The BookBeetle Press was designed to replicate the 18C wooden screw press. It’s tympan and frisket model the same parts on a full-size wooden common press. This is GREAT for teaching students early printing processes. But print makers like myself have found the tympan and frisket process can be sped up considerably. By removing the hinge mechanism and just stacking the tympan and frisket onto a base with sides, playing with the inking and printing is a lot easier. The BookBeetle now ships with an additional Box Chase for printing from type or relief blocks. It also comes with a Box Base for printing from a linoleum or photopolymer sheet. A wonderful advantage of these “fenced” bases is the way they simplify multicolor printing by providing exact register on a 9 x 12 printing sheet which can slip into the fenced area. A demo of printing with these new bases can be viewed on the Instagram page @bookbbeetlepress.
The Box Chase provides a “fence” around the chase to hold the frisket, printing sheet, tympan, and platen.