The particular PVC heat shrink tubing I acquired seems a bit too thin or light weight (5 mil) for a baren.  Even so, less flexible than takenokawa but seems hardier.  Hardiness is good because the shrink-wrapped baren is completely encased front and back so it’s impossible to rotate the baren during printing so all wear occurs where the high points of the coil press the shrink wrap against the paper and block.

When lubricated with camellia oil, the PVC covering glides over the paper with about the same ‘feel’ as takenokawa, though because it’s completely non-absorbent and glossy smooth, it seems to run dry of lubricant faster than takenokawa and then friction increases…

I think I’ll eventually be able to find a shrink tubing with more ideal characteristics — in the meantime, this stuff seems to work better than I’d expected.

My hon baren in a PVC shrink wrap cover after printing the equivalent of about 800 oban impressions -- no visible wear.

The back of my hon baren with PVC shrink wrap -- because the wrap is a tube of PVC, the back is also wrapped.

Preparing to cover a home made bead chain baren -- PVC shrink tube has been trimmed

coil (bead chain on hot melt glue and paper backing) and backing (plywood sanded into gentle convex shape)

coil and backing inside tube and ends of tube tied to form handle

ready to shrink - heat gun and baren in unshrunk tube

CAREFULLY applying heat to back first, then to front -- too much heat and PVC will melt.

Completed wrap job -- handle side

handle side of shrink wrapped bead chain baren

working side of shrink wrapped bead chain baren

This turned out to be a MUCH more difficult installation than the first. The new machine is almost twice the size of my first — all the heavy pieces had to be carried up three flights of stairs and then bolted together like a giant erector set. The rails of each axis had to be carefully and precisely leveled and fastened exactly parallel — not an easy task with bubble levels and ultimately I bought a laser level which made the process possible — until then, I was really starting to pull my hair out (and I don’t have that much hair to pull anymore)! The bed and vacuum plenum engineering was much more problematic than I’d imagined because they had to be built up from several interlocking panels. In the end, it turned out that there were a number of electonic and electrical problems which I had a LOT of trouble diagnosing and repairing, so most of my work these past several months has been more engineering than art, but the machine is FINALLY complete and I am ready now to make some larger and more complex art.

New CNC machine with bed complete and two of three vacuum plenum panels installed. Holes cut in bed (one visible in foreground) for hookup to vacuum which provides suction through trupan ultra-light MDF surface).

One of the three 4 x 5 foot plenum panels with waffle cuts for vacuum distribution

detail showing vacuum waffle cuts on bottom surface

using CNC it was so very easy to cut an ellipse to perfectly fit the angle of the hose hook-ups!

vacuum plenum complete

3-zone control of vacuum to table via simple knife gate valves

vacuum hose hooked up to fitting on table bottom

New CNC machine complete with table planed flat. All that's left to do now is install compressed air hookup for painting and SWEEP UP!!!

I suppose I could’a figured this out in advance, but it seemed to me that coffee or tea stained paper would make a good first trial image and clean-up would be very easy… WRONG! WHAT A MESS!

So viscosity about like cream works quite well.

I removed the little paint-pot which came with the flow pencil and replaced it with a water bottle I’d modified for the purpose. The cap has the paint outlet mounted in it and I mounted a vacuum-relief/pressure port (to force more viscous paint to flow using a bit of air pressure) on the side (a tube runs to the ‘bottom’ of the bottle so air can get in). This allows me to fill the bottle with paint (or whatever) without making a mess, mount the cap, and connect the hose to the pen before inverting the bottle and allowing paint to flow. Works well.

Because the pen doesn’t have many parallel surfaces — it’s all cones and curves and joints, it wasn’t easy to conceive a way to hold and actuate it. In the end I decided to make it easier for me to construct the gizmo and so I made it to kinda work backwards (power-off allows paint to flow — so when it stops, paint keeps running). A single solenoid both lifts the pen off the paper and releases the trigger, stopping the ink flow while the pen is moved to a new painting location. When the solenoid is ‘off’, a spring pushes the pen down onto the paper or canvas and actuates the trigger at the same time.

The paper surface on my 2nd attempt is now badly abraded with ‘fuzz-balls’ all over the surface in the darkest areas — next attempt I’ll use a heavily sized paper and adjust the height of the flow-pencil so it JUST BARELY TOUCHES THE PAPER!

