Introduction Printing ink is so much more than just the black stuff that you put on a page. It has been around for thousands of years, and it's been used in everything from newspaper presses to digital printers. As you can see, we're not talking about offset printing ink which is oil based. I want to have a little fun and talk about how you can make your own ink for your printer. At home! Ready? Ingredients You will need the following ingredients: Soot (5 tbsp) : This is as purest as it gest. You can make the soot yourself by holding a glass up to a flame. This will allow you to slowly accumulate the soot. Water (2 tbsp): For the base of your ink, use distilled water so that you don't introduce any impurities into the mix. Distilled water is also easier to clean up than tap water because there are no minerals or residue left behind from tap water. Alcohol (2 tbsp) (grain alcohol): This ingredient works as a preservative for your ink and allows it to last for several mo
Cylinder Bearers that are cleaned and lubricated within the printing unit cylinders can be likened to changing the oil in your car. The immediate consequence of neglecting it may not be apparent for some time. But you will pay the price later. Cylinder bearer felts protect a vital function of the press, your bearer height. Not long ago, three of our offset printing presses were sold to a buyer in India, a booming printing economy that is buying up a lot of North American used printing equipment. Since they had already purchased offset presses from our printing plant, they knew that we maintained our equipment well. Not surprisingly though, the very first order of business was to check the condition of the cylinder bearers. Thankfully, 20 years of changing the bearer felts paid off and the cylinder bearers were in good condition. That was enough to convince them that they had a good used piece of equipment. They bought all three presses, which I might add was during a soft