DIY Press – looking for advice

[charlesgmorgan]

Thank you for your replies Charles, I have read them with much interest and building enthusiasm. I think I have finally made up my mind to build a bj press, but I will have to do it on weekends in my father’s workshop – maybe with some help from him

What I like about the press you have discussed, is the fact that it’s design is simple for my needs. I will do some garage sale-ing over the next few weeks to see if I can pick up a bj with gauge, otherwise will look in some stores for them. In Australia, I’m assuming an auto supply place will stock them – I have been informed Bunnings don’t.

What I like most about your press, Charles, is the INSTRUCTIONS! Thanks for the time and effort you put into developing them.
I will PM you if I come across any problems/questions, thank you for the offer.

One question I have now, is how you tie off the bungie cord – is that secure enough? Have you had problems with this? I saw another one that used occy straps (the one’s with metal on the ends) which is safer to use?

Well, I look forward to getting started, and will post any developments (and will try to photograph my progress once I start building if anyone’s interested in the process).

Best Regards,
Honnie.

Complete details about how to tie off the bungee chords are there in the directions. I have never had one come loose, and my press has been used by a lot of students. If you can find bungee chords exactly the length you need with the metal ends, then certainly use them if it makes you feel more comfortable. I did a workshop for 6 printmakers and all built their own press. They were all women, average age about 60. They all tied off their bungee chords with no problem. Rigging on ships used to be done with ropes, and in many cases, bights were made by making a loop in one end of the rope and then whipping the end of the rope to the standing part of the rope. Whipping just meant tightly wrapping with strong string. That is the same basic idea here.

Cheers … Charles

[winking cat press]

Charles…. your comparison between bottle jack presses and proof presses is interesting. Unfortunately, it’s only partially correct. I’ve built, used, and sold a number of home-made press including both Bottle Jack Presses and Free Cylinder Proof Presses. I’ve also built flatbed platen presses, etching presses and screw type handpresses. To date, I’ve built over twenty different machines…. all of which are still in service. For a home-builder, I tend to prefer the proof press since they are easier to build, and print a nice image. All they are is a big rolling pin, and a flat base with rails. You can build a very nice one for almost nothing, and they tend to last forever.

Contrary to your comment, the cylinder of the proof press does not need to be very heavy at all in order to print well. The ones that I’ve built have cylinders in the 40 to 50 pound range, and they will easily print very nice images on just about any paper commonly used in printmaking.

Let’s look at my smallest press, an 8 x 15 free roller machine that’s been in use for about a decade now. It’s measured print-stripe is just about 1/16 inch…. which translates to .5 square inch of image area printed at any given moment…. and thus a 40lb cylinder with another 50lbs of body weight (used like a rolling pin as you suggest) gives you 180 psi of printing pressure. This is perfect for relief printing.

Now…. let’s look at a bottle jack press: to print the same 8 x 15 image, you have to use 21,600 lbs of total force, since a platen press prints it’s image all at once. That’s over ten tons of total force….. which is of course do-able, but I’m not sure if it’s better. All of the wooden bottle jack presses I’ve seen tend to flex at those pressure levels, and have difficulties printing larger blocks. I guess if you want to print little things…. like 5×8’s maybe… they are fine. For larger work, a cylinder press tends to be much better.

As far as the scuba-tank thing goes….. I use tanks because they are readily available for free where I live, but there are many, many things that one can use as a cylinder. I’ve seen heavy 4″ pipe and old fire extinguishers, just to name a few. Anything that is smooth and round can be used. This makes them GREAT for folks who want to build on the cheap since smooth round cylinders are just about everywere.

My point is this: while BJ presses do indeed work, and for smaller work they can print quite nice images, they aren’t necessarily better.

"Political Correctness" is just another way to muzzle free expression

[charlesgmorgan]

Charles…. your comparison between bottle jack presses and proof presses is interesting. Unfortunately, it’s only partially correct. I’ve built, used, and sold a number of home-made press including both Bottle Jack Presses and Free Cylinder Proof Presses. I’ve also built flatbed platen presses, etching presses and screw type handpresses. To date, I’ve built over twenty different machines…. all of which are still in service. For a home-builder, I tend to prefer the proof press since they are easier to build, and print a nice image. All they are is a big rolling pin, and a flat base with rails. You can build a very nice one for almost nothing, and they tend to last forever.

Contrary to your comment, the cylinder of the proof press does not need to be very heavy at all in order to print well. The ones that I’ve built have cylinders in the 40 to 50 pound range, and they will easily print very nice images on just about any paper commonly used in printmaking.