I’m VERY excited about the possibilities for color work, both directly (painting flat areas of transparent color), and especially indirectly (using weighted gestures again) since the flow-pencil produces a VERY sharp-edged line — much cleaner edge than my airbrush!

Computer controlled paintbrush gizmo up and running as of 30 minutes ago!!!

Parts for airbrush assembly – the airbrush itself is just above the angle iron with the solenoid already installed. Solenoid plunger above it, little bent aluminum airbrush retaining clips above airbrush – the angle iron gets bolted into the aluminum pipe and holds the airbrush vertically in the center of the pipe – the plastic pipe shims the assembly out to proper dimension for my holder… Ink/paint bottle at left and “Z” clip to keep the plunger from falling out is next to plunger – it’s a damned simple solution given how long it’s taken me to figure out!

Parts for airbrush assembly – the airbrush itself is just above the angle iron with the solenoid already installed. Solenoid plunger above it, little bent aluminum airbrush retaining clips above airbrush – the angle iron gets bolted into the aluminum pipe and holds the airbrush vertically in the center of the pipe – the plastic pipe shims the assembly out to proper dimension for my holder… Ink/paint bottle at left and “Z” clip to keep the plunger from falling out is next to plunger – it’s a damned simple solution given how long it’s taken me to figure out!

The new paintbrush assembly almost ready for installation!

The completed assembly (minus ink bottle) is mounted in machine – the interface board came from ShopBot – it’s very simple board with five relays driven from program controlled outputs in the ShopBot controller (the ribbon cable you see accordion-folded runs from top of the board over the cable umbilical of the machine and into the main ShopBot control box… I use only one of the relays (and 24v power from the controller) to energize and deenergize my little solenoid which pushes the button on the airbrush…

I mounted the relay board onto the Z-axis of the ShopBot in a little plexi box I built this afternoon – the box should keep the board clean when I’m routing instead of painting… The cover is open at the bottom and just slides down over the plexi back in some nicely fitted grooves in the sides of the cover. You can see the brush assembly mounted into the machine at the bottom of this photo.

Here’s a view of the business-end of the assembly neatly mounted in the machine

The air hose has a quick-release at each end so it’ll be a snap to change over from painting to drawing to routing – but I’m going to need to build a 2nd generation drawing control to fit the relay board the same way and using a 24v continuous duty solenoid which I now have on hand instead of the intermittent duty 110v solenoid I used for the previous two drawings (and melted one of the coils in the process, unfortunately – that won’t happen again once I’ve converted over to the 24v device – and I won’t have to worry about 110v finding its way into the delicate electronics (or my delicate body, either)…

You can see the 24v solenoid wires (white wires) about 1/3 up from bottom left, and solenoid plunger on button of airbrush and black air hose coming in from right… Since it works in reverse of pen-lifter, I have to program a new converter before I can use it (the pen solenoid got powered when it was to STOP drawing – the brush gets powered when it is to PAINT, so my old program is reversed and I need to make a simple change in order to generate the proper code for the new airbrush… Should be testing with actual paint tomorrow!!! YIPPEE!!! But… The thing does actually WORK right now, the computer turning the airbrush off and on with command, so I’m ready to go!!!

January 24, 2007:

Yesterday and today I’ve been experimenting with the new computer controlled painting device and the results are encouraging — a few interesting problems (maybe these will turn out to be ‘characteristics’) which I hope to resolve, but — well, see for yourself (about 1 minute movie):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttc3Fd8akhA

dilute India ink spiral test with my finger for scale

concentric circles with splashes

concentric circle tests overlapped

I’ve successfully moved my ShopBot CNC machine from the 3rd to the 1st floor… After cutting a large vacuum plenum to hold 4×8 foot by quarter-inch plywood sheets flat and solidly in place on the machine, I experimented yesterday by carving the dozen blocks for my prints for Baren Forum Mythical Beasts Exchange (#27).

