Gamewell Press Blog

Musings on Monotony

A picture of my sweet shop cat Gus to make up for all the meandering to follow.

I'm working on a post about the CD packaging I just finished printing and should have it up soon. Those were quite an adventure, and though they came out well, printing them was just one mishap after another. I certainly hope to print CDs again, but will I ever do it this way, using those plates, that ink, and the same level of ignorance? No, no I will not.

That last point, the level of ignorance not being the same again, is really resonating with me today. I’m finding this to be both a frustrating and sort of attractive thing about my printing experiences recently.

Lately I've been fortunate enough to have lots of projects to print, which is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but every time I start one, I seem to realize that I’ve never done this sort of thing before, and that since I’m working with a deadline (flexible, yes, but still), there better not be any hiccups. It can be scary. Usually I have at least one moment of serious despair, where I wish that I hadn't taken on this job, where I wish that I'd just stuck to printing my own little cards, and where I'm convinced that this time I won't be able to complete a project at all.

Earlier this year, it was those 2 sets of wedding invitations. First attempting to print the whole chase area on those save the dates, and then later doing that hand-set invitation and every bit of it was a challenge. More recently it's been the CD packaging. I must admit that I really wished for an invitation to print during certain points of the CD printing since I now know all about printing wedding invitations (ha!), but now of course, there's a new challenge. Early next year, it looks like I'll be printing some posters, and that too will be a whole new ballgame, with me making it up as I go along.

So far however, I've been lucky, or my perseverance and growing skill(?) have enabled me to successfully complete each project. Or both. But it feels so rewarding to look at a completed piece and not only does it look good, it looks right - or well printed, and to know that I got through that moment (or 5) where it came close to failure. And that's what is both so awesome and stress-making about this. Rarely in my professional life do I do anything that's outcome is ever in doubt or where my actions could cause serious failure. Don't get me wrong, I chose my career based on the fact that I wanted an enjoyable, mostly stress-free, 9-5 work environment, so that I could go home and do my stuff, and that's what I've got. I like my job but you know, at times it can be...a little monotonous. I’ve been really working on a plan or at least a series of steps to start transitioning Gamewell Press into a money-making operation (not big money – more like buying type from Skyline money), so this has been on my mind lately.

Anyway, it's great (so far) when I get done and am pleased with the finished product, but the nerve-wracking middle isn’t wonderful (though the sense of accomplishment is); nor is the worry that one of these days I’ll have bitten off more than I can chew and will have to let down a client. So is monotony that bad? Today I’d like to just have some run of the mill, easy projects, but would I grow tired down the line of printing the same wedding invitation designs day after day? Right now that seems like a problem I’d love to have, but do people who are doing exactly what they’ve wanted to do have that monotony problem? I’m going to guess that if I had a real printing business, I’d grow tired of the website or store updating and the accounting, and certainly the press cleaning, but not the printing. Is that naive?

So yes, I have a full time non-printing job, and until a few months ago I had another part-time job as well. I live in New York, which means that although I can read or zone out on my daily trek to work, it can be a surprisingly long commute (round trip: 1.5-2 hours, daily) and New York is hard - it's a hard place to live (this used to be an attraction, but now I’m lazy and getting old). But my point is that I don’t have that much time for printing. Doing it after work guarantees a very late night and that no other household duties get done, and I’m fairly useless the next day as well. Printing all weekend means not seeing friends that I rarely see anyway and not going to museums and galleries and all the things that make living in this city worth it. So before this becomes a rant about how New York and I might not want the same things anymore (hello, space and reasonable rents!), I’ll just say that if I’m lucky and very well organized, I get to print twice a week but usually it’s only once a week or so.

Of course, in addition to the actual printing, there’s all the set-up surrounding it. I need to find the time to design some ideas I’ve been sketching out, to set the type and cuts for another couple projects I’ve been thinking about, I really need to get on with learning to use Photoshop and Illustrator better, so that I can actually put my plans into action quicker and more effectively. I need to devote time to blogging and building my website, and I really ought to spend some time taking better-looking pictures of my work. You add all these up and where is the time? There really isn’t any, you know?

