The short answer: yes, yes and yes. In fact, we manufacture a Deep Relief Boxcar Base specifically with platen press users in mind. The Deep Relief bases use thicker plates to keep the inking rollers from inking the base and plate backing. Read more about choosing your base.
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If you have both a cylinder and platen press in your print ship, we typically suggest purchasing one type of base for both presses, so that you’ll have the most flexibility when printing your plates. If you use one type of base in your shop, then you’ll be able to use the same plates on both the platen and the cylinder press.

Both the Deep Relief base system and the Standard base system mount plates so that they’re type high. With this in mind, the Deep Relief base might be way to go, because of its ease of printing on the platen press. You can use the deep relief base on a Vandercook without any extra set-up or adjustments.
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First, keep in mind that every press, like every person, has a limit to its strength. A press with a 10 x 15 chase will never be able to hammer a 10 x 15 block of text. You’ll be able to get a good impression using about 50% to 65% of your chase, depending on your form. Secondly, your base needs to stay put in your chase. And to secure your base in your chase, the quoins also need to fit in the chase, and you’ll need to make room for the gauge pins as well.

We recommend checking out our “Deep Relief Base recommendations” chart, which recommends the ideal size base for your chase. With a 10x15 chase, we would recommend a 9x12 base, for instance.

If you really want to max out the base size, keep in mind your base should be at least 1 inch, preferably 1.5 inches, smaller than your chase. Because of the limited impression strength of the platen press however, you won’t be able to print on the entire base surface.
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When using any kind of polymer printing base with your platen press, it’s vital to keep the gauge pins and the grippers from smashing into—and denting!-- your base. When the press goes to impression, make doubly sure – no, make triply sure – that the gauge pins and grippers will not impact the Boxcar Base’s surface. Here’s how to do this.

You must carefully place your gauge pins on the platen to avoid hitting the base. Place the gauge pins below and beyond where the base will sit in the chase and feed paper to the far bottom corner of the platen. In addition, place the grippers to the left and right of where the base sits in the chase. This will keep the grippers and gauge pins from contacting the base when the press closes for impression. If you need to use the grippers, keep them outside the base but construct a paper (or tape or string) frisket between them to hold the paper.

You might find it easier to position gauge pins if you print on sheets larger than the final trim size, especially if you have a quarter inch margin or less on either of your feed edges. This will move the gauge pins farther from the printing area and from the base – reducing the likely hood of a gauge pin/base collision. Print on the largest possible sheets and trim them down after printing.
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Every platen or lever press has wear on the rails and needs tape on the rails to raise the rollers to the right height. This is whether you use lead type or polymer--although the problem surfaces more frequently on polymer if the roller rails aren't set correctly. You have to build up the rails that the roller trucks travel on so that the rollers just grace the surface of the form. The best way to do this is to add equal layers of masking or strapping tape to each rail. Keep building up the rails in this fashion until whatever you're printing doesn't ink up at all (i.e. bring the rollers up just past the point where the rollers ink the plate). Then take off one layer of tape so that the rollers drop down with minimum contact to the plate. This will keep ink from getting on the backing of the plate and the base, and it will also help make your printing crisper. It's not uncommon to have to add as much as a 1/16"--or sometimes 1/8"--in tape in order to get the rails to the right height. These presses are often 100 years old and have 100 years of wear that you have to overcome. We do not recommend that you adjust your trucks or printing plate/base for this problem. Better printing results from type-high rollers. After you add tape to your rails, we recommend using a roller gauge to perfect the height of your rollers.
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Roller gauges are especially indispensable with a platen press. Letterpress rollers need to be positioned just right in order to deposit a thin film of ink onto the surface of the form, without squeezing ink over the edges. A roller gauge will help you accurately measure the height of your rollers so you can produce the crispest printing that your press is capable of. We sell roller gauges, precision ground to type high, which are also very fashionable.

When your rollers are positioned correctly, your printing will look beautifully crisp. This is because correctly positioned rollers deposit a thin film of ink onto the surface of your printing plate (without squeezing ink over the plate’s edges). But if your rollers aren't positioned at the right height, your printing will have a halo effect: dark around the edges and/or chunkier/blotchier than it should be. If you ever notice ink on the back of your polymer plate or on your base -- it's a roller gauge emergency! Adjust your rollers now! Here’s how.

Step 1. While your press is inked up, remove the chase (on platen presses) or the base (on a Vandercook).

Step 2. We recommend checking the roller height in the four corners of the press bed. We’ll start in the upper right hand corner. Engage the form rollers and position them over the upper right corner of the bed.

Step 3. You will be pulling a stripe of ink on the round surface of the roller gauge. Pull the gauge underneath the form rollers so that a stripe of ink is transferred to the rounded surface of the gauge’s cylinder. Measure the stripe of the ink: you want your ink stripe to measure 3/32”. If the strip of ink is less than 1/16”, you’ll have difficulty consistently inking your plate (some areas will appear too light, and some areas will appear too dark). If your strip of ink is wider than 3/32”, your rollers put too much pressure on your plate and cause your printing to be chunky/blurry.

Step 4: On a platen press, to adjust the height of your form rollers: add tape to the rails that the roller trucks ride on. You may have to add several layers of tape. Scotch or masking tape is frequently used for this. If you’re using a press other than a platen press, consult your manual as to how to raise your form rollers.

Step 5: Repeat steps three and four in each corner of your press bed.

