Where can I find some dies

oh brother

Theo, If my question bothers you, then please keep it moving. No one Is forcing you to read it. I’m soooooo sorry I have to ask questions to learn, genius. Why are on the letterpress for beginners? Do you wait around for people like me to ask silly questions so you can look down on me? Get over yourself loser and get back to letterpressing since you’re sooooooooooo busy letterpressing stuff. Oh, you’re not busy because you’re trolling on here all day.

Anyway anyone who wants to help continue the art of letterpress and not judge others can you please help me out thanks.

cococotton, please refer to ‘printing in letterpress’, or just ‘printing’, as ‘letterpressing’ is really not a verb.
The technique is called ‘letterpress’, and one prints on a ‘printing press’.
Good luck with finding your dies and enjoy the printing and die-cutting.

Yes hunny I know that I been a graphic designer for 12 years and have a BFA and know my own stationery company. I was trying to be fun by using letterpressing as a verb. Geez what a bunch of stiff. Please will everyone relax? We’re not saying lives here. What is wrong with some of you lol. Have fun, smile, love what you do. Stop over thinking grammar. It doesn’t matter in the long run of live. :) Chillax

Oh Chillax is relax and chill together. I know it not a real word, just saying lol. I hope the letterpress police doesn’t get me.

I’m starting to see what letterpress is dying out, but lucky for the craft younger people like me are going to bring a new fun life back into it and its going to be better, not only will the work be beautiful, but we will have fun doing to and we will live and talk the way we like. I may even wear high heels while letterpressing . Yes I said letter pressing again Lol. My bad, ha!

For those who don’t know me check out my Facebook company page. Once I learn letterpress you will know who I am because I will be a force to be reckon with. FYI

You will be better off ringing a few commercial presses and asking them outright for the name and details of thir die makers , they wont turn you down as they want to be seen as helpful ,they want you to recommend them to people ,its not a closed and secret society !
As for the term letterpressing well its as awful as calling a heidelberg platen a windmill !!! We trawl these lists in our spare moments , occasionally we have answers ,how far do you think you will get on your own??? Your post says it all, if you read what you are asking ,Not wanting to be harsh but a heidelberg is not a toy and they bite ,you dont always get away with a nipped finger they can bandage , motorized platens kill people . I got bitten once or twice by different machines ,i have been very lucky to have not been killed at least twice in 30 odd years . Ive had 500volt shocks , ive been inside a cylinder that was improperly chocked , had a finger lightly nipped because someone distracted me while starting up a press ,been swiped round the head more times than i can remember …….
It is only from us grumpy funless losers that you are going to learn how not to get hurt without the lesson coming the hard way .
Do you bother to switch the press of before reaching in to remove the packing bars that hold the tympan in ? My mate has been on platens continuously since 1951 he never switched them off till about twelve years ago when he dropped a packing bar and it frekily landed end on in one of the flywheel hole and then flew straight back out of the press up in the air past his over leaning head and embedded itself in the ceiling . it isnt always taken on board why we leave things “on”/ off while we work on them , common sense says turn it off ,time and work pressure will mean you tend not to switch off so all there is left to get you to understand are the losers miserable sods etc .
Miserable sod extraordinaire …. Peter L

A motorized press is like a table saw, be careful or it will kill you. The difference is that it is obvious to everyone how the table saw attacks, while the platen presses are seemingly still learning new ways to cause bodily harm.

Nothing wrong with learning, but find some qualified instruction… and I’d think twice about those heels :)

There is a practice and vocabulary around letterpress printing that has developed over 500 years. Using and understanding the English vocabulary correctly has been a requirement so that compositors and printers could set and print type correctly without typos. Typos cost time and money.
In this age of spell checkers and texting people learning the craft may not get to work with experienced printers and will use terminology that fits the environment that they are in.
I did a five year apprenticeship as a platen printer a long time ago and the journeymen I worked with insisted on the correct terminology being used. I recently corrected an eBay seller who called a roller gauge a type high gauge, the only similarity between the two is that they are both made of metal. I wish I had not bothered as I got two abusive emails in return.
As mentioned safety is more important, automatic platens do bite. I have searched on eBay but cannot find anybody selling high heels with toe protectors, it will certainly hurt if you drop a chase on your foot or when some of the lead furniture falls out of the forme because it was locked up incorrectly.

Platen printer , it is the odd key on my key pad (?) does not always respond as i try not to bash the pad too hard therefore the odd letter gets lost !!! Dont know yet ,how to use spell checker , Ive not long learned how to switch the infernal thing on!

I’m with you Peter, don’t have spel checker either, so i can understand your posts just fine.

cococotton,
There should be plenty of Steel rule die shops in your area. I would help you out but am in Peterborough Ontario so too far away. Advice when speaking to the die shop try to stay on the tech side and not too artsy. It is best to use a diemaker that is familiar with your equipment. Often very modern die shops spend most of their time building complicated carton dies. Good luck.

Internet search of steel rule diemakers Cincinnati yields only “Able Steel Rule Dies” who do not have a website that I could find. Give them a call and find out if they make cutting dies for the printing trade. If they do you should visit them and find out how they are made and what they can do for you. As you have a Heidelberg platen you would want .918” cutting rule and probably .900” scoring rule.
I buy my dies from Steel Rule Diemasters of Menomonee Falls, WI. Never been to their shop, just deal with them by phone and email (sending files) they are very good and helpful. When you set up your press for diecutting pack lightly (20lb sheet) under the die cutting jacket, and do back the impression WAY down to begin with. Much better to not cut through your first sheet then to smash your die. Good luck. And here in America there are no caveats about calling it a windmill.
Stuart

Your Question didn’t bother me, it was the fact that you couldn’t find what you wanted, and it keeps sending you to wrong websites, ones for crafters. I have that same problem sometimes.