So I want to ask you guys, how do you fit it all in? Are you just better at time management & multitasking? Do you perhaps not have another job? Do you not have sleeping issues? Do you require less of that lazy vegging out on the couch time? Or do you, like me, have trouble managing and sometimes feel like you’re sinking under the weight of all these intentions and to-do lists? At times I wonder if I'm really capable of turning this into a semi-successful business-type-thing because some nights, like tonight, I get home and have to abandon my type sorting plans and give in to an all-consuming urge to read a novel. That happens to everyone though, right? Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. As perhaps would a way to shake this winter-approaching, end-of-daylight-savings-time melancholy!

Look Ma, No Hands

Or at least no hands constantly moving the throw-off between every impression, and no inadvertent double inking of the form while said hands fumble with feeding the paper while treadling. Yes, thank you very much, it looks as though I've finally gotten the hang of...printing on the Pearl?

I think I wrote before about the trouble I've been having feeding the paper in time to print the next impression while also treadling and removing the just-printed paper and examining it. Too much multi-tasking or a lack of coordination or something. I just couldn't do it all in the three rotations it takes for the Pearl to print. What I've been doing is pulling the throw-off after every impression so that I would have extra time to feed the paper and examine the previous print. Of course six rotations was way too much time and I'd end up standing around for a few seconds. I think 4 or 4.5 rotations would have been perfect. Since the Pearl was going through the rotations twice, the form was also being inked twice, which really could have been disastrous to the quality of my printing. Fortunately(?) I still consistently under-ink the press pretty much all the time, so I just kept it under-inked instead of adding more ink like I normally do. It worked, but it was stupid.

Anyway, I've finally gotten the hang of it. Part of it is certainly just practice and an increased familiarity with my lovely little press. I'm now more comfortable judging the right amount of pressure and speed to exert on the treadle, so the press moves just fast enough for me to properly feed and print. I think my earlier problem was partly caused by inexperience: I'd either treadle the press too fast for my feeding speed or I'd treadle so slowly that the press wouldn't maintain momentum. Rich also left some helpful tips in the comments of an earlier post where I was complaining about my feeding difficulty. Now I do sort of lean my body against the feed board while treadling and feeding, and it does help, although I'm not sure why. The feed board and the iron arms connecting it to the press don't look all that strong, but they seem to be plenty hardy enough to support part of my weight. I think that my upper body is leaning against the feedboard and my lower body is standing on the one leg I have planted firmly on the floor, and this leaves the other leg to treadle without interference or interruption. I've really got to get some of those tension mats though because that foot on the floor can get really sore after a day of printing.

I think one important factor to successfully printing on the Pearl that wasn't so vital with my tabletops is proper setting of gauge pins. Obviously on a press without momentum, you can set the gauge pins however you want, take all the time you need to place the stock into the pins, and it doesn't really matter how secure the gauge pins are since you control how quickly the press closes. On a treadled press (or a motorized one), you really have to set those guides up so that you can feed the paper into them in a fluid motion because if the guides move or the paper gets caught somewhere, you don't really have time to correct it before the platen starts to close. I'll admit that I was often lazy with gauge pins on the Kelseys, and I would only cut the front slit and not the back to doubly secure the quad guides to the tympan. Now that I've started doing that on the Pearl, registration works much better, and cutting that second slit is very simple. I'm not really sure why I made it out to be difficult. It's also important (duh!) to have the side guide set up, not just as a printing guide for registration (like on a tabletop), but also to hold the stock in place. I know, this seems kinda obvious to those of you who mostly use larger presses, but really, I now have a new appreciation for using gauge pins by the book.

