working around "the shop"

Over the weekend I worked in my shop (aka the garage) a little bit. Using a very fine steel wool and some 3-in-1, I scrubbed off some of the surface rust on the ink plate of my press. It wasn't badly rusted at all, so it cleaned up very easily. The rest of the press I wiped down as best I could. I'm afraid to take it apart to do any major cleaning. The paper cutter has a bit of rust on it too. I tried tackling that with some steel wool but didn't make much progress. The wool is too fine to get the surface rust off. My husband suggested we take the paper cutter somewhere to have it cleaned and powder coated, so I'm going to look into that.

I still haven't gone through all the type (pieces of metal with letters on them, that you print with). I have 3 cabinets of type, but some of the drawers in each cabinet are empty. Trying to figure out how I want to set things up in the garage and then I plan on consolidating my type, hopefully into just 2 cabinets. Here are a few of the drawers:




And more pictures of the equipment:





Last week I worked on an invitation. I created the design, layout, and text in Illustrator. Following some guidelines I found online, I prepared the final digital file and sent it over to a place that makes photopolymer plates. In the class I'm taking, I learned how to make my own plates. It's actually not too difficult if you have the right equipment. But I'm not set up for making plates so I outsourced it. Anyway, I sent my file to this place on a Friday, and I got the finished plate the next day! I can't wait to start printing. Here's the plate: