IF YOU KNOW HOW TO PRINT, but don't have access to a press, then you should consider Lead Graffiti's press rental. And if you need space or special equipment to perfect a personal book- or box-making project, maybe our workspace rental would help you make it a reality.

At Lead Graffiti, press rental helps you maintain your printing skills and helps you control job costs by keeping more money in your pocket. Our workspace rental gives you room to prep your project and use a wide variety of associated equipment. Drop us an email if you want a 30-minute tour of our studio.

Please email us with your desired date & time. Be sure to allocate enough time for your project. We realize that letterpress is not your day job for many people, and we will do our best to accommodate your print schedule. We don't mind you need less time than you anticipate, but needing more can be tricky. We've got our work and workshops to consider. You can rent presses over top of bookmaking workshops.

A word to the wise : Do not run yourself up against a deadline and expect us to be able to accommodate you on the spot.

Prerequisites

PRESS RENTAL REQUIRES that you complete the associated technical workshop on the equipment to be rented OR obtain our prior approval. You must present evidence of your technical skills from classes or other workshops for approved rental. Email jpg photos of 3 - 5 of your projects (limit images to 1000 pixels in either direction) highlighting your proficiency at printing via letterpress, and let us know where you learned your skills.

• You should be able to work on our equipment with minimal input from the Lead Graffiti staff.

• If you are a novice printer, we are quite willing to oversee you through your first couple of projects, BUT the point is for you to be able to do your work on your own.

• As a novice, you need to promptly maintain your new printing skillset.

What you get

EXCEPT FOR PAPER AND PLATES, Lead Graffiti will typically supply you with everything necessary to walk in and print. In addition to printing with your desired press, you have access to the following:

• 2 paper cutters (digital & hand-cranked) and a board shear,

• our wood & metal type collection and associated gear (NOTE : Use of wood & metal type is available ONLY to those who have completed our Letterpress 101 workshop.),

• printing gear for photopolymer forms,

• rubber-based ink (in moderation) and equipment for mixing and hand rolling. We also tend to keep a couple of metallic oil-based colors along with bronzing powder, corn starch, and magnesium carbonate.

• Solvent (we use odorless mineral spirits), type wash, and paper and cloth rags for clean up, and

• Several pieces of equipment for post-press finishing your print job (see Workspace & Table Top Presses below for even more details).

Your responsibilities

THINK ABOUT YOUR PAPER ahead of time and bring it with you.

• We may have what you want in-house, which we will sell (if we can spare it) with a markup and advance notice.

• With advance notice, you may order paper, envelopes, and photopolymer plates and send them directly to our studio, which may reduce your shipping costs slightly as we are in an industrial park and reduce your effort in hauling them to the studio.

• A word to the wise : If you use envelopes, design your enclosures in a size that comfortably fits.

• See the bottom of this page for suggested paper sources.

THINK ABOUT YOUR PRINT FORM ahead of time.

• Show your respect for often-irreplaceable metal & wood type by taking extra care during hand setting and redistributing.

• Opt for photopolymer plates or copperplates when you desire a deep impression, or you are printing on paper stocks with inclusions such as seeds, bark, or other coarse recycled materials.

• See the bottom of this page for suggested sources for photopolymer plates and copperplates.

CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF.

• Return all tools to their proper place, clean and redistribute all type and spacing material, and clean up all ink usage and any paper scraps or offcuts.

• You get a clean and freshly oiled press when you rent, and we expect it to be left in the same condition.

• Allow time in your schedule for proper cleaning of the press, typically about 30 minutes of solid work, especially after using metallic ink, which requires an application of Pomade roller cleaner. If you think it is clean, go over it one more time.

⬆ Lindsay from Gingerly Press utilized Lead Graffiti's studio space rental to provide her with ample room to build 22 15" x 18" clamshell boxes for her "Printed Walk" broadside series, which spread over a couple of weeks. She also needed access to a large cutter and our board shears to cut the 220 pieces of board, 50 inside sheets, and yards and yards of book cloth required for the project.

Equipment specs & rental fees

YOU MAY SELECT from the following 5 presses (that you have been approved to use) to produce your project.

VANDERCOOK SP15

VANDERCOOK SP15 PRESS RENTAL : $25 per hour. This cylinder press is a hand-fed, hand-cranked model with a motorized inking drum for even ink distribution.

• Maximum sheet size of 14.75" x 20" with a print area of 14" x 18".

• Allow a standard 1/2" gripper edge.

• Printing speed of about 200 sheets per hour when you have some experience.

• Any pre- or post-press prep you need to do will be charged the workspace rental fee of $10 per hour.

VANDERCOOK UNIVERSAL III

VANDERCOOK UNIVERSAL III PRESS RENTAL : $35 per hour. This automatic cylinder press is hand-fed and prints at the push of a button.

• Maximum sheet size of 18.75" x 28" with a print area of 18" x 24".

• Allow a standard 1/2" gripper edge on your paper.

• It can be set to run in 3 modes (manual, cycle, or run) with a controlled delay between removing and inserting sheets.

