

Reminder #4:
Don't leave the rollers up in the vertical position! This is only for cleaning!

Reminder #5:
Make sure the rollers are in the UP position - unlike in the photo below!

 
And lastly, Reminder #6: Please remember to sign in, sign out AND get a staff member to initial the log sheet when using the studio (even if you are trading in volunteer hours!) We are all responsible for keeping the presses and studio in good shape and this provides a good way to troubleshoot when things go wrong!

Note: Unlike some of my other photos, the one above is intentionally blurry!

Tip #6

Marty sent me this photo:

The plan was to come print her birthday card in a creamsicle color. However, because the previous user didn't fully clean up, the creamsicle ink came out looking ochre (the lower print)! After a cleaning, she got the desired color (the upper print).

So the tip is to always fully clean the rollers! And if you're printing in an especially bright (or light) color, you might want to consider doing a check and a preventive cleaning, just in case. But, let's all try to fully clean up after ourselves each time we print. Remember, the golden rule... you wouldn't want someone to leave a dirty press for you, would you?

Tip #4

Question: How many sides does an ink knife have?

If you answered "2," sorry, you're wrong! The answer is 5!*

This week's tip is dedicated to those printers who've dipped a clean-looking knife into a can of ink only to find that they've created a streak of a new color in the ink can.

Please remember that the studio is a shared space and you want to leave everything in as good (or better) shape after renting. When cleaning the ink knives, please remember to clean the side and top edges as well as the two flat sides. This will help keep the insides of our ink cans clean and single-colored! Next goal: keeping the outsides of our ink cans clean!


*This little question/answer bit was recently shared with me by someone in the studio. My memory is foggy, but I think it can be attributed to one of our intern's former professors.

Tip #1

This is a new series of posts of info that will hopefully help you make better prints and become a better sharer of the studio.

So here's our first tip:

I will sheepishly admit that I only learned this pretty recently: When cleaning the form rollers (the rubber ones), you should rub the rollers in ONE direction. This helps squeeze out the ink rather than push it deeper into the rollers (which is what happens when you rub back and forth). Having tried both of these methods, I really do think that going in one direction is more effective.