Speedball Press

Comments about Speedball Press:

Simple and effective press. Easy to use, clean lines, great started into letter pressing.

Comments about Speedball Press:

I use mine to perfect my style of art. Its great cause its compact i can use it any where. Didnt expect it to be that small but it works

Comments about Speedball Press:

Okay, here's my thoughts. I taught a class using this press. It would be good to have holes in the front and back so it could be secured to a wooden block so it would not move during the pressing process. Also, it would be really really be nice if this product would press 8 X 10 prints. My students had to use the smaller 3/4 block and even the 5X 7 blocks and for the first time users 8-12th students, these were a bit small for them to learn on. Not only that, they enjoyed using the small press but in order to meet the class deadline, we had to hand press the blocks with books as the weight. The speedball press gives the students a more "feel" of the actual process of pressing instead of just placing a book on top. Not only that the press allows them more control over position of the paper and block. I do not like for students to place the block on top of the paper and press but rather the paper on top of the block. This helps to eliminate ink overflow being printed upon the paper. Otherwise, forget digging the ditches to catch the ink. When you come up with a larger press, let me know. One is needed and I don't mean the larger one that is shown. The hand press just like this one works fine, just needs to be larger to accommodate larger paper. Grid lines would be nice also. I taped the bottom, so students could know where to position their blocks for printing.
It's Christmas, I truly hope somebody reads this.

Comments about Speedball Press:

It is great to know that I can leave students to work with this tool independently! It is simple to use!

Comments about Speedball Press:

I bought this press to print small woodcuts and linocuts more quickly and without a huge amount of strain on my hand. Unfortunately I have yet to get an impression that is good enough to sell the prints. Basically I cannot get enough even pressure.

Comments about Speedball Press:

I bought this press at a Blick retail store as an inexpensive solution for printing greeting cards and business cards using carved linoleum. It's impossible to apply even pressure across a run of prints. If you want an even coating of ink, you will have to over-ink your block, which means you lose detail. I even tried this press for monotypes and the ink/paint barely transferred.
I don't think I could even recommend this product to students.

Comments about Speedball Press:

This turned out to be unusable for a couple reasons. Even though the bottom plate is fairly large, the press part is quite small. To get even pressure your effective size is about 4"X6". Also, when delivered, the foam on the bottom plate had a dent in it, causing that section of the plate to be unusable. To top it off there was something under the foam on the plate where you put the paper, which caused each impression to have a unprinted spot right at that point.

Customer service was great. I appreciate the refund and being allowed to send it back even though I hadn't saved the box.

I won't be getting another one because it really doesn't save any time or effort over a baren or wooden spoon. Had it been well made and actually had a spring or something to save effort, it could have been a pretty cool lightweight tool.

Comments about Speedball Press:

(If i could give this a 4 1/2 , I would. But 4 seems to little so i rounded up.)

We use this press at summer camp, with all sorts of lino blocks... lots of different hardnesses and sizes. This IS small, but the size is perfect for stationery making and we have used it to print small areas on fabric also.

The design is great in some senses: The handle is ergonomic and pretty brilliant-- easy to operate by people in a broad range of sizes and strengths. You can't really hurt yourself with it, unless you drop it on yourself-- it IS heavy. But that also means it doesn't slide around on the table, so it's very stable. It has a nice, dense, memory-foam pad, so if someone accidentally presses something too hard or of a bizarre shape, it rebounds after a day or so to be nice and flat again. We have had ours for many years, and it is holding up really well. Even in an uncontrolled overwinter environment, no rust!

BUT: Getting the paper in and out of the small space when the lid in up is slightly harder than I'd like,but using tongs or tweezers helps lift the print. And the press-able area is not entirely clear so it's best to stay in the middle of the pad (or trace around the pressed area while it's closed with a silver marker or something).

Comments about Speedball Press:

There really weren't any instructions included....but fortunatly I previously owned one of these presses. It works great with block printing, both soft and linoleum. I've tried some monotypes with plexiglass plates and monotype inks and haven't had real good luck. I've had to go over the print again with rollers or spoon to get all the ink transfered to the dampened paper. I'll try it with watercolors next--it may transfer better than the monotype inks.
All in all, it is a good little tool anyway.

Comments about Speedball Press:

I am thrilled to be able to stamp again, after having so many shoulder problems in the last 2 years.
why didn't I think of this earlier. !!!!