Let’s look at my smallest press, an 8 x 15 free roller machine that’s been in use for about a decade now. It’s measured print-stripe is just about 1/16 inch…. which translates to .5 square inch of image area printed at any given moment…. and thus a 40lb cylinder with another 50lbs of body weight (used like a rolling pin as you suggest) gives you 180 psi of printing pressure. This is perfect for relief printing.

Now…. let’s look at a bottle jack press: to print the same 8 x 15 image, you have to use 21,600 lbs of total force, since a platen press prints it’s image all at once. That’s over ten tons of total force….. which is of course do-able, but I’m not sure if it’s better. All of the wooden bottle jack presses I’ve seen tend to flex at those pressure levels, and have difficulties printing larger blocks. I guess if you want to print little things…. like 5×8’s maybe… they are fine. For larger work, a cylinder press tends to be much better.

As far as the scuba-tank thing goes….. I use tanks because they are readily available for free where I live, but there are many, many things that one can use as a cylinder. I’ve seen heavy 4″ pipe and old fire extinguishers, just to name a few. Anything that is smooth and round can be used. This makes them GREAT for folks who want to build on the cheap since smooth round cylinders are just about everywere.

My point is this: while BJ presses do indeed work, and for smaller work they can print quite nice images, they aren’t necessarily better.

I do not mean to suggest that one sort of press is “best” or that one is “better” than the other. And no doubt we all adjust our techniques to suit the equipment available.

I agree that it is easy to build a very simple proofing press … that was the point of my suggestion about using a rolling pin and side rails. (I have built them using rollers made from PVC sewer pipe.) Personally I am not satisfied with such a press for the reasons that I stated.

For me, a major disadvantage is the requirement of a proofing press that everything must be at “type height”. I do not want to have to have all my relief work raised to “type height”. Obviously, one could adjust at least part of one’s working method to that restriction, but I see no reason to do so.

But for me the major problem with proofing presses is their narrow range of application. I do not want to be limited to standard relief work … I do a lot of other things than that. I will reiterate that a bj press will print all standard relief work. But it will also print waterless lithographs, foilographs, collagraphs, and small etchings. It also does a very good job of embossing, as long as the embossed image is not too large. And, although it is not printmaking, I helped an artist who does papermaking to build a bj press … she uses it to press the water out of stacks of handmade paper. It is the versatility of the bj press which makes it appealing to me.

Perhaps I did not express myself well when I was talking about pressure. It does NOT require 200 pounds per square inch to do standard relief work. Most such work can be easily printed with a simple furniture glide baren, and that certainly does not exert anything close to 200 pounds per square inch.

The figure of 200 pounds per square inch was in reference to printing etchings. Again, just as an experiment, I suggest you try printing a small etching with your proofing press, and then compare the results to printing the same etching on a standard etching press. I have made lots of small palm presses from appliance casters, and you can print etchings with them using your upper body weight, but it would be tedious to print even a moderate edition that way. (Check my website for details or email me off list.)

Your suggestion that it would take 10 tons of pressure to print an 8×15 inch relief plate is WAY off the mark. I have hanging on the wall of my studio a lovely woodblock print poster advertising a bicycle event. That poster was sent to me by a fellow who built one of my presses and used it to print the posters for the event. That poster is 10×20 inches. The jack on that press was certainly not rated for 10 tons! Note that 10×20 = 200 square inches, while 8×15 = 120 square inches. So my poster in hand is more than 1.6 times greater in surface area than your hypothetical example … and it printed nicely on a bj press using a jack that could not even reach 10 tons.

Certainly we all have different tastes in techniques and tools. If a proofing press works well for you and you are happy with it, then I am not in any position to suggest that you change. And no doubt there will be many others who would be happy with such a press. However, a proofing press is not suitable for the variety of work that I do, and I much prefer the bj press. To each her/his own. Let us all make art any way we can.

Cheers …….. Charles

[winking cat press]

Charles, we are mostly in agreement. My “180 psi” comments relate to theoretical pressures, not what is actually required to print well. My own experiments with strain guages show that 100 psi is all that’s required to print with relief blocks…. and either style will easily attain that.

You are also correct about the “type high” thing. A proof style press does require type high blocks…. but for those of us who are accustomed to letterpress, that’s not a big deal.

I too have made a number of “rolling pin” presses for printmakers, and they all seem to love them…… but it’s all in what you want to print, I’d guess.

My point in answering your posts was more to inform newbies what other options are out there so they can decide for themselves. No matter what pres a person builds, it’s GREAT to see folks interested in printmaking.

"Political Correctness" is just another way to muzzle free expression

[jerryglover]

I was impressed by the bottlejack until I read about using scuba air tanks — now that’s smart thinking.

Could one combine the two ideas (with a bit of welding) so that the pressure is applied via the jack to a roller made of the scuba tank?

