Printing with your bottlejack press

As you may have seen, I built a printing press with a hydraulic jack. I thought it might be helpful to those of you building your own presses, if you have a printing how-to for a hydraulic jack press.

So, what kind of supplies do you need?
Ink: Because you are hand inking, you can try many different kinds of inks. I have a set of oil based inks meant for printmaking, particularly relief printing. I have cyan, yellow, magenta (but it is closer to red), black and white. 

Ink modifiers: Each ink is a little different with its viscosity and tackiness and each mix of ink will also be different. Use magnesium carbonate (a white powder, kind of like flour) to make ink thicker. User an oil for paint to make ink thinner. And depending on your ink, you may need Japanese drier (can be purchased at any store that sells paint) to help speed up the drying process. Use Japanese drier very sparingly though, as a drop can go a long way. 

Glass (or other smooth material): Glass is easy to clean, but really you could use anything that is smooth and won’t move around on you when you are mixing and rolling the ink.

Palette knife: It is up to you, but I like the kind that is wide and has a flat end. Use this to mix ink on your glass or other surface. 

Brayer: Get a soft brayer to apply ink. Keep this clean and don’t leave it sitting on the roller for long or else it will start to flatten out and not ink up well in the future.

Plates: You can really use anything as printing plates. You can get photopolymer plates made, find old antique blocks or letters, or make your own with any creative method you please. The one thing to watch out for is that you don’t want to damage your brayer, so make sure the surface you are inking does not have any sharp objects protruding. 

Paper: Have some scrap sheets available, your final sheets for printing, and some card stock cut into small squares is helpful for getting ink out of the cans. 

Rags: These are good for clean up. 

Solvent: If you are using photopolymer, you will want a watermiscable solvent. If you are using offset ink, you might be able to just wipe your plate clean without solvent. Offset ink tends to be less tacky. I have not tried offset ink with this press so I don’t know if it will work well with hand inking. 

Toothbrush: handy if you are having a hard time getting ink out of small crevices (which will only happen when you are over inking.)

Getting the ink ready
So if you had a color theory class in the past, this is a good time to bring use those skills. Remember if you are wanting to create a light color, start with white and add a little color at a time. How much ink you need to mix really depends on how much you will be printing and the size of your printing surface, but in general a few hefty tablespoons can go a long way.

Mix up your ink with your palette knife. Make sure there are no streaks (unless that is what you are going for) and then spread out a single thin strip of ink. Take your brayer and roll it over the ink to spread it down further on the glass. Roll in one direction, if you go back and forth with the brayer you are just putting down ink and then picking it back up again. You will know you have the right amount of ink when it is evenly distributed and has a velvety look. It will make a nice sound when the brayer goes over it. It won’t sound tacky and won’t have tones of big sticky pieces sticking up. If you have too much ink, just take the palette knife and scrape some away. Then go over the ink area several times with your brayer again to redistribute the ink. Don’t worry, you will get a feel for it after a little practice.

Getting your plate ready
Put your plate on your lined plexiglass in the center (I suggested using this in my post about building the press. It makes it easy to register the prints and access the plate for inking because you can slide it in and out from the press.)

While your ink is clean, line your paper up over the plate and mark two corners with masking tape. You will line your paper up against these tape guides each time you print. In the image above, you see the black tape marking the two corners for my paper. This method works well if you are using photopolymer plates because they are thin. If your printing surface is thick, you may need to develop a different method for registration.

Inking
Take your brayer and ink up the plate. My photopolymer plates have a sticky backing so it makes it easy to ink up my plate directly on the plexiglass and not worry about it moving around. It may take a few times with the brayer to get the ink on your plate evenly. If ink starts to fill in where it shouldn’t be, then you have too much ink. When this happens, it is usually best to clean the plate and try again. If you get ink on the plexiglass, you can easily wipe it off with a clean rag, just be careful not to mess up your inked up plate.

Carefully align your paper up against your tape guides and then lay the paper on top of your plate. Be careful not to let the paper shift. Place the cotton batting (also mentioned in the post about building the press.) over, again being careful not to shift the paper. Slide your plexiglass into the press and crank it down. On my press, after about two or three cranks when it seems to get tight I stop and release the jack, but each jack would probably vary, so just give yours a try.

Pulling the proof
Pull up your jack and pull out the plexi. Carefully pull up the cotton batting and then pull off your first proof! Don’t get disappointed if it isn’t perfect on the first try. Usually your first print will be a little light on inking and that is okay. Just ink up again and pull another proof. Another reason your prints might be coming up light is if you aren’t using enough pressure. If your proofs are uneven, check your brayer, your plate and your press, one of the three is uneven somewhere.

Tada!
Hang your prints up to dry! It definitely isn’t as fast as a letterpress, but you also have more flexibility with printing surface with a bottlejack press. So enjoy and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Tips

• For cleaning up, you can save your extra mixed ink by wrapping it up in wax paper or you can put it in little plastic containers from the store. Just peel off the skin that formed and good ink is below.
• Use your palette knife to pick up as much ink as possible before reaching out for the solvent.
• Your plate and your brayer are delicate. Treat them with care. Once they are damaged, you can’t fix them.
• Don’t get other colors mixed in your inks. To keep your ink clean, use cut up cardstock to get ink out of the cans.
• Reapply ink between each print.
• Work in a well ventilated area and wear gloves when working with solvent.
• Clean your skin with a green printing soap bar (found at art supply stores) or with Gojo (can be found at hardware stores). Don’t use solvent on your skin! It will get absorbed in your skin and go all throughout your body. You don’t want that!
• Practice makes perfect. It might take several tries to get your first perfect print, so be patient. Once you get rolling, you will get a rhythm going and things will go smoother.