Your 12 years as a Graphic Artist and a BFA degree is an accomplishment in it’s self, but it’s a drop in a bucket compared to the experience and knowledge here.

I would suggest two things, stay on the friendly side of us, Veteran Journeyman Printers on this sight, an lose the defensive loose cannon.

Show your True Colors from the ink can, and not from your high heeled elevated two-lipped demeanor.

The Accucut dies are.937 - not suitable for your windmill.

go for sandvik steelrules

@cococotton with all do respect, your 12 years of graphic design experience and your BFA mean very little to your ability to be able to operate a platen press. You would be better suited if you said that you had operated farm machinery for the last 12 years, as at that point you would show a predisposition for operating dangerous machinery and dealing with the problem solving associated with it. Clearly, a John Deere hay baler has more in common with a Heidelberg Tiegel than a Mac.

I suggest if you want to learn to be a letterpress printer, that you consider this a new “trade” in terms of your education. I would also suggest you should consider doing your basic homework on how your press works and the parts and accessories required. Try to educate yourself in the basics. It is clear from your questions so far that you have not done this, and unfortunately you look like someone showing up for their first day of class very unprepared. Candidly, I would be cautious of providing you advise in that I would be fearful for your safety and well being in operating a press as this point. I am glad to hear you speak of having a tutor, but your time would be better spent with them if you had a foundation.

Anyway, take my advise for what you are paying for it. I see many individuals who have traveled the same path as you who have expended the extra effort to study and learn from the forum and readily available reference resources such a George Mills book on Platen Press operation. These individuals have been able to clearly articulate their problems and get very warm and productive responses from the incredibly experienced individuals who are on this forum.

Good luck to you…

Thank you all for your help. i happy people are willing to do so on here.

Rontxhou, my point of saying i have a BFA is that some people are on here trying to give me a grammar lesson and i don’t need it. And i’m very shocked that some how you can look into my window and know that i am unprepared. So let me school you a bit daaaarling. First of all, we all have to start from somewhere right? We were all new to this, even you, at one point. Two, the snobery that you are displaying is pretty lame. Three, I have a Windmill at my house, I took out a 10,000 dollar loan to get it and get all the parts to it which i already have because my letterpress tutor has been making sure I have everything. Four, i already know about the Windmill silly goose. Just because I’m asking where to get parts does not mean that i’m clueless. And just because I’m a women does not mean i can’t learn letterpress.

I’m really shocked at you that you feel the need to belittle me and i will pray for you because i feel that you just don’t no any better. i don’t come on here to be bullied by you and i don’t scare easy. Not everyone who started in letterpress has a history of working in a steel mill on top of a tracker. So do me a favor and review why you are so unhappy with your life that you feel the need to say mean things to other to down them down to your level.

If you would read the rest of the comments, everyone is willing to help. This is what this website is suppose to be about. There is enough room for all of us. i shouldn’t have to come on this board and leave feeling bad about myself, why would you want that rontxhou? why did you feel the need to even respond and belittle me, for what? Why are you feeling some type of way about what I said and it wasnt even towards you. You must have a crush on me, I don’t know. I don’t even know you as a person, but I’m going to for now on focus on the good people on here willing to help others and i will make sure i will post a lot of pictures of my progress, just for you sweetie pie. I don’t need your luck thanks, i have God on my side, you can keep your little luck. You may be better at me at letterpress, but your social skills need a little work, might be the ink fumes idk. Y

Theo. vetrean or not, I fear no man. You should be nice to me beacuse just because you letterpress does not mean you can design to make it look goo. Soon i will be able to do both :) . Really, not trying to be mean, but im not worried about posting in the wrong spot on here. i have a lot of bigger things to worry about in my life LOL. I give respect when I get it i don’t care if you printed for 50 years, it means nothing if your are going to be a tool to me.

If I wanted to fight with people i would get a Myspace account. Why is everyone a badass online? Relax and don’t take your anger out on me. if people don’t like me, it’s not the first time hunny, so what.

Rontxhou and Theo you may think others on here are happy you are picking on me and belittling me, but the truth is everyone is rolling their eyes watching how we are acting right now. it’s doesn’t make you cool. Theo you may hope the the vets on here will also be mean to me like you are, but they are really cool and helpful, so don’t write that the vets on here are mean because not everyone is unhappy and lonely like you are. please get some help you two. i know you are good people.

Good bless you two. God is still good to you.

if anyone else who hates their live and is looking for a punching bag and do not want to just answer a simple question please just don’t respond. thanks

@cococotton believe it or not, I was trying to help you with some constructive advice on how to “use” this forum.

Not sure I how I belittled you other than point out that your questions were something I would expect from someone that had very little knowledge of letterpress. Not someone who owned a T Platen, which in turn concerned me for your safety.

I am sorry to have wasted your time.

As I said.

Good luck…

PS. I love my “life” and wish you all the best…

@cococotton. You certainly have an in-your-face attitude for a beginner. Even when people are trying to help you attack them, which is not a great way to get started. Perhaps your god can tell you where to get dies made, but if it was me I’d look in the Yellow Pages on this site for suppliers, or do as others have suggested - ask printers in your area. It seems to me that you have a lot to learn about printing and die-cutting, and alienating people who could help you is not a great beginning. I hope you have a better rapport with your prospective clients, otherwise your time in the world of printing will be abbreviated.

Paul