Category: Letterpress for beginners
Later topic: Delrin rollers or morgan?
Earlier topic: Legal issues around creating type.

Ink problems

Please look at the picture below, I could be printing along nicely on my platen and the suddenly this happens to my ink, does anyone know what causes it and what the solution is?

press: Heidelberg Platen

image: think smudging

think smudging

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I would change the word “suddenly” to something appropriate to events , the only way you would get fill in like that is if you are hand inking the top roller (not best practise) or you have added chemistry , otherwise the effect would be gradual .
Wash up , check you have a mix suitable to attain the colour you require , you cant just pile the ink on if its too weak a shade to get the results you want. The mix must make the shade required before you are overinked overinking will produce a mess similar to your picture .
Patience and time are important with letterpress , you need to build up the ink stream gradually till you hit the setting you need then run the job , its a lot of practice before you can just wind it up and go , the ink makes noises that let you know you are carrying too much ink (sounds hissy Like a fryer ). Little by little works , like the image are you scottish.