• A Tower system with attached cloth tapes allows for enhanced registration accuracy.

• The top printing speed is about 240 sheets per hour.

• Any pre- or post-press prep you need to do will be charged the workspace rental fee of $10 per hour.

CHANDLER & PRICE 10 X 15

CHANDLER & PRICE 10 X 15 PRESS RENTAL : $25 per hour. This is a motorized floor model old-style platen press.

• Maximum sheet size of about 12" x 16" with a sweet-spot printing area of 6" x 9".

• Has a fixed speed of about 700 sheets per hour.

• It can also die-cut, perforate, and score using a commercially available creasing matrix.

• Any pre- or post-press prep you need to do will be charged the workspace rental fee of $10 per hour.

IRON HAND PRESS (2)

IRON HAND PRESS RENTAL: $15 per hour. Printing high-quality work is physically challenging on these platen presses, especially if you want to work with dampened paper.

• The 1928 Albion has a platen size of 21" x 29."

• The 1869 R. Hoe Washington #5 has a platen size of 25" x 38".

• Inking is via hand brayer.

• Any pre- or post-press prep you need to do will be charged the workspace rental fee of $10 per hour.

ALSO WORTH NOTING

While we aren’t prepared to include these items in the rental offerings, it is worth mentioning that we have an Intertype C4 with about 200 typefaces, a Heidelberg Windmill (10” x 15”), and a Miehle V-50 (14” x 20”) press.

WORKSPACE AND TABLETOP PRESSES

WORKSPACE AND TABLE TOP PRESS RENTAL : $10 per hour (charged in 15-minute increments if you only cut paper). Associated equipment use with workspace rental includes : 

• Use of two 6" x 9" tabletop platen presses plus associated chases, metal / wood furniture, quoins for locking up your form, and various sizes of bases for photopolymer plates. NOTE : Use of the tabletop presses is available ONLY to those who have completed our Letterpress 101 workshop or can show proficiency.

• A 30" x 40" light table with a gear-driven parallel bar to prep your photopolymer plates, check print alignment, etc.

• a manual rotary cutter for cutting paper up to 31" wide

• a 39" board shear for cutting book board

• electric paper drill with holes ranging from 1/8", 1/4", and 1/2"

• a hand-operated Morgana creasing machine

• a treadle-operated Rosback perforator (24" wide)

• a double wire punching & binding machine (13 " wide)

• Compressor and airbrush for edge painting cards (you should supply your water-base paint for spraying)

• All the basic rubber-base inks for mixing PMS colors (in moderation), PMS ink color formula book, ink scales, ink knives, ink mixing stands, and hand brayers

• solvent and paper / cloth clean-up rags, rubber gloves, and Pomade for roller / press cleanup

• Our collection of wood & metal type (about 75 and 600 cases, respectively), including dingbats, borders, and copperplates, plus composing sticks, leading, and spacing material. NOTE : Use of wood & metal type is available ONLY to those who have completed our Letterpress 101 workshop or have proven proficiency.

• galleys for temporarily storing your active type for ongoing projects

• photo lights and photo paper

• amenities such as refrigerator access and free parking

• And most necessary miscellaneous items like a smartphone charging station, tape, X-acto knives, and stereo (we may have something to say about the music).

Payment / cancellations

RENTAL MUST BE PAID IN FULL at the end of your printing session.

• You may use a credit card, Venmo, PayPal or check payable to Lead Graffiti, or cash. Email to make sure any adjustments to that policy are acceptable.

• If you need to cancel or reschedule, we need a phone call, text, or email 24 hours ahead.

Student specials

YOU ARE WELCOME to bring a helpful friend at no additional cost when you rent press time. You get some help, and an extra pair of eyes, and the two get the experience.  The friend must remain a helper or observer and not a printer during your time.

You can continue to rent our presses and workspace after you graduate and get a job, which may improve your marketability, add to your freelance options, or add a little side income.

If you are using photopolymer plates, we would be happy to look over your digital files ahead of time for your first couple of orders to see if we detect any problems. You should work in InDesign or Illustrator with vector-based images and use spot colors with proper overprinting or knockouts for colors.

Sample projects : timing and costs

THESE COSTS AND TIME ESTIMATES listed below are probably high. You will get faster with more practice, which will lower your costs. You can also compare the price of buying larger plates to print 2-up (higher plate charge) versus reducing your on-press time (lower press rental charge). This can make you more efficient in trimming paper out of the parent sheet, reducing your paper costs and simply reducing the amount of effort you spend.

The fact that these would be your first letterpress projects has been considered when calculating the times. With some practice, you could likely do the work in half the time with proper planning.

Sample project No. 1  

PARTY INVITATIONS OR BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT : You can inexpensively design this small project using only hand-set type and printer's ornaments loaded into a tabletop press.

