i heart the Boxcar base

Boxcar base arrived today. If it hadn't been for the $60 duty charge I would've shaken the delivery guy's hand.

Thought I'd share a few photos of what the Boxcar base looks like. That and to settle my fears (as well as anyone elses who's thinking of getting the base, so I hope this post helps). I've been using magnesium plates backed by wood and haven't had any issues but wanted to see what this base was all about. I waited about a year to shell out for the base and now it's here.

The recommended base size for my eight-five is 3.5x6.5". I wanted to maximize my print area and got them to cut the base to 4x7" instead. I still need to leave room for quoins, furniture and room for the gauge pins. Oh, and look at the pretty grid.

Here is the base beside one of my larger magnesium plates. I'm pretty glad I didn't go smaller than 4x7".

The base beside the wood-backed magnesium plate also got me grinning. The base is looking like it's just the right height. Yes, the good folks at Boxcar know what they're doing, but I hadn't seen a base before and I couldn't find any resources out there to put my worries to rest.

Here, you can see that the magnesium plate is just above the base which means (I hope) that a photopolymer plate (once adhered to the Boxcar base) will make up for the rest of the height.


The base locked up and ready for my final test.

I had read on Briarpress some post about the Boxcar base being too high once set in the chase. People then would have to adjust their roller height or tape the rails. I've also read that taping the bottom of the base was necessary so that ink from the rollers wouldn't stain it. The last thing I want to do is manipulate anything on my press as it's already set up to print perfectly with my good ol' magnesium plates.

Phew. A close up of my rollers NOT touching the Boxcar base while it's in the chase. I'm thanking my lucky stars that my Boxcar base experience so far is a good one. Now, time to get me some photopolymer plates.