foil on a hand-fed press

Hello there!

Does any one know of/want to sell a hand-fed press that’s set up for foil, or know of someone who can convert a C&P to foil?

Here’s my backstory:
I print wedding invitations on handmade paper (made in house, with a very irregular deckled edge) on my C&P. Because of the irregular edges of my paper, I run my press really slow and have to kind of “eye ball” each sheet to get it in square.

I’m wanting to add foil to my repertoire but I don’t think an auto fed press will work for this reason. I’ve looked into table-top pneumonic presses but they only go up to 5x5.5in and I would need a full 5x7 in one print (irregular edges again would make registration difficult if I tried to do two prints).

I’d love to have a second C&P and convert it to foil. I’ve seen conversion kits that run over $9,000 plus the labor to install, and am wondering if there is a better and/or more economical option.

Thanks so much for the help!!

Loren

farmette press & paper co.
farmettepress.com

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Tabletop stamping machines certainly came larger than 5x5. I got an import machine from American Printing Equipment years ago that is 5x7 inside chase. They don’t sell these anymore, but do list foil conversion units for presses for $3,495:
http://www.americanprintingequipment.com/foilstampersforallmakesofpresse...

Hicks Brothers in the SF Bay Area have several machines from a stamping company and the one pictured here is larger than 5x7, though it isn’t pneumatic:
http://www.printingequip.com/listings.asp?Mode=Detail&ImageID=1816&PageN...
I did a large project on a nearly identical machine, and it does get to be a strain.

what size are you looking for.

Thanks so much for the leads, parallel_imp! I am looking in to both of those options!!

ericm, I’m not super particular about size, I would just need it to print at least a 5x7in invitation. AKA I am so flexible because I just want something that will work!! ;)

Perhaps, check out *Adana Printing Press Hot Foil M/c.*
8 x 5 ???

*****
Quite a lot on B.P. from 2/3 years ago.

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The same system as used on the 8 x 5 was, and could be fitted to the H.S.3 which was/is 8-1/2” x 5-1/2”.

I found this a few years ago. This may work for your existing equipment.

https://www.sterlingtoggle.com/collections/products/products/heat-chases

Larrykj is on the right track. We have a Kluge we converted to foil and had a C&P we converted before that. There are basically 2 parts. The first is the heat plate, to which you mount your dies. With just the heat plate you can simply lay a piece of foil over your paper and stamp. After impression you pull the foil away and that’s it. The second part of the operation is to handle the foil (the draw/rewind unit). In its simplest form there is a roll holder and a rewind unit. Our first press only had a heat plate. We made what was basically a spindle to hold the foil and mounted it near the base of the press. We built a similar unit and screwed it just above the bearers. You put a roll of foil on the bottom spindle and pulled it up to the top spindle and tape it on. After each impression the operator had to manually roll the foil up enough to make the next impression. It was slow, maybe 200 impressions/ hour but it worked enough to buy a bigger Kluge and a foil unit. Good Luck.