Specifications : 

• Quantity—50 copies

• Finished size—5" x 7"

• Format—one color on one side, printing from hand composition

Time and materials cost estimates :

• Job prep and handset type—3 hours

• Set up and print on a tabletop press—2 hours

• Clean press and redistribute type—1 hour

• Total time — 6 hours @ $10 = $60
  (Workspace rental includes free use of tabletop press)

• Materials—paper & envelopes—$25

Total cost for complete project = $85

Sample project No. 2

BLANK GREETING OR NOTE CARDS : By designing this on a computer, you can more easily combine your type with original illustration art, and print using photopolymer plates on the Vandercook SP15.

Specifications : 

• Quantity—120 cards and blank envelopes

• Finished size— 5.5" x 4.25"

• Format—two colors on one side, printing from photopolymer plates

Time and materials cost estimates :

• Job prep and finishing (cutting, ink mixing, scoring)—2 hours @ $10 = $20

• Press set up, register the 2 colors, print 2 colors, 2 press clean ups—5 hours @ $25 = $125

• Plate estimate + shipping—$70

• Paper & envelopes—$45

• Total time—7 hours

• Total materials—plates, paper & envelopes—$115

Total cost for complete project = $260

Sample project #3

BUSINESS CARD PRINTING IN 4 SPOT COLORS : This is a great self-promotional project for 4 students willing to collaborate and use the same paper and the same 4 ink colors on one side. Each card would be designed independently on the computer and gang-printed from photopolymer plates.

Specifications :

• Quantity—200 business cards each; 4 different cards gang printed on the same sheet

• Finished size—2" x 3.5"

• Format—4 spot colors on one side, printing from photopolymer plates

Time and materials cost estimates :

• Off-press job prep and finishing (cutting paper, ink mixing, post-press trimming, etc.)—2 hours @ $10 = $30

• Using the Vandercook SP15 : press set up and register the 4 colors (average about 2 hours per color), print 4 colors (1 hour each color), 4 press clean ups (30 minutes per color)—14 hours @ $25 = $350

• Photopolymer plate estimate—$115 ($0.65 / square inch x 44 square inches x 4 colors)

• Free shipping (UPS 2-day Air) for over 90 square inches

• Paper estimate—Mohawk Superfine 100# cover = $25

• Total time—17 hours

• Actual materials—plates, paper—$140

Total cost for complete project = $490 ($122.50 each)

Sample project No. 4

FOUR-CARD WEDDING ENSEMBLE : Every designer has at least 1 close friend or relative getting married who would be thrilled to have a letterpress suite of cards and envelopes for their invitations. It isn't unreasonable that this would cost $1500 from a retailer.

Specifications :

• Quantity—125 invitation sets (4 cards per set), plus 2 envelopes per set

• Finished size—5" x 7" or smaller per card

• Format—2 spot colors on 1 side of each card, 1 spot color on each envelope, and printing from photopolymer plates

Time and materials cost estimate :

• Off-press job prep and finishing (cutting paper, ink mixing, envelope prep, post-press trimming, etc.)—3 hours @ $10 = $30

• Using the Vandercook Universal III : press set up, register color #1, and print (2 hours); set up and print 2 envelopes (1.5 hours); press set up, register color #2, and print (2 hours); 2 press cleanups (30 minutes per color)—6.5 hours @ $35 = $$227.50

• Plate estimate—$125 ($0.65 / square inch)

• Free shipping (UPS2-day Air) for over 90 square inches

• Paper & envelopes (Crane Lettra 110# and matching envelopes in 2 sizes)—$180

• Total time—9.5 hours

• Total materials—plates, paper & envelopes = $305

Total cost for complete project = $562.50

Resources

Photopolymer plates

• Boxcar Press : this is where we get our photopolymer plates

Copperplates

• Owosso Graphics : this is where we get our copperplates

Paper / envelopes

• Letterpress Paper / Legion Paper : printmaking papers (by the case only)

• French Paper Company : good colored papers and envelopes (smaller sizes and amounts)

• Dick Blick : printmaking papers

• Katz Americas : blank beer coasters (cannot run on the Vandercook)

• Talas : bookbinding supplies (paper, bookboard, bookcloth, glue, etc.)

• Glodan : sells split cases

• Song Papers : will sell split cases, usually in 5 or 10 sheet increments

• Neenah : will sell samples and split cases

• Mohawk : where we get most of our smooth, heavy white paper

• Jerry's Artarama : there is one in Newark on South Main Street

• Utrecht : has a complete line of art supplies and specialty papers

Other supplies

• NA Graphics : generally where we order letterpress equipment and equipment-related supplies

• Gans Ink : ink (we use rubber-based blending inks, also carries our favorite gold ink), have to order over the phone. You need to look at our chart which I cannot find online.

• VanSon : ink (we use rubber-based)

• Clearbags : packaging products and clear sleeves in hundreds of sizes

• Uline : boxes, packing, and shipping materials

• Wire-O : Twin-Loop binding supplies (boxes of 100)

Online discussion and social groups near us

• LetPress

• Amalgamated Printers of America (APA)

• American Printing History Association

• Fine Press Book Association

• .918 Club / Lancaster, PA