Ever since I started handling letterpress printing in-house, the shop has brought me moments of utter delight and sheer terror. Those moments usually occur consistently in two distinct parts of the shop. Delight at the press. Terror at the cutter.
I’ve hated my cutter since the day I bought it. Sure, it’s nice and I got a nice price, but I’ve always felt as though I was missing some sort of cutter mojo and so often, a job which I thought had been flawlessly executed would have the most minuscule (though glaring to me) of issues.
I could never get things perfectly lined up.
Everything would look beautiful at the press and then, after the lion’s share of the work was done, the cutter would cut me down. I hated it.
And then I read something that made me want to cry tears of sorrow and joy simultaneously:
The parts of the cutter that I had thought were securely and permanently affixed to the top via bolts were adjustable. Not only that, they should be adjusted for squareness occasionally.
I had never even considered that those bolts served any purpose other than to hold the two pieces together in some rigid manner. Never entertained the idea that a carpenter’s square and and a socket wrench might solve so many of my problems, but here I am.
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And there are some real life implications here about occasionally needing to realign oneself. I’m in the middle of one of those lessons right now.
So, here I am, elated and a bit embarrassed.
And offering my apologies and thanks to those who have put up with wonky timelines and work that was great, but not perfect.