My kids gave me a nifty and TINY little all-digital video camera for XMAS, and I used it to shoot a 2 1/2 minute video of the computer-guided tool in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z2NEUO1lSc

You may want to turn down your volume as the router is very loud and obnoxious… What you’ll see are some brief cuts of V-bit carving to outline the printing shapes, then clearing outside the V-carved areas with a 1/4″ down-spiral — I’ve also shown a couple of views of the control screen — the first shows each line of program code as it’s executed — I think we’re at about line 14,000 in the shot — later there’s a view showing the cutting head position in X (length) Y (width) and Z (height) coordinates.

The blocks turned out quite nicely! I’ll be printing in pinks and greens for this one…

'Hannya' January 22, 2006, chuban (about 10x8) woodcut from twelve blocks for barenforum.org exchange 27 (mythical beasts)

Finally, I had a major “AHA” night before last when Linda, my wife, hit the button to open our automatic garage door! YES, that’s IT! So… Yesterday I did a little research on the Internet and found a nifty ‘screw driven’ garage door opener manufactured by Genie and widely available for about $170! I ran over to Home Depot and bought one — they had about 50 of ‘em on the shelf — includes all the electronics and controls I needed, plus the linear actuator — they sell so many of them that they are CHEAP for what’s in the box, I think!

Last night and this morning I assembled the thing with some modifications to the limit switches so they’d work upside down which was the best way for me to mount the thing to my humidor drawer. Went together EASY and works like a charm! The seven inch per second action is pretty ideal for the way I want to use it, and I can actuate it by foot or by knee very easily — even came with three remote control devices (which I don’t imagine I’ll need), so I can very easily open the drawer, register the paper to the block while the drawer holds the paper up above the inky block, hold it in place with both hands and hit the switch to close the drawer — looks to me like it will work like a charm! I’m VERY happy today!

This ‘small’ humidor is a sealed plexi box which dovetails onto the table. It has two open-top drawers with blotter in the bottom to keep paper damp and ready for printing. The bottom drawer slides open just over the block by pressing a foot ‘pedal’. A sheet may then be pulled up over the lip of the drawer and registered onto the block while supported by the drawer. As the foot pedal is released, the drawer slides closed under the paper allowing it to settle onto the block very sweetly!

The new humidor is a very scaled up and mobile version of a traditional Japanese damp-stack. The bottom of the drawer is a 4 x 8 foot sheet of 6mm Coroplast (corrugated plastic sheet) which supports the damp stack — 1st the damp blotter, then the dampended sheets (up to 4 x8 feet), then ‘sealed’ with another sheet of Coroplast. The top sheet will be supported by a simple lifting bar, similar to the way silkscreens are generally supported above the paper until the screen is dropped — a pair of short retractable legs will hold the Coroplast above the paper stack during registration (while the drawer is open over the block). When the drawer is allowed to close, the ‘legs’ will be retracted by the structure of the drawer support and the Coroplast will settle back down, sealing the dampstack until it is time to print the next sheet. Printed sheets will be peeled up from the back and slid down over the front rail of the press into a similar drawer (not yet completed) which opens to the front mounted under the lower rails of the press. When a press pass is completed, the whole stack of printed papers will be picked up as a sandwich and flipped neatly back into the open paper delivery drawer (I HOPE)!

Because I want to be able to move freely around the press while brushing up the block, I’ve left a 24″ aisle open between the press and the closed paper delivery drawer, so the drawer has to move quite a long way to arrive over the block! Each ‘glide’ of the large drawer is a bit over 87 inches long, stiffened by a 30x60mm aluminum extrusion. To prevent tipping, the drawer frame will be bolted into the floor (which is my hardware store visit, as they supplied me with the wrong size mounting hardware late last week — ugh)…

The drawers are quite simple — the long front and back are 1″ square x 1/8″ aluminum tube with 1-1/2″ x 1/8″ flat bar screwed underneath to provide a lip for the CoroPlast bottom. The sides are 1-1/2″ x 1/8″ aluminum angle, and there’s another bar mounted in the center between the front and back tubes to prevent bowing during open and close actions.

The drawer support is a simple trestle, held parallel by four lengths of 1/2″ galvanized pipe tensioned with all-thread running the length and piercing the the 3/16″ aluminum end plates and the 2″ square tube legs — tightened with four nuts and washers on each end. Bottom tube is bolted to legs and floor to prevent tipping.

Next step: assemble the vacuum plenum for the press, assemble the bottom printed paper receiving drawer, and finally decide how to get the drawer to open and close while I hold the paper registered to the block with both hands! Getting REAL close to printing again, at last!

By the way, the press ‘action’ is a dream come true — glides so easily and surely across the bed regardless of pressure setting — I hope the thing PRINTS every bit as smoothly and beautifully as it seems to operate!

But one serious problem has now become apparent — I originally conceived the press with the 1/8 inch bed held (like a drawer-bottom) by the inside slots of the main rails all around. Somehow I managed to under-dimension the press bed by about 3/8 inch, so it is able to slide around quite sloppily, and there’s sufficient deflection side-to-side in the main rails to allow the bed to slip out of its track in the center. I’ve got 1/2 inch between the ends of the rollers and the side rails, though (to make it easier to keep the press bed swept free of wood chips and other debris), so I’ll repair the problem when I attach some lengths of 1/4″ x 2-1/4″ plate to the inside of each top rail and then screw the bed down tight to those, using some flat-head machine screws countersunk into the bed very close to the rails. That should serve to stabilize both bed and side rails without too much work and without interfering with the smooth passage of the rollers across the bed.

See previous description of this project

Late in 2004, I decided to produce large woodblock prints — larger than I was able working alone and using a baren… Of course, I’d considered using assistants, but prefer to work alone and on my own schedule. So I began to think seriously about what sort of ‘press’ I might like to use. I tested the method on some medium scale (32″) blocks for “Anthony” using my 30 x 60 inch bed etching press and the very lightest pressure and it worked much better than I’d expected, so I began by researching existing large intaglio presses (I’d first looked into the possibilty of building a huge hydraulic plate-press, but it appeared too heavy and much too costly). Large intaglio presses are also quite expensive, and the best were specifically designed for very thin plates and didn’t have sufficient room between the bed and the top roller to accommodate both my blocks and the vacuum plenum I require to hold them flat. None of the manufacturers seemed willing to modify their designs to my specifications — that came as something of a surprise to me, but I understand their reluctance better now. There were also some significant paper handling problems to overcome while registering large papers single-handed (to be described in a future posting).

Because of space considerations in my studio, a moving bed press was undesirable (requiring a footprint twice the length of the bed, so I first tried to design a very stiff bedded press with a single roller. Deflection of the bed seemed to me to be an insurmountable problem with this method, so I decided a more conventional two-roller scheme would be easier to engineer. I ultimately decided to design a somewhat unique two-roller ‘wringer’ type press in which the bed would be stationary and the rollers could move back and forth across the bed. Because the rollers work in opposition, the bed could be very thin — just stiff enough to support the block prior to printing. I got some ‘help’ from Doug Forsythe’s $25 plans to ‘build your own etching press’ – these made for a more confident start!

One of the most important decisions was exactly ‘how’ the rollers could be made to accurately move back and forth along the press bed. There are many options for ‘linear motion’ solutions — after much consideration and comparison, I selected some off-the-shelf components from Bishop Wisecarver (BWC.com) who not only provided the excellent (and expensive) aluminum extrusions I chose for the frame components, but also the compatible carriage and rail system which will convey the rollers along the frame rails.

Getting the measurements right, figuring out how long things should be, how to make everything fit together, especially in the drive section where a number of parts had to be coordinated was challenging! For example, consider the two sprockets and chain in the drive — that has always seemed so simple… Until I tried it! There are a HUGE number of choices of chain sizes and sprocket sizes, and after figuring out what weight of chain would work, then there’s the desired mechanical advantage, and finally, you can’t just measure chain to the nearest 16th inch, the links are fixed, so you have to calculate how many links, then the shaft centers can be figured and fit exactly… LOTS of new stuff to learn and calculate — I must have tried 100 different combinations of chains and sprockets before deciding on one set which would work… In the process, I gave up on the configuration which would probably have been best — placing a light weight chain inside each of the long rails which support everything, then meshing a sprocket into that chain on each side to drive the rollers along… That would’a been very cool, but I wasn’t patient enough to redesign EVERYTHING in order to make it all fit… Compromises, compromises…

So eventually I decided on a design I thought would work using as many ‘off the shelf’ components as I could find, and making the rest. Because I thought I could machine aluminum myself using the same CNC machine (from ShopBot Tools) I’ve been using to carve large blocks since March, 2004, I designed many of the parts to be cut out of 1/2″ aluminum — here’s the drawing from which the parts were machined:

Below is a photo of the machining in progress — it was more difficult than I’d imagined, and I broke a few bits out of ignorance, but if I have to do it again, I’ll be able to accomplish it much more easily. Live and learn!

