Foil Stamping/Die cutting on Letterpress

Not sure if this has been discussed before but I keep on seeing ads with tabletop platen presses that can do foiling, die-cutting, etc. How is it done?

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In a word - badly.

Tabletop presses are not built to withstand that kind of abuse - you will end up with cracked castings and a junk press. The same is true for “deep impression”.

Foil stamping can be done “on the tabletop” with a KwikPrint machine - but they are built for this sort of thing.

I picked up a kelsey foiling unit for a 5x8 kelsey press, it works great, Bill is right, these presses are not made for deep impression and heavy forms foil stamped, or large die cutting, but for smaller forms and a small die for die cutting they will work. I recently foil stamped a cover that the form filled the chase and i was surprised that the kelsey handled it well. Larger presses are more suited for this kind of work, but if you keep the forms small the smaller presses will work.

Thank you dickg,

I guess I just want to know what a foiling unit or a die would look like for a kelsey or pilot. Does it look something like this for foiling unit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXBBjkjGhpM

JazzyC, that windmill that is in the video has the same foiling unit i have on one of my windmills. The kelsey unit is a replacement bed that has heat controls, the whole bed heats up, also you have to remove the roller hooks and the ink disc from the press, you also have to use a special board to print against, regular packing will not work, also if you use type it will wear out fast, i used ludlow type, mag dies would be even better.