For cylinder presses without chases, such as Vandercooks:
bed width: the distance between the rails.
bed length: find the “dead lines” inscribed in your bed. There are two lines, one at the head of the press, one at the foot of the press. Measure the distance between those lines – that’s the length of your press bed.
You need to make sure that your base stays within those lines. If you put your base on the outside of either line, your cylinder grippers can smash it.
For presses with chases
A chase is an iron frame. To get the width and length of your chase, simply measure the INSIDE of the frame. The measurements may be rounded up to identify your chase size, for example, 4.95” x 7.875” will be called a 5×8 chase.
Posted in: General Printing with the Boxcar Base