The rollers were another challenge… The bottom roller had to be machined to very close tolerance in order to exactly engage the press bed. I was also concerned about potential deflection in the 1.25″ center shaft and performed some fairly complex calculations in order to satisfy myself that deflection would be minimal under load. Eventually I settled on a design which I had bid at several local machine shops. My design called for four large ‘washers’ to be welded to the shaft and the inside of schedule 80 black pipe, then for the pipe to be turned to precise dimension. But it turns out that schedule-80 pipe is unsuitable for turning, as it contains stresses which won’t allow an accurate turning to be produced, so I had to go with much more expensive seamless DOM (drawn over mandril) tubing.

So I am finally actually assembling the thing! So far everything fits perfectly, and I’m feeling optimistic that it’s all going to really work! The rails and carriages have been assembled to the frame sides, seem to work as I’d imagined, and look good!

Total cost has been about $6,500 (yikes! But still SO MUCH cheaper than even a well-used intaglio press of similar size)

To be continued…

I assembled her two weeks ago (took the better part of a week) and she went to work almost immediately! I got her from a North Carolina company called ShopBot Tools which has sold about 3,000 such ‘assistants’ (actually low-end CNC machines), mostly to sign-makers, I think, in the last 10 years. She can carve about anything up to about 4 feet by 8 feet (a sheet of plywood) and up to five or six inches thick and can follow my drawings with an accuracy of a few thousandths of an inch!

I’m pretty ecstatic really, and I’m feeling that I am now able to precipitate image ideas almost directly from my mind to wood! For the way I work, this is like a dream come true! Very liberating!

Among the 24 blocks produced yesterday were the ten for this portrait of my son, Max. What a beautiful face he has as he seems to me to peer into an uncertain future with mixed courage and trepidation.

"untitled (Max)", March 26, 2004, 10 x 7.5 inches, woodblock print from 10 cherry plywood blocks, dry pigment and neri-zumi in paste of rice starch on Iwano Ichibei hosho, 24 sheets

surfacing the 4 x 8 foot bed of the new ShopBot CNC machine on the 3rd floor studio

"The Fisherman and his Wife", 1996, 15 x 10 inches, polychrome woodblock print from 5 blocks.

the 'plan' for the print, my original drawing in graphite with colored pencil and kento registration marked.

In 2008, I printed an edition of 31 for Baren Forum exchange #35 -- same blocks, but maybe my technique has improved over a dozen years -- at least I'm FASTER now!

For the 2008 printing (see image above), I wrote the following for the Baren Forum colophon:

• moku-hanga (traditional Japanese woodblock print)
• Titanium white (dry pigment in rice paste)
• Benzimidazo H2G Yellow (pigment suspension)
• Cadmium Yellow medium(dry pigment in rice paste)
• Pyrole Red (pigment suspension)
• Prussian Blue (pigment suspension)
• Yasutomo Sumi (carbon black)
• Printed on Iwano Ichibei (Japanese Living National Treasure of papermaking) hosho using hon-baren in fifteen impressions over five blocks:
• Luan — horizontal grain
• Luan — vertical grain (glued to other side)
• Birch
• Birch (other side)
• Shina ply (key block)

The blocks were carved in June 1996 in parody of Hiroshige’s 100 Views of Edo (mimicking point of view and red/yellow/blue palette, with black cartoony outlines.  I’d never really editioned these blocks and hadn’t gotten great prints from them, either – but I like the design and it fit the fairy tale theme, so I improved the carving to reduce blotching and have reprinted the original color scheme but with now greater facility in the medium.  These are more or less my original intention actually – it’s only taken a dozen years!

