Plates made in Australia?

Poppy

Google your needs. Photopolymer plate processing is international.

Gerald

I have been meaning to contact you. Just today I got in contact with a company that supplies photopolymer sheets here in Melbourne. They mostly sell their product to stamp makers, they said they don’t make the plates but could put me in contact with someone who does - am waiting for this phonecall. I know we are in different states but this could help, when I get a couple of numbers I will forward them to you. I had a copper plate made by Owosso and it arrived yesterday. First one is free and shipping was a little costly, so I am not sure how profitable this can be. You can contact any local engravers and see what they charge, there is one here in Melbourne called DI engravers (google will give you the number) Ummm I also recently bought a boxcar base and some plates from them also - this is affordable as their shipping is cheaper but it can take up to 10 days to arrive - I am still waiting for this to arrive. I will let you know more as I go… good luck

Have you tested out your copper plate yet? Let me know how it goes. I’m trying to justify getting a boxcar base and plates made, very costly, but might be worth it. Boxcar will ship to Australia for US$40 flat, so I’m happy to hear that DI Engravers sells them. Would love to hear what you think of the boxcar base and plates.

I’ve found a couple of places that make photopolymer plates in NSW, but they’re unsure of how good the quality will be, so they’re running some testers for me. Have no idea on price for them yet, though.

I recieved my boxcar base and plates today - so wrapped with them. I ganged up some ideas for printing on an A3 and A4 sheet total cost was around $200.00 AUS so quite good really and all arrived within a week.

I had a magnesium plate DL size made by DI engravers for $500 - it is just not profitable, I think because there is not a huge demand for the work. So I will probably not use them again. Let me know how you go with this company in NSW.

I am still waiting for the arrival of some parts from heidelberg and some packing from NA graphics - so printing will begin very soon. I will post some photos should I have any success :).

Poppy, I think I spoke to you over the phone regarding this the other week. Did you have any luck with George? If you still can’t find anyone to help, I’ll make you a few plates to help get you started. How do you plan to mount your plates? Do you have a boxcar base? What depth of relief do you require? The base required will depend on the thickness of the plate material to get you to type high.

Russell - are you an Aussie letterpress person?

Yes, Hi Russell, I remember talking to you. I think I did end up ringing George, but last week I found someone that can help me in my city, which is fantastic news. Not a commercial operation, so I’m very thankful they’ve offered help.

The files for my first plates were sent to be converted to film this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll be printing from them later in the week. I don’t have a base yet, as I’m not sure how deep the relief will be — that’s the next step.

Thanks so much for your help. It’s so wonderful to find a community of people so willing to help out newbies, I wouldn’t be able to get started at all without this help.

Poppy - I printed with my copper plate over the weekend with great results. Now I just need to practice practice - good luck with your plates. I will let you know how I go with the boxcar base when I test it.

Good luck!

Hello, I would love to hear how you go with sourcing Australian polymer plates. Im shortly about to order a base from boxcarpress and would be interested to hear if we can get polymer plates made cheaper here in Aus. Im in Brisbane, but I think anywhere in Australia would be fine as shipping wouldn’t be as expensive compared to buying from the US!

Hi ScreamingCactus - I met a lady who can make plates for me but it’s not a commercial business, so sorry I can’t send you any suppliers, but I’ll keep an ear out still. Magnesium plates are easier to find but more expensive. DI Engravers in Melbourne do have them but price wise was beyond my budget. Perhaps contact a local printmaker/artist and see if they know where to find polymers? The contacts that I found in NSW couldn’t produce clean enough plates, with broken lines and relief not deep enough. Not something I could use.

I’m just about to get a metal supplier to machine a base for me, as I don’t want to spend $200+ getting a boxcar base shipped from the US. If you have the money though, it might be worth it. Depends how often you’ll be making new plates.

Googling photopolymer plates doesn’t get you much in Australia, by the way.

Hi, I am very very new to letterpress, and was wondering if any fellow Aussies could help me out with where I can get polymer plates made? Also I see in above conversations a few of you were staring to use the boxcar base..what do you think? Is it worth getting one shipped over?

Thanks

Hi!
I’m a complete newbie to all this but I work for a flexo printing company. We used to get some photopolymer plates made for us by a company called White & Gillespie in Melbourne.

