History History
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Workpress Custom Designed Printing Presses was started in November 2003 as a way to give printmakers another option when buying a printing press. I felt that printmakers were not given enough options when looking for a press, thus the idea of making a truly custom press was formed. As a small company I am able to spend the time working with individual printmakers to provide them with a press that will fit their needs exactly. Whatever your printing and however your print your press should work for you; and whether your tall, short, wheelchair bound, have a bad back or are arthritic, I can build you a press that will make printing easier. For example, being a lithographer who travels with his press a lot, I needed a press that was portable. So I built myself a press (30"X48") that comes apart, and I can fits it into the trunk of my Toyota Trecel. My philosophy on making presses is - make them right the first time, use quality parts, and design the press to be tough. A press should be a lasting investment, one that can be passed down to the next generation of printmakers. I also try to use parts that are common in industry so that if something needs replacing it can be done quickly and effectively. |
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I haven't been around very long but I thought you'd all like to know a bit about the history of Workpress. Like the homepage says, I started out in November 2003. I design all of the presses from scratch and all of my presses are built by me. I do outsource some tasks though, for example I have all of my flat steel parts cut using a Hydrojet water cutter. This means that there is no heat involved in the cutting process and thus the steel does not warp or become weakened. |
Before I started building my presses I wanted to research what new materials could be used to make a lighter and stronger press. Since I had access to the engineers at the University of Saskatchewan, I did some materials testing. These tests enabled me to figure out which types of steel, iron and phenolic resins would be the best choices for my press components. They also enabled me to eliminate a number of other materials, which turned out to be either not strong enough or too costly. |
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Workpress was started in Saskatoon in the corner of a welding shop that I rented from a local business - Red Deer Industrial Sand and Gravel - Ed sells the best silica sand in the province. Rent was affordable - all I had to do was sweep the floors and not make too big a mess. |
| The next move was to Thunder Bay, Ontario. As I did not know anyone in the city I figured I would literally build the presses at home…in my foyer. Luckily we were only in Thunder Bay for 11 months. |  |
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At the present time, and hopefully for a long while, I am living in Thornhill, Ontario and building my presses out of a family workshop in Kingsville, Ontario. I'm not charged rent and my 7' lathe is too heavy for anyone to attempt to move on me so it looks like I'm here for good. |