Step 6: When your rollers are positioned correctly, you should pull identical 3/32” stripes of ink from the four corners of the press bed, and your printing should be both crisp and beautiful! 

If you continue to notice inconsistencies in your inking after adjusting your roller height correctly, you may need to purchase new rollers and, if using a platen press, roller trucks as well.

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See the Boxcar Base printing manual, where we discuss how to lock up your Boxcar Base into your press.

Since polymer plates mounted on a base are type-high, there is nothing keeping you from printing type at the same time!

If you take care of them, the plates will last for as many impressions as you need them for. Plastic-backed photopolymer, in commercial applications, lasts for millions of impressions - the plastic is incredibly hard and durable. To read about how to take care of your plates, check out our plate maintenance page.
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Photopolymer plates offer an extremely detailed way to letterpress print with a deep heavy impression (or a kiss impression if you're so inclined). The chief problem that new photopolymer users encounter usually deals with roller height/roller condition. But no worries! Unlike larger problems like war or global warming, roller issues do have concrete and relatively easy solutions. We recommend rubber rollers and, if using a platen press, solid trucks. If switching from lead type/magnesium plates, you'll want to keep a much closer eye on your rollers. You may find our general printing FAQ's useful, especially if you'll be using a Boxcar Base.
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You can certainly gang up bases together. We keep detailed specs on each base we sell - if you're planning on using two different bases in this fashion, let us know and we'll make sure the bases we ship to you are identical heights so you can butt them together and still have an even printing surface.
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This should be a pretty easy process.

First, peel up the old adhesive to remove it. Since the adhesive holds onto the plate strongly, you can potentially kink the plastic backing if you're not careful. We recommend that you lay the plate face down on a flat surface. Hold the plate down with one hand while peeling the adhesive off with the other. Try and keep the plate from flexing inordinately while you carefully tug the adhesive off the back of the plate. The adhesive might tear into pieces, but you can simply pull it up in strips.

Now, put on the new adhesive. Make sure you're putting down the side of the adhesive covered with the brown release paper onto the plate. The side with the pink release paper attaches to the base. When you first mount the adhesive to the plate, start with one side of the plate and roll out the adhesive so that it makes as few bubbles as possible. If the bubbles happen, work them out with your fingers or pierce them, through the adhesive, with an Exacto knife or awl. You should be able to get all the bubbles out at this point.

If bubbles form underneath the plate when you mount it to the base, first try working these out to the edges of the plate with your fingers. If that fails, you can puncture the bubbles by sticking an Exacto knife through the plastic backing of the plate to release the trapped air.
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Letterpress printers are not the major market for photopolymer plates. If the photopolymer plate manufacturers had to rely on fine press printers for their business, we wouldn't have the choice of brands and plates that we currently do. Thankfully this world is a large place with an insatiable hunger for printed matter.

The major market users for plastic-backed photopolymer are rotary letterpress printers, and there's a lot of rotary letterpress business out there. This is a very strong and stable sector of the printing industry because people like to buy shampoo thank goodness in round bottles with pretty die-cut labels. We're fortunate to rely on their supplies because we can expect water-wash photopolymer plates to be in demand for the foreseeable future.
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It's important to keep the grid on your Boxcar Base clean so you can see its registration marks when printing. If your rollers ever lay ink down directly on the base's surface, STOP! STOP! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOP! Don't keep running the press because something is out of alignment. Then ask yourself:

• Are your rollers at type-high? Using a roller gauge, check to make sure your rollers are set for type-high printing material. The surface of the base is far below type high and should never come into contact with the rollers.
• Is your base flat in the press bed? Take a piece of onionskin paper and try to slide it between the base and the press bed - if the onionskin paper fits, one of the corners of your base is working up in the press. Frequently this is caused by tightening the quoins too much. Since the Boxcar Base won't work up as easily as handset metal type or monotype, you don't need to tighten the quoins quite as hard.
• Still getting ink on your base? If, after checking the roller height and loosening the quoins, you still have problems with ink on your base - contact us and we'll assist you in problem-solving further.

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More often than not, this is a result of roller problems. It could be the height of your rollers or your rollers can have an uneven surface (read more about roller gauges). If you processed your plates yourself, there's the chance your plate wasn't processed correctly, which can cause some areas to print darker.
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Rest assured that ink on your base is a cosmetic problem; ink won't damage the tolerances or the thickness of the plates. But if your base's grid is covered in a pretty shade of PMS 2756, registration will be difficult, as you won't be able to see your grid well!

You want to try and remove ink from your base before it's dried. Aluminum is like your skin, with millions of pores that will absorb the pigments of the ink. But unlike your skin, aluminum's surface doesn't shed. If ink dries in these pores, it's very difficult to get out. When ink contacts the base, clean it off immediately with any press wash so that you'll continue to have a beautiful gray surface to attach your plates to.

If ink has dried on your base, get a good pair of solvent resistant gloves and a solvent-soaked shop rag. Scrub the surface vigorously. If the ink refuses to budge, you'll need more abrasion: try a 000 Scotch Brite pad. Soak the Scotch Brite pad in a solvent and gently rub the surface in a circular pattern with the scotch bright pad. Don't scrub too aggressively - try and let the solvent take the ink off instead.

Most printers who use the Boxcar Base have very clean bases because they make sure the keep the surface clean, like all their other non-printing surfaces, during the whole course of the printing process. So keep a clean shop, okay?
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