Finally, I think it also helps that I'm currently printing on a harder stock than normal. The last big project I printed was on Lettra and that 100% cotton paper totally sticks together and dries out your hands. I suppose we'll see if this rock star feeding continues the next time I try to print on cotton paper.

Old Maid Card Exchange

Last month I participated in a print exchange through the Ladies of Letterpress site. If you guys haven't checked out that site recently, you should take another look - it's been getting more active as time passes. While certainly not as busy as Briar Press or anything, everyone is very friendly, and it's an interesting mix of amateurs and owner/operators of boutique letterpress studios. Yes, studios (stupid reference to a topic that would not die on the letpress listserv).

The swap was organized by Kathryn of Blackbird Letterpress, and if you go to her blog and scroll down, you can actually see all the different submissions that she scanned as they came in. I haven't yet gotten my deck of cards (I'm eagerly expecting their arrival sometime next week), but it looks like everyone did a really lovely job. They've also been displayed in two small shows, which is pretty cool. They were first exhibited as part of an exhibition of Kathryn's work at the Baton Rouge Gallery in Louisiana, and you can see a video that shows the deck on their website. Then Jessica of Heroes & Criminals Press arranged that they be shown at BookOpolis, a festival in Asheville, NC.

The original idea was that it be an Old Maid card deck, but with a twist, and be called "Enterprising Maidens," instead of Old Maid. You see an unmarried, dried-up old hag, but we see women who've got stuff to do, and oh yeah, they're not married. Like that. Every participant was supposed to choose a character, and instead of the traditional, identical matching pairs of cards, we were supposed to print two versions of our character. The theme was women, so a female character or a character relating to women. Broad enough?

When this swap was first announced on the site, I thought that it would be so cool to have a deck of those cards, but I really couldn't come up with a character that I was interested in doing. I also had a lot going on this summer and wasn't really sure I had the time or enough experience yet on the Pearl. So I didn't sign up, but I kept thinking how much I would like a set of those cards. Perhaps other people had similar concerns, so Kathryn started playing dirty. She emailed some people directly, including me, saying that we should participate. Well a personal appeal was enough to sway me, and I figured I still had a month or two to choose a character.

So I thought and I thought and really didn't like anything I came up with. It was all either boring or I couldn't figure out a good way to execute it. The best idea I had was Polly Politico, but every time I tried to create this character, I got stuck. I was going to draw some lady in a power suit? No. Anyway I was starting to get worried, when I decided to throw the character idea out the window. If the theme is women and it's a reversal of the old maid stereotype, then I figured I could paint with a broader brush, and Daring Democratic Dames was born.

I also decided that I could go off the reservation here because the original idea was to have a deck that you could maybe play with, and so everyone was supposed to print on a soft white, heavier stock cut to 3.5" x 5.5" with rounded corners. There were even plans to print a uniform back, but that idea was abandoned when Kathryn realized she's have to print the backs of almost 2200 cards. Then someone emailed asking if they could use light blue paper instead of white, and it was agreed that was okay. Anyway I decided that if there were going to be two blue cards in a sea of white, then I could have an idea and not a person as a character. I don't know, maybe everyone thought it stuck out like a sore thumb and was awful, but the nice thing about an internet/mail exchange is that no one will tell you, if so. And since it was the only idea I had that wasn't completely terrible I chose to run with it.

When I was at Dave Churchman's in April I picked up two sizes of PT Barnum, which I hadn't yet had a chance to use, so I thought that it might be fun to do a wanted poster, but in keeping with the play on the typical old maid, it's a wanted poster with a twist. At first glance you think these female politicians are wanted criminals or something, but then you see that actually we want more Daring Dames of Democracy. I thought it was a cute idea and in keeping with our recent election year hoopla. Maybe it's my way of making up for the fact that I supported Obama instead of Hillary Clinton, or maybe it's just late at night and my tendency as a former english major to be able to make up non-existent themes and symbols.

