Leanna

Leanna

Presses: Foil and letterpress windmill.

Learning: Fine Art college. I took intaglio and lithography courses. I  learned letterpress printing at Boxcar.

Print shop essentials: coffee!

Best letterpress trick: the tilt bar. It allows you to make an envelope run on “no gauges” to be straight without removing the plate.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: printing crazy colors, like lime-aid.

Least favorite part of printing: printing on envelopes.

Music of choice when on press: mostly audio books, like “The Hobbit.” Also podcasts, like “The Nerdist Podcast,” “My Favorite Murder,” “Stuff You Missed In History Class,” “Lore,” “Astonishing Legends,” and “Lord of the Rings Minute.”

Hometown: Syracuse, New York.

Printing space: mostly clean with piles of make ready scrap, packing paper, and boxes of snacks laying around.

Proudest moment in printing career: doing my first steamroller print, or learning to use a windmill. It’s such an old machine!

Extracurricular activities: working on my house, traveling, drawing and printing.

Will

What presses do you operate: Kluge

What is your printing experience: Before Boxcar, none!

Where and/or from who did you learn to print: Bob G. taught me to operate the press, and I learned how to print at the same time everyone else here was figuring out how to make foil stamping work.

What are your print shop essentials: Wrench, pliers, scissors, glue.

What is your best letterpress trick: Glue-stic and tissue paper for building up fine packing.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: Watching the other guys pull their hair out when they can’t figure out how to get a print to work! And I like testing and figuring out new processes.

What is your least favorite part of printing: Defective foil.

What is your music of choice when on press: Salsa, reggaeton, bachata.

What is your hometown: Cayey, Puerto Rico — out in the country, with mountains, rivers, forests… and chicken fights.

What is your best letterpress printing trick: Patience.

What is your printing space like: Lots of glue, tape, sandpaper and shreds of tissue paper all over.

What is the proudest moment in printing career: When I finally learned how to print foil liners.

A fun fact about Boxcar Press: Some people here really get into holidays… Halloween costumes and April Fools’ pranks in particular!

Extracurricular activities: Spending time with my kids and playing with my dog.

Pat

Pat

Presses: Windmill, Kluge, and Vandercook.

Learning: I originally learned at Scotsman Press.

Print shop essentials: ALL of the wrenches, miles of Scotch tape, and pliers.

Best letterpress trick: double-stamp black ink to get it deep and rich without over-inking.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: getting jobs with three or more colors, preferably a bunch of fluorescent colors.

Least favorite part of printing: matching to age-old ink chips.

Music of choice when on press: “The Economist” audio edition.

Hometown: Syracuse, New York.

Printing space: Migrational. I’m rarely on one particular press for long.

Proudest moment in printing career: I don’t really bother holding on to particular moments. I try to save all of my pride for what I’m currently working on.

Phil

Phil

Presses: the Heidelberg Windmill.

Experience: 6 months on letterpress. 2 years printing generally.

Learning: my dad got into the business when he was young and got me involved when I was 17. I printed offset with him at Quest Graphics (where he worked for many years) in Castle Rock, Colorado for about a year.

Print shop essentials: screwdrivers, sometimes a socket wrench.

Best letterpress trick: know how to fix color. Adjust your fountain and make sure the register is holding, and then keep hitting and adjusting until the color is right.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: getting the color right and balanced — it’s challenging but rewarding.

Least favorite part of printing: getting the impression right.

Music of choice when on press: rock & roll, classic rock — my favorite bands are Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Hometown: Denver, Colorado.

Best letterpress printing trick: have patience. This isn’t a job for someone who wants to rush, you have to take your time.

Printing space: I’ve got some of the cartoon drawings that I’ve created hanging up in my workspace. They’re kind of goofy and have a comic strip feel.

Proudest moment in printing career: my first multiple color run. It came out really well and I was happy with the end result.

Extracurricular activities: I’m a musician — I play guitar and record music at home.

Clayton

Clayton

Presses: the Heidelberg GTO offset

Experience: 3 years printing generally. I haven’t printed letterpress here yet, I’m still a newbie!

Learning: I learned to print at Business Cards Tomorrow in East Syracuse. Chris Monahan taught me everything I know.

Print shop essentials: ruler, ink knife.

Best printing trick: with offset printing, slowly building up to color is the best way to get it right.

Favorite part of printing: washing up — it means that I’m done with the job and it’s proof that I just accomplished something.

