Hi Community… beginner here

Hi everyone. I have been trolling along these boards for some time now, out of Letterpress curiosity. My wife and I are both artists and run an in-home stationery business as a full time second job. We have taken classes and worked with Vandercook machines (large sheets w/crop marks). However we are looking to pick up a table top machine and not sure what size would be ideal for us. We would be printing mainly 5x7 invites with rsvp cards, business cards & greeting cards. We may possibly get jobs a little larger like 9” but we could go use the Vandercook. Any info to steer us in the right direction would be much appreciated.

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Hi and welcome! I too am new to this and leaning as I go. I bought a small letterpress off eBay and wanted to fix it up myself. I ran into problems and found Todd from toddspresstime2. While I don’t know if he sells them I do know that he is someone to know when it comes to needing parts, rollers and fixing letterpress. So good luck and keep him in mind. You can find him in the yellow pages under rollers on here or on eBay.

We have inventory, lots of presses. Check us out.

tandtpressrestoration.com

Perhaps we can help you find just the right press. Our restorations include fresh rollers and many of the small items required to get started.

Tom & Terri

Nice work, Tom and Terry

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A Pilot would be a good press to have at home for someone that also has access to a Vandercook. If you will be printing from photopolymer plates I would suggest getting a Boxcar base that is the same thickness as the one you use on the Vandercook. That way you only have to order one plate type and can run things that are too big for your Pilot on the cylinder press.

Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

Hey Daniel… we actually use the Vandercook at your place. What Pilot and size do you recommend for home use, since I can use your Vandercook for larger projects.

Hello,
A C&P Pilot has a chase measuring 6.5x10. I’d suggest you spend some time with the Pilot at The Arm before investing- they are great presses when you use them for what they are good at doing. I like using them for printing cards already cut to size as well as hang tags, drink coasters and return addresses on envelopes.

Dan