I could be leading you entirely on a wild goose chase but if a photopolymer plate is a photopolymer plate then these guys might be able to help. They are pretty small - I don’t know too much about pricing sorry but they have a webpage, so Google will help :-D

Hi all!

I am also in Australia and have been getting my plates from Boxcar Press for awhile now. I love their service and quality of plates but due to the Aussie dollar being what it currently is, it is getting rather expensive for me to continue this way (not to mention the cost of shipping).

I am desperately trying to find a local company - anywhere in Australia - that will make the plates for me. I’ve found a few places that looked promising and have emailed/called them (including White & Gillespie as suggested above), but have not had any luck thus far.

So, Aussie letterpressers…. I know some of you must make your own plates, but for those that outsource, does anyone know of anywhere I could go for polymer plates in Australia? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!! I am getting desperate as the exchange rate/shipping costs are really eating into my profits. It is also quite nerve-wracking waiting for packages to arrive all the way from the US, shipping delays etc.

As much as I love Boxcar, I really need to find a supplier closer to home.

Thanks so much for your help!

Try this

http://son12.com/

Gerald
http://BielerPress.blogspot.con

Thanks so much Gerald! That’s great. I will get in touch with them.

All the best.

I make many of my own photopolymer plates for letterpress printing and am willing to offer my services to other letterpress printers in Australia. If you can provide specifications as to your mounting base height and plate relief I can provide suitable plates for printing. Preferably supply a right reading film negative or else provide a high resolution PDF file for a small additional processing fee. Probably best to contact me offline via email.

We have been using Owosso in the USA and although happy with their pricing we find their service pretty bad. Out of 11 plates we have made to date they have poorly made 3, posted 1 to the wrong address, and we had some billing issues. That said unfortunately we haven’t found a better option for our magnesium plates. It’s a real shame because in our business this sort of thing should be neither a big expense, or a complete hassle every time we do it. Looks like there is a real gap in the market in Australia that could be filled. Any takers :-)

There is a company in Adelaide, Henley Graphics (ph (08) 8355 5087) , who import and sell polymer plates. They will also make the plate from your supplied negatives. Don’t know how competive they are priced but have in mind to try them soon.
Ron

Hi all, Im completely new to this as well and living in NSW Australia. Just got my first Adana press last weekend and im determined to make some brilliant things with it! (i’ve never touched a letterpress before - so im expecting a sharp learning curve)

I investigated Polymer Plates on the net and came across this site: http://shop.metalclay.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=89 - they sell Polymer plates and they are in Aust. Hope it helps… i’ve just ordered one off them to see what they are like..

Hope that helps in a small way. But please if you end up finding a good contact for the plates - please post it here for all of us to share.

send signals to manila philippines where letterpress i so much ALIVE! i visited the philippines recently and in every major city, there is a letterress printer and have photographers still in business. the major cities have guys that make photopolmers leterpress plates mounted on honeycombs blocks which are actually a bunch of small or medium size to large blocks cast from an alloy of aluminum so they re very light.

even mimoegrahy (the gestetners) are still around.

greetings from pennsylvania! i have a brother in law in brisbane.

hi again, when i got back to the states, i have some olymer plates done in manila and they are the size like 8x10 and i just cut them into small pieces and i mounted them with heavy duty 2-sided adhesive. beats having to nail those metal “cliches” with small nails on typehigh woodblocks.
good lucks.

For plates in Brisbane you could try www.rallingsprint.com.au in Salisbury who claim to make photopolymer letterpress plates overnight or Graphic Metal Plates in Brendale ph 07 3205 5931, who I was refered to by another printer. I haven’t tried either personally, but might be worth a go.

Hi Poppy

I’m located in Sydney and can make photo polymer plates up to A4 in size from digital files. You could also send artwork and I can scan and digitize for creation of polymer plate. You would need a boxcar base (or other base type).

regards

Lawrence Finn
www.lawrencefinn.com
www.actusreuspress.com

just researching at the moment

found “The Distillery” in northern Sydney who make A5, A4 and A3 sized plates from around $122 upwards including postage

hope this helps!

anyone got an 8x5 Adana for sale?

cheers, jo

Hi Jo,

We (The Distillery) have since reduced our photopolymer pricing dramatically to $50 /A5 plate, including postage & GST.

We also also hoping to introduce the deep relief KF-152 plates into Australia shortly.

I’ll message you if we come across a spare Adana.

Cheers