So one card is illustrated with two such dames: Hillary Clinton because she's got to be the most famous female politician right now, and Ann Richards because she was awesome. Then on the other card I put a silhouette with a question mark, which hopefully will prompt young women to become politically active. Or something. I must admit that this was also a good way of skirting around the fact that I cannot draw since one can use live trace and other Adobe creative suite tools to turn non-copyrighted/publicly accessible images into one's own. If the finances allow it, I'm planning to take a drawing class soon because it has suddenly occurred to me that perhaps one can learn to draw, at least competently, if not like Durer. I feel silly writing that, but really it's been a bit of a revelation. I still vividly remember being about five years old, and trying to paint my dad a picture of George Washington. When it didn't come out exactly as I had pictured it in my head (I now realize that I was picturing Gilbert Stuart's paintings, so perhaps I had unrealistic expectations!), I got extremely frustrated and hung up my art smock for good. Until now. Maybe.

Since Kathryn couldn't print on the back of everyone's cards, she suggested that we could either leave them blank except for signing our names or we could put more information on the back, either by printing or writing or whatever. Some people did nothing, some put more information about how the card was printed, some used it as an extension of their character on the front. I fell into the latter camp, and in fact completely neglected to sign my name or number any of the cards. Stupid, but it was a time crunch thing. I did the corner rounding in the Kansas City airport while waiting for the 2nd leg of my flight to Seattle and mailed the cards from a tiny post office in nowhere, Montana. Anyway, I thought that the backs of the cards should look like the backs of cards - sort of busy and blue. I also felt bad leaving out all these other great women politicians and activists, so I decided to make a sort of word jumble on the back. The bottom two rows read from left to right and are my name and my press name. The other letters read from top to bottom and are the names of famous female movers and shakers from history. They're pretty much all democrats or at least liberal/radical in some way - you're not going to see Condi Rice on there. Hell, you don't see Sandra Day O'Connor on there because after the 2000 "election" she and I stopped talking - that's just how I am. However, there are some women on there who did great things for women, but had troubling attitudes about other social issues (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I'm looking at you). Sorry. I'm not condoning that, but I was in a hurry and I needed female democrats.

"Daring Dames of Democracy" was printed with 36 point PT Barnum metal type. But all the rest was printed using wood blocks cut by Glendon on the laser cutter. This was my first time printing text or very fine lines printed by the laser cutter, and I think it went very well. Everything blue had about 85 impressions and the red had 40 or so. Really, this blog might start getting kind of boring because that Pearl prints so beautifully. I used Crane's Lettra Pearl White stock, which also behaved really nicely this time (I tend to find that stuff rather temperamental). There is no impression into the back of the card, and the front has just what I wanted. I think you can see and feel the impression on the front (it isn't huge, but it's there), but it doesn't show through the back at all. Go me.

 

As you may have noticed, I only have two rollers on the Pearl instead of three because I'm very broke (hi dentist!) and that's all that was on the press when I bought it. The rollers I'm using came with the Pearl, and while I think they're quite a few years old, I don't believe they were used much, and they seem to be in pretty good shape. I'm probably going to try to use them as long as possible and then get all three when it's time to replace them. Therefore I was a little bit worried about the how well the solid of the silhouette would print - that I wouldn't be able to get good coverage with only two rollers, and I made that question mark as big as I possibly could. However, it wasn't a problem at all. I think the ink coverage is really almost perfect. All in all, everything went swimmingly for my first big project on the Pearl.

Brother, Can You Spare $1500?

I had an emergency root canal today. Partly this is a good thing, since I no longer feel like someone is hammering a nail through my jaw into my head, and that plus codeine equals blessed relief. However I had already used up my measly dental insurance allotment for the year (it's not my fault. It's genetic. I have flawless dental hygiene, but I grind my teeth like my mother and have rotten teeth like my father), so I have to shell out for my $1500 root canal from my own empty pocket. Too bad my non-existent emergency fund is empty. Ah, New York City, you are an expensive rat bastard.

