Help! No impression at all from my plate
Hello!
I’m printing on a Kelsey 6x10. I make my own plates that i get from Boxcar press in a platemaker. I’ve never had a problem but now that I have a job due early in the week of course I would run into problems. I made my background plate for a Christmas card which is patterned background and I can’t get an impression. At all. I’ve made 3 plates and several test plates. I’ve tried changing the packing and adjusting the pressure. When I put an older plate in I get a great impression. Any ideas or suggestions???
Is it a very large flat form (image)? Some pictures would help here, because we won’t really know what you’re talking about unless there are visual aides.
But if it is a large flat image, you’re probably out of luck. These smaller Kelsey presses aren’t the best kind of device for putting down the kind of pressure it would take to create impression with a large flat like this. The image should transfer in the form of ink to paper, but it’s very likely that if you were able to de-boss the paper very much with it that you’d be overtaxing the press itself- especially if the form is really big for the impression size of your press.
Give us some more information, like the amount of square inches your imposition covers, the graphic itself, etc.
If your base is for the deep relief plate and you accidentally got a standard relief plate mounted on it that could be the problem.
Bob
That would likely you give you all sorts of inking troubles as well (I know from accidental experience…). Granted, he/she hasn’t said whether inking is a problem as well as impression. I would guess HavenPress’ comment is correct – probably trying to use too large a plate for the press size. I ran into that this weekend. I tried to run a large label 2-up and couldn’t get a satisfactory impression, despite cranking the lever down on my Windmill. I cut the plate in half to run them 1-up and suddenly had way more impression than I needed.
FWIW, this seems to be a more common problem with platens than cylinders.
The plate is 4x5 1/2. The other problem I am having is the wording which is a second plate that is blacked out on this image is not printing well either. That plate is much smaller 1.5 x 2.75. I’m unable to post a picture right now but I will soon
The 1.5”x2.75” image should not be a problem to print on this press, but it is difficult to tell without seeing the image.
The larger plate is, however, a real stretch for the press if you are expecting to “see” impression without ink. You might be able to print this image on very smooth paper, but seeing any impression on rough stock is not likely at all.
With a small press and limited impression capability, it can help a great deal to dampen the paper to make the paper more conformable.