Least favorite part of printing: switching between jobs and matching colors.

Music of choice when on press: books on tape. I recently finished up the Lord of the Rings, which took me about 3 weeks to finish, and I just listened to the Dark Materials trilogy (by Philip Pullman) — that one took about a week and a half to finish. Now I’m listening to the Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind.

A fact about Boxcar Press: everyone here gets along really well with each other. We’ve got a great mix of pressmen and repairmen, which makes for a really great team.

Extracurricular activities: illustration. I’ve been working on a graphic novel for some time now.

David

David

Presses: the Heidelberg Cylinders (mainly). The Heidelberg Windmill, the Vandercook, and the Kluge (occasionally).

Experience: 2 years on letterpress. 10 years printing generally.

Learning: my dad and uncle taught me how to print in Oswego at Speedway Press, which my family owned for over 45 years.

Print shop essentials: ink knife, ruler, pen, and exacto knife.

Best letterpress trick: turning the machine on — it helps a lot.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: finishing.

Least favorite part of printing: dealing with nerves when you get started.

Music of choice when on press: for the most part, I don’t usually listen to music when I’m printing. When I do, it’s usually a little bit of everything on Pandora.

Proudest moment in printing career: working here.

Extracurricular activities: golf, longboarding, hockey.

Chris

Chris

Presses: the Heidelberg Windmill (mainly). The Heidelberg GTO offset (occasionally).

Experience: 1.5 years on letterpress. 7.5 years printing generally.

Learning: I learned to print at Business Cards Tomorrow in East Syracuse — I went from customer service to pressman.

Print shop essentials: a ruler.

Hometown: Boca Raton, Florida.

Best letterpress trick: make sure the paper is jogged and fanned correctly to make sure it doesn’t stick together when feeding through. It makes life a lot easier.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: putting ink to paper.

Least favorite step of the letterpress printing process: feeding the paper.

Music of choice when on press: modern rock on Pandora.

Proudest moment in printing career: there was a particular invitation set that I printed that was really detailed and difficult to print, and the bride was extremely happy with the end result. It was a 3-color job with a lot of registration and it was difficult to get the impression right on all three colors, so I was happy to hear that the bride liked the final outcome.

Extracurricular activities: I like the outdoors — camping, fishing, things like that.

Jeff

Jeff

Presses: the Kluge (mainly). The Heidelberg Windmill and Cylinders (occasionally).

Experience: 2 years on letterpress. 15 years printing generally.

Learning: I taught myself to print at the Palladium Times in Oswego, New York.

Print shop essentials: loupe, ruler and scissors.

Best letterpress trick: just make the job look good! The trick is with packing — I use anything: paper, plastic, mylar — try different materials to see what helps you get the best impression.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: the actual printing — when things are going and you can actually see the product.

Least favorite part of printing: set-up. The Kluge takes a lot of time.

Music of choice when on press: typically the radio — I love country music — but it depends on what I’m printing. During set-up or intricate jobs I don’t listen to anything, I like to stay focused.

A fact about Boxcar Press: there’s a great family-type atmosphere here. It’s (hands down) the best place I’ve ever worked.

Proudest moment in printing career: being self-taught. When I was working at the Palladium Times, they needed someone to try printing the newspaper in a pinch and I figured it out the first day on press. I had already been working there and was in charge of making sure the papers got delivered. Even though I have a degree in Criminal Justice, I knew this was what I wanted to do as soon as I gave it a try.

Extracurricular activities: golf and hunting!

Bill

Bill

Presses: the Heidelberg Windmill.

Experience: 3.5 years on letterpress. 25 years printing generally.

Learning: I started printing at Edrow Business Forms — over in East Syracuse — and Nick Amadeo taught me how to print.

Print shop essentials: two screwdrivers and a cup of coffee in the morning.

Best letterpress trick: the right packing and a little tape makes all the difference.

Printing space: I’ve got a little avocado tree growing in my workspace.

Favorite part of letterpress printing: when the job is done and done right.

Least favorite step of the letterpress printing process: nothing comes to mind — I love everything about it. Getting colors right can be a little frustrating at times, but that’s about it.

Music of choice when on press: Classic Rock on the radio, and on Saturday mornings, the Beatle Brunch.

Extracurricular activities: I love camping and the outdoors, and love to spend time at our camp up in the Adirondacks.