But, coincidentally, I was already in the process of trying to regulate my sad, sad finances by getting a handle on what, exactly I'm wasting all my money on. To that end, I made this handy dandy two-sided notebook. On one side, I'm going to write all my to-do lists, since I generally write these on scraps of paper, lose them, and realize when I find them two months later that I still haven't framed that print yet. On the other side I was going to write down every single cent I spent, so that I could identify that perhaps I shouldn't spend $45 a day on coffee, and then voila! My money troubles would be over! Of course now I have no money to spend at all, but a two-sided notebook is still a neat idea. Maybe I'll use the second side for all the things I wish I could buy or brainstorming potential winning lottery numbers. The possibilities are endless!

I got this brilliant idea from Etsy - they had a little tutorial on it. Now I'm thinking that I'll make and sell 5 million of them, and then I'll be able to pay off my dental work. It will be awesome, my entrepreneurship. Wouldn't you want a 2-sided notebook with a letterpress printed cover? On one side, you can keep your hopes and dreams, and on the other side you can note your harsh realities! In keeping with the recession-chic theme of this post, I printed the cover of my notebook with a factory. I think factories are sometimes kind of depressing, what with the harsh labor conditions, the environmental damage, or the closing of said factory and ruining of the town, so this factory is in keeping with my depressed mood. On the other hand, it looks like a happy factory, right, with the bouncy smoke rings and the trains? So maybe it's blue-collar industry keeping America afloat, looking on the bright side. Union-negotiated dental insurance for all. Fluoride in the water. Two-sided notebook - oh, the possibilities.

Don't Ask the Barber Whether You Need a Haircut

For the past few months I’ve been getting a fair number of questions or requests for advice from novice printers. While I’ve got to admit it’s kind of flattering, I’m so hesitant to answer since I hardly feel that I’m any sort of expert. However I’m really pleased that people have found the blog useful, so I’ve decided to answer the question I get asked most frequently via email here for all to see. And that is “I want to do letterpress printing. How should I go about that and what press should I buy? Is a 5x8 Kelsey okay?” BUT, I want to double- and triple-stress that this is my opinion, and it’s given from my point of view. Many people will give you different opinions or the same opinion for different reasons, and those people aren’t wrong (I mean, they could be, I suppose. I don’t know), they just aren’t answering a question from my perspective.

So my take on should you buy a press? How about a Kelsey 5x8? Or a bigger one? comes from me, someone who wasn’t sure where I wanted to take this whole printing thing, but I knew I just wanted to print, more, whenever I wanted, to have the time to learn on my own, make mistakes, and become a better printer. I’m also someone with a very small apartment and not much expendable income. So if you want to start churning out material for wholesale or if you’ve got a mansion with a loading dock, you might not want to take my advice. There. Caveat emptor and all that.

Let’s say you recently learned about this thing called letterpress printing and not only is the finished product beautiful, the process sounds like fun too! Okay, I’m just making that up. I have no idea how people get to letterpress printing through the finished product, since I didn’t get there that way, and to be honest, the process to me, sounds nothing like fun. It just is fun. I got to printing through a class on the history of the book and as part of that, did a four-hour workshop where we set type and printed a little poem. I could not get enough of it, and after that class I was bouncing off the walls with giddiness. I went out and signed up for two more longer, in-depth classes. Out of all the people in my book history class, only 2 other people really enjoyed it, and of us three, I’m the only one who actually followed up and did more printing. I believe that isn’t uncommon, and that leads me to my first pretend pearl of wisdom.

