SWITCHING FROM A MAGNETIC BASE?

Here are some differences you'll find between the Boxcar Base and magnetic bases.

• The Boxcar Base’s plastic-backed plates, which are easy to cut and transparent, allow for ultra-accurate registration when mounted on our gridded base. If you keep your adhesive clean, you’ll be able to reuse it if reprinting your plate. Magnetic bases use metal-backed plates, which require a board sheer or tin snips to cut, and aren’t transparent.
• The Boxcar Base is gridded, allowing for easy registration. You can even see the grid through our plastic-backed plates! Magnetic bases aren’t gridded and steel-backed plates aren’t transparent.
• The Boxcar Base is guaranteed to hold your plates in register. Our film adhesive (for plates larger than .5” x .5”) resists sheering better than even the most powerful magnetic base on the market. Printers who use less expensive magnetic bases also often resort to adhesive sprays or tapes to hold plates in register during print runs. Say NO to plate drift! Yet even with such an ultra-strong hold, infinitely small registration adjustments are possible with the Boxcar Base system, thanks to our high-tech adhesive.
• Our 100% aluminum bases contain no materials that will give under impression. Compare this to the magnet material of magnetic bases, which is softer than aluminum, adversely affecting the crispness and evenness of impression. Whether you're printing a kiss impression or a deep relief, you'll be able to get the crisp impression you want with our base.
• The Boxcar Base is made in two different heights: the standard base (mainly for cylinder presses) and the deep relief base (mainly for platen presses).

Here’s more in-depth information!

You may already know that there are two main types of magnetic bases: the less expensive bases with a surface magnet, and the more expensive bases with inlaid magnets. Those printers working with the surface magnet bases are using bases with a magnetic strip adhered to the surface. These bases can cave in under impression, limiting the polymer’s bite into the paper. In addition, the magnetic strip often isn’t strong enough, so these printers experience "plate drift" and need to resort to spray adhesive and scotch tape to keep their plates in register. The base’s surface will not hold up to the solvents and scrubbing necessary to remove the adhesives. When the surface becomes pitted and uneven from tape and adhesive use, these weak magnets become even harder to use; its uneven surface leads to poor inking and poor impression.

The inlaid magnet bases are embedded with stronger magnets, so plate drift becomes less of an issue (though printers who use cylinder presses report that, when printing large solid areas with these bases, their plates can still creep out of registration.) The cost can be prohibitive--in excess of $600 for an 8" x 11" base. And registration is difficult because of the base’s extreme attraction to the steel-backed photopolymer plates. Imagine you’re made out of metal, and you’re attached to a very strong magnet, and you want to move 1/8” to the right. You can’t, because of the magnetic pull. Small adjustments become impossible.

You’ll also notice vast oceans of differences between steel-backed plates, used with magnetic bases, and our plastic-backed plates, used with the Boxcar Base. Both plate types have identical printing surfaces made from photopolymer, but plastic-backed plates are flexible, transparent, easy to cut, easier to handle and have better registration systems than steel-backed plates. In our ideal world, every letterpress printer would use plastic-backed plates. We like them a whole lot and here’s why.

Steel-backed plates are rigid and don’t bend well. This inflexibility causes plates to kink and warp when handled so that their corners work up on the press. In addition, to trim these plates you must use metal shears, which leave the plates’ edges sharp enough to give you nasty cuts. To print on steel-backed plates, you need the rather imperfect magnetic base to hold the plates at type-high. Magnets effectively hold a plate from peeling but cannot always hold a plate from moving side to side. The cylinder or rollers of a press can move steel-backed plates out of register, causing the dreaded “plate creep.”

In contrast, plastic-backed plates (used with a Boxcar Base) are flexible and retain their flatness even after being bent. Even with this flexibility, plastic-backed plates will withhold even the hardest impression. The adhesive sheets that hold plastic-backed plates to the Boxcar Base peel up easily, yet are so sheer resistant that your plates will never move out of register on the press (avoiding the dreaded “plate creep”). You’ll have a much easier time handling plastic-backed plates as well. Scissors can cut through the plastic and you won’t have to worry about slicing open your fingers on these gentle-edged plates.

Plastic-backed plates are also transparent. This makes registration simple when used with the Boxcar Grid Base because you’ll be able to see the grid through your plate. Align a certain element of your plate to the grid on the base for perfect registration.