My Web Page: http://www.drigiadaki.com
In a Parallel Universe: http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jglover/Interest.html

[charlesgmorgan]

I was impressed by the bottlejack until I read about using scuba air tanks — now that’s smart thinking.

Could one combine the two ideas (with a bit of welding) so that the pressure is applied via the jack to a roller made of the scuba tank?

A roller press applies pressure only along a fairly narrow strip. Consequently, there is no need for the very high pressures available with a hydraulic jack. Etching presses with a simple bolt arrangement at each end of the roller axle will supply ample pressure. Using a hydraulic jack arrangement would add considerable complication without yielding any useful advantage.

One of the very good points about the proofing press is its simplicity. It is basically just some sort of rolling pin on rails. That good point would be lost if one attempted to incorporate pressure via hydraulic jacks.

In sum, it seems to me that on the one hand adding some sort of hydraulic jack arrangement would be superflous for a standard etching press, and on the other hand it would significantly detract from the simplicity of the proofing press.

Having said all that, I am always delighted when someone comes up with a clever new arrangement. And my views are certainly not the last word on press design. If you have an idea, do not let me discourage you; by all means try it out and let us know how it works.

Cheers ……. Charles

[Printmakerguy]

I’m with charles on this one… You don’t need all that pressure if you’re using a roller. In fact, I think it would require a lot of engineering to make a setup that could transfer that kind of pressure to the roller effectively. Remember, we are talking a LOT of force here- Those hydraulic jacks lift big trucks, after all

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[jerryglover]

Thanks, Charles. I didn’t want you to think I want ignoring your response. Just work got away from me for a couple of days.

My Web Page: http://www.drigiadaki.com
In a Parallel Universe: http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jglover/Interest.html

[charlesgmorgan]

For those who are interested in printing intaglio with a bottle jack press, I am posting a photo of a press built by Donnie Halpern. He participated in a recent exchange with the SSNW group, and I have in my hand a very lovely engraving, image size 5×7 inches, which was beautifully printed on his bottle jack press. The photo shows the sort of construction required … very thickly laminated bed and platen. Donnie’s press is similar in construction to another “monster” bj press of which I have a photo.

Such a press can be easily constructed at home with only hand tools. It would probably not be as heavy as most roller presses made for intaglio; it would be easyto disassemble into components that are easily moved. And it would be MUCH cheaper than any intaglio roller press of comparable size.

Cheers …. Charles

[TJ1967]

Hi, Honnie! I built a bottle jack press recently based on the second version of Charles’ plans, but I just couldn’t find bungie cords that gave me the kind of tension I was looking for (either that, or I just wasn’t following the instructions correctly – I do have a bit of ADD, I think).

Anywho, I wandered around the local Homer for a while and came across expansion springs. I tried 6″ springs at first, but they didn’t provide any resistance at all, so I went with a set of springs that were 3 3/4″ in length (not including the two open loops at either end).

I coupled them with a set of “D” rings and “s” hooks and I couldn’t be happier. The return action is quck and requires no manual help on my part. I’m not suggesting that this is any better than using the cords, just thought I’d throw out my solution as another option.

Since this is my second post, I think I’ll pop back to my introduction thread and see if the site will let me post a picture of my press (his name’s Bub, btw). If you get a sec, take a look.

Good luck, Todd

[charlesgmorgan]

Hi, Honnie! I built a bottle jack press recently based on the second version of Charles’ plans, but I just couldn’t find bungie cords that gave me the kind of tension I was looking for (either that, or I just wasn’t following the instructions correctly – I do have a bit of ADD, I think).

Anywho, I wandered around the local Homer for a while and came across expansion springs. I tried 6″ springs at first, but they didn’t provide any resistance at all, so I went with a set of springs that were 3 3/4″ in length (not including the two open loops at either end).

I coupled them with a set of “D” rings and “s” hooks and I couldn’t be happier. The return action is quck and requires no manual help on my part. I’m not suggesting that this is any better than using the cords, just thought I’d throw out my solution as another option.

Since this is my second post, I think I’ll pop back to my introduction thread and see if the site will let me post a picture of my press (his name’s Bub, btw). If you get a sec, take a look.

Good luck, Todd

Nothing wrong with springs at all. Many years ago I built a bj press for use in my metal working shop, and I used springs for the return. But when I built my press for artwork, I could not find any cheap but strong springs. However, bungee chord was easy to find and work with. If the chord you are able to find is not strong enough, use two or three strands. If you can scrounge cheap springs that do the job, by all means use them. Use whatever does the job for you.

Todd, I would love to see photos of your press. By all means email me photos off-list.

Cheers …… Charles

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