Take classes first! I know that it would be cool to make cards or prints at home, but printing is often frustrating, and it’s even more maddening without any prior knowledge. Sometimes I see posts on Briar Press asking what packing is (for example), and I can’t even imagine trying to print without knowing the basics – it would be so mind-boggling. So take classes first and see if you actually like printing before you spend hundreds or thousands on a hunk of metal you end up hating. Also, if you get instruction, you’ll have all these great troubleshooting tips that will really help you later. In the same vein, may I recommend that you purchase one or more reference books on printing? These books offer answers to many of the basic questions I see posted on Briar Press lately. And if you do get a press, the books are invaluable when you get stuck or if you forget how to do something. There’s a whole list of books on my sidebar, but if you’re just going to get one, it should be Cleeton’s General Printing. If you’re a complete and total neophyte, Letterpress Printing by Paul Maravelis gives a good rundown on basic presses and the whole general process.


Since we’re pretending that you are me, you’ll be looking for classes in the New York area. Here are some options, but if you have further questions about them, shoot me an email. If you aren’t in NYC, check Briar Press’ Yellow Pages for local classes or post on Briar Press or the LetPress Listserv asking about classes near you. Who knows, even if there aren’t classes, some nice printer will probably invite you over to see what goes on. There are a fair number of places you can take letterpress classes in the city, but fewer for platens. Most classes use Vandercooks, which is fine – they’re great presses, easier to use (in my opinion) than platens and the basics and terminology of printing are the same.  Peter Kruty Editions offer multi-weekend Vandercook classes. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard only good things. A nice guy named Dan runs The Arm in Williamsburg, and he has a few Vandercooks and a few Pilots. Lately he has only been offering one-day Vandercook classes, but I know he gives private lessons, which could include the tabletops (for $45 per hour, whereas the Vandy class is $125 for the day). Dan also teaches longer classes through Cooper Union’s continuing education program. Studio on the Square/Intima Press offers a variety of classes. This is where I first printed in that afternoon workshop, but she’s greatly expanded her course offerings since then, and I believe she’s got more presses, but I haven’t been again so I don’t have more details. Finally there’s the Center for Book Arts. They usually offer a Platen Press class a couple times a year and they have a Pilot, a (maybe broken – or maybe they fixed it) 5x8 Kelsey, and 2 8x10 floor model C&Ps. Barbara Henry teaches the regular weekend platen workshop there and the focus is on handset type and maybe more on the Pilot (tabletop) than the floor models. Recently I noticed they were offering a new Platen class that focuses more on the floor models than the tabletop press and printing with polymer. They also offer lots of classes on the Vandercooks. This is where I took Letterpress I and Platen Press.

Once you’ve had a class or two, the next best step is to rent press time at either the Center for Book Arts or The Arm (or somewhere in your area). Both places are about $15 per hour, and you can rent on the Vandercooks or Pilots at both. This is a great way to get further experience printing on your own without having to take on the cost and responsibility of a press and all that entails. I rented time for over a year before I took the press-purchasing plunge. Renting is really nice because there are experienced printers supervising, so you can pick their brains if you run into trouble. Many aspects of printing, like makeready and figuring out why ink is slurring or something, are similar on Vandercooks and platens, and wow is it nice to have someone to consult with at first. Look, I know that if you aren’t in a metropolitan area it can be difficult to take classes or rent time, but I really do think it’s so important to get experience before making such a big purchase. In addition to looking for classes on Briar Press or the LetPress listserv, there’s also the College & University Letterpress Printer’s Association. If you can’t find a class in your area, it might be worth it to take a weekend class in a nearby city or contact a nearby printer and invite yourself over. The Ladies of Letterpress organization or the APA might be another good resource for finding an independent printer near you.

Now suppose you’ve either taken or ignored my advice and you’re ready to buy a press. So do I recommend the 5x8 Kelsey? Well, yeah, I bought one. But I’ve also now sold it and moved up to a Pearl, so obviously it’s more complicated than that. A lot of people think 5x8 Kelseys are crap presses, and while it’s true that they aren’t powerhouses, I think they get a bad rap since many people printing on them aren’t um, super-experienced. I have a soft spot for Kelseys. They are at times more finicky and difficult to use, but I believe I’m a much better printer because of that. I think I did some nice stuff on it, but yes, there are size and power restraints. So it depends on what you want to do with it and really on what’s available. To me, the process is the fun part and becoming a better printer is my main goal, so I thought it was a great way to learn and ease into printing. If you are mainly concerned with fast results, it’s not the press for you, but I don’t know that a larger tabletop would be either. I do hope that makes sense and that I don’t sound judgey or anything.

