about our equipment

Our studio houses two iron handpresses, two Vandercooks, a motorized Chandler & Price and a treadle Golding platen press, a Heidelberg Windmill, and a number of tabletop presses.

An on-site library offers books for inspiration and information on letterpress and bookbinding, as well as an active collection of printing samples that range across incunabula, Hatch Show Prints, and work representing a number of other contemporary letterpress studios and book artists.

Equipment

The range of Lead Graffiti equipment is ideal for working on projects both large and small. Depending on the job, printing forms can be created from our broad collection of metal and wood type, or created digitally and ordered as photopolymer plates or copperplates. Our presses vary in size from tabletop presses designed for business cards to our 25" x 38" Hoe iron handpress. With handcranked, foot treadle and motorized presses, there's bound to be one that suits your speed, inclinations, and the job.

Whether you have your own press or not, you can stop by our studio or sign up for a workshop to work with your hands on this historic equipment.

Feel free to drop us an email and tell us when you are going to be in town. We are about 2 easy miles off I-95 and, if you do it right, you can avoid paying the toll at the Delaware / Maryland border.

Iron handpresses

     R. Hoe Washington #5 | through LetPress
          25" x 38" platen (c. 1869)
     Albion | Museum of Printing, Andover, MA
          21" x 29" platen (c. 1890)

Cylinder presses

     Vandercook SP-15 | eBay
          14" x 18" image area (14.75" x 20" paper size)
     Vandercook Universal III automatic | purchased from friend
          18" x 24" image area (18.75" x 28" paper size)

Platen presses

     Heidelberg windmill | Dentsply
          10 x 15
     Chandler & Price | David Rose auction
          10 x 15 (motorized)
     Golding | Mike | from friend
          8 x 12 (treadle)

Tabletop presses

     C & P Pilot | came with purchase of type collection
     C & P Pilot West German clone | purchased from friend
     Craftsman Superior | purchased from friend
     plus Kelsey Excelsior, Kelsey Victor, and half dozen others

Hot metal

     Intertype C4 (30 pica) | purchased through Briar Press
          with approximately 65 magazines, 200 typefaces,
          100 borders, and hundreds of special characters

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