Nifty tool: Japanese Screw Punch

ppii-gifttag.jpgI teach letterpress printing at the San Francisco Center for the Book. In my class this past week, we printed these holiday gift tags, complete with a hole in the upper corner for a ribbon or string.

To punch the holes, we used a lovely simple tool called a Japanese Screw Punch (it’s also called a Book Drill or Paper Drill). It cuts through multiple pieces of paper, and even thick stuff like mat board or davey board. Holes of different sizes can be made by swapping out the bits. The advantage over a hole punch is that you can position it anywhere on the paper, not just the edge, and there’s no guessing — you can see exactly where your hole will be placed.
Japanese Screw Punch
They are available online from Bonnie’s Best (with 7 bits for $70) or Wilde Ideas (1 bit, $40, with 6 bits, $81) or Vulcan Arts (punch + 9 bits, $75).

Letterpress Roller Rack

Rack with rollerWhen the San Francisco Center for the Book got a 10×15 C&P floor model platen press last year, I helped get it set up. One of the first things we had to take care of were the rubber rollers. They’d been left on the top of the ink disc and were flat spotted. Ramco, in San Dimas CA, recovered them for us (241 West Allen Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773, 909-592-1002) and were really helpful and friendly. Next we needed a rack to hold the rollers when they weren’t on the press. I wanted a rack that even tool-challenged people like me could make and so students at the Center would have a model if they needed one for their own presses. This is what we came up with. (Knowing myself well, I took one of the rollers with me to the hardware store when I bought the hooks, so I would be absolutely sure that the ends would actually fit the eyelet and hook.)

Letterpress Roller Rack

Leveling or adjusting a platen

Platen Students in my letterpress classes often ask me how to make sure the platen on the presses they buy is adjusted correctly, so that it hits the chasse evenly when they print. I usually point them to a 1985 article from Type and Press. The platen may also need to be adjusted when printing really thick stock (like coasters) or die cutting. The site with the article has disappeared, but I had snagged a copy about a year ago, and I’ve posted it here on my blog.