Of course, 5x8 Kelseys (and even 6x10s) are a hell of a lot cheaper than Pilots, so that might make the decision for you. I personally would never have been able to afford a Pilot, and I liked the fact since Kelseys are cheaper, I didn’t feel so nervous about investing so much in a hobby. That brings to mind another major caveat. Letterpress printing is surprisingly expensive to set up because you need a lot more equipment than just a press. As for press limits, I’m not sure what to say. I think that a 5x8 will keep you satisfied for at least a year or two, but after that, you may want to move up – I did. But many people remain satisfied with their 5x8s for years (have you seen what the woman on the blog "Stitch, Rip, Repeat" has been doing with hers?). I think it depends what you want to do with it and how much impression you want. Obviously a really deep impression is easier on a bigger press (if you’re still printing a small area). I always got a nice impression on my press – you could see it and feel it but it wasn’t crushingly deep like some of the work you see. Of course, I wasn’t trying for that, so whatever. The final thing to keep in mind is that all platen presses have size restrictions in the printable area. It’s going to be difficult to print much more than half of the area of the chase.

Now I’m not convinced that there’s a marked difference between 6x10 presses, but C&P Pilots are generally considered the best and consequently go for $1500-$3000. That seems a little insane to me, but I guess the market bears what it bears. Sigwalts are often considered to be just as good as Pilots and don’t have paper size limitations like Pilots, yet you never really hear about them. While they’re harder to find, I believe they’re also cheaper. There are a lot of brands like that. So I think research and an open mind are important and perhaps it’s best to get a feel for the market before buying the first thing that comes along. Conventional wisdom also states that it’s probably best to get a press with a side arm (if bigger than 5x8), but again, it’s relative. My 6x10 Kelsey has the lever in the middle, and I think it’s a good press.

Okay, purchasing: now much of this is covered on David Rose's Letterpress Intro and other places, but I’m trying to be comprehensive here. You can purchase on Ebay, but there are few deals there and you can’t be sure what you’re getting. I don’t care how experienced a printer; it’s hard to tell from little Ebay pictures whether or not something’s missing or broken. I suppose the same is true of the ads on Briar Press, but it seems more like a regulated community, and of course you could post an ad yourself on Briar Press. There are also a few printing equipment dealers who sell presses. John Barrett of Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA is the closest to Brooklyn. It’s a three-hour drive but well worth it. He sells lots of presses to beginners and also has most of the other supplies needed to start; by actually going you know exactly what you’re getting. In the general NY area there’s also Alan Runfeldt of the Excelsior Press.  Along with selling used presses, he partners with someone to sell restored presses, which are almost as-new and beautiful but not cheap. Dave Churchman in Indianapolis and Don Black in Toronto are other dealers, and I believe they’re willing to ship (John Barrett is not). Check the Briar Press Yellow Pages for other sources for equipment (such as printing museums).

Again, it’s extremely useful to watch the market for a while before you buy so you have some idea what presses are commonly going for and in what condition with what accessories. Prices for presses can vary wildly, so looking at past listings is important. Not only should you have some idea of your press budget, but you need to factor in how much restoration or repair work you’re willing to do along with how much more you might pay to be able to skip all that. Also, don’t forget to add in the cost of new rollers or trucks (if necessary) along with any other parts you might have to replace and the money you’ll need to spend on furniture, leading, ink, press wash, type or plate base, etc. Here’s a good list of basic equipment and here's another good intro.

Wow, that was long, but I think I just emptied the entire contents of my brain. Maybe it was helpful? Well either way, that's my take on things and now it’s on your head. Questions? Objections? Additions? Please post in the comments.