Paper sticking to forme

Do you have any unprinted area around the edge, especially at the top of the sheet as fed to the press? Ordinarily the press would have grippers which lift up when the platen is in the feeding position and press back down against the platen and paper when the press closes. You MUST be sure the grippers are not positioned over any printing area, and depending on what you are printing with (type, photopolymer, etc) you can not get very close to the printed area. If you have grippers (there should be two) you can position them off the sheet, even, and stretch a rubber band across the sheet closer to the top so as to miss any printed area, and the rubber band (you may need two), or the grippers, will pull the sheet off the forme. Some grippers have provisions for metal fingers that can stick out to the side over the paper, but they have to be kept clear of the printed area also.

Bob

Bob’s elastic band trick works great, if this don’t work you could try thinning your ink with a tack reducer, sometimes the reducer and rubber bands will work . Good Luck Dick G.

Just as an additional note if you don’t have grippers or can’t run them, you can also use a bit of pressboard or stiff paper to put a poor man’s gripper in place.

If you are using a boxcar base check carefully that your gripper will not hit base. this could damage your base and/or affect impression.
Paulm

Unfortunately the press I have doesn’t have any grippers on them, I wonder if anyone could post a picture of some so I can see how they work.

and Vrooooom how do you make a poormans gripper?

I’m basically talking about making a paper gauge pin / guide. Not sure what you’re using, but basically you take a piece of something stiff but not high enough to damage a base or hit anywhere else, and tape or glue it to the top sheet. Red pressboard works really well for this, especially if you cut your strip against the grain so there’s less flex to it.

When feeding, your piece fits underneath this piece and it helps to pull the sheet off of the forme. I use this strategy when running a piece that I can’t run proper gauge pins with due to clearance issues. 1 square cut of the material you’re printing with, then the pressboard overlapping perpendicular and over the sheet in a non-printing area.

Good luck!

James Beard
Vrooooom Press
www.vrooooom.org

All good suggestions, the best being to reduce the tack of the ink. Go slow with the reducer you do not want to use to much. I will try to post an image later of gripper bars. Not sure how you could get them made but they are simple flat steel.

Thanks Vroooom I’d just been using some spare spacers aas gauge pins but that seems like a much better idea. Thanks for the tip and thanks Colophon it would be great to see some grippers in more detail. Thanks