In 1976-77 I was living and working in Manhattan with my then wife, a ‘fabulous’ red-head.  So this is me, my ex-wife, and my libido in New York…

The Fisherman and His Wife

Once upon a time a simple fisherman and his wife lived by the sea in a filthy little hovel.  Every day, the fisherman would row out in his little boat and cast his nets.  Sometimes he was lucky with the fishing and sometimes he was not.

One day, the fisherman pulled in his net to discover an enormous fish struggling inside.  As the fisherman tried to get it in the boat, the fish began to plead with him, begging to be released back into the sea.  The fisherman was very surprised that any fish could speak and he felt pity for the fish and released it and the fish quickly swam away.  As he rowed back to shore with nothing to show for his day’s work, he looked forward to telling his wife about that unusual fish.

When heard about the talking fish, the fisherman’s wife became angry and abusive.  “Here we are, not even a crust of bread to eat much less any fish, you worthless idiot of a husband! That fish was magic!  You should have made it grant you a wish in return for letting it go!  Now you get back in your boat and find that fish and tell it we want a nice clean little cottage instead of this filthy hovel, and don’t come back until it’s done!” she screamed at him.

“But it’s cold and it’s night and I won’t be able to find the fish,” said the fisherman.

“GO!” said the wife.  And there was no changing her mind, nor shutting her up, so he went, even though it was the middle of the night and he’d had no sleep and nothing to eat for several days.

As he rowed, it became dark and very windy and the sea was rolling quite large and this frightened the fisherman, but his wife frightened him even more, so he called out, “Fishy, fishy, in the sea, won’t you grant a wish for me?”

And after a while the fish popped his head out of the waves and said, “What is your wish, then?”

And the little fisherman was so surprised he almost fell right out of the boat!  But after stuttering and stammering for a while, he was able to explain that his wife insisted that the fish give them a nice cottage to live in so their life needn’t be so hard.  And the fish said, “Go home, fisherman, your wife already has what she wants.”

So the fisherman rowed home and right where their filthy hovel had been now stood a beautiful little cottage, freshly white-washed, with shutters and smoke coming out of it’s brick chimney, and inside was a wonderful dinner on the table and his wife wearing some new clothes.  And she seemed satisfied for a while.

But one day the wife said, “Husband — that fish could have done anything we wanted, and all he gave in return for his life was this tiny little cottage. Now you get back out there and find that fish and you tell him…”

There was no talking her out of it, so the poor fisherman finally got back into his boat and rowed out to sea calling, “Fishy, fishy, in the sea, won’t you grant a wish for me?”

And after a time the fish poked his head out of the water and said, “Well, what is your wish now?”

And the fisherman stammeringly explained that his wife wanted to be a queen and live in a castle and have servants and guards and on and on.  And the fish looked very stern, but he said, “Go home.  Your wife already has what she desires.”

And when the fisherman got to shore, in place of the little cottage there was a big castle with turrets and flags and soldiers on horseback riding back and forth bugling.  When he tried to enter, two guards with halberds barred his way and wouldn’t let him in until his wife, the queen of the castle, finally ordered them to let him come in.  She looked very royal in her fancy velvet clothes with gold embroidery and jeweled crown and scepter and the fisherman was afraid even to look at her.  So he tried very hard to make himself small and beneath her royal notice and he hoped that she would now be content.

But it wasn’t long before she sent the guards to find him and bring him before her.  And when he was made to kneel down, she commanded him to row back out to sea and she gave him precise instructions.

As the little fisherman rowed out in his little boat, the skies grew very dark and the wind howled and lightning flashed all around and the waves were so huge they threatened to overturn the boat at any moment.  But he called out anyway, “Fishy, fishy, in the sea, won’t you grant a wish for me?”

And after a while the fish popped his head out of the waves and said quite angrily, “Well, fisherman, what do you want this time?”

And the little fisherman was so frightened he could barely speak at all, but he managed to explain that his wife was no longer satisfied just being queen.  Now she wanted to be ruler of the universe and lord of creation.  And at this, so much lightening crackled all around that the little fisherman was truly in fear for his life.

But the fish just blinked once and said, “Go home, fisherman, your wife has what she deserves.”

And the little fisherman rowed back to shore and instead of the huge castle, there was a filthy little falling-down hovel and his wife standing outside dressed in her old rags.  And the old couple struggled to survive there for the rest of their days.