This mini relief print press is aimed at the younger generation of printers, the roller mechanism is spring loaded to avoid any finger traps etc.

Relief text print tablets can either be 3D printed as in this demonstration or laser cutters can be used or linoleum tiles.

The press can either be a permanent fixture or used as a mobile print platform and has many uses to create artistic flair bespoke creations.

3D Printer capable of printing ABS Filament.

ABS 1.75 Filament

5mm Low profile Allen head bolts x 20mm

2 of 5mm Allen head bolts x 12mm

1 of 5mm steel bar

2 of 16mm x 5mm x 5mm Bearings 2

2no 10mm x 0.8 wire size 50mm Length Compression Springs

Felt pad

Suitable relief printing ink and paper

Relief print roller

Acrylic plate for paint application

My idea for the main body was to have the smooth roller mechanism run up and down channels in the side pieces of the frame, these would act as guides and keep the roller perpendicular to the print bed, with this in mind the main body was produced after a few attempts at getting it right, I made provision in the base of the main body with 4 countersunk screw holes should anyone want to affix it permanently to a surface, this would have to be screwed down prior to installing the 3 geared rollers, these are held in place with superglue so a decision has to be made at this point, for the purpose of this demonstration I used double sided tape as it wasn't going to be a permanent fix.

With the main body designed it was time to move onto the next stage which is the bed of the printer and also the geared rollers.

For the Rack/Bed of the printer, this has to be a gear rack and for this purpose I used the GF Gear Generator, this is one of the add ins within Fusion 360 I had to play about with this to get the desired end product, which was a bed with rack teeth to the lower part I added a couple of extrusions to the ends, this would help stop the bed from coming off the end of the rollers, from this point I had to design the roller gears, this part I found extremely hard and what I ended up doing was off setting one of the inset teeth on the rack, I off set this by 0.2mm and then created a centre circle and used the circular pattern to add the teeth for the gear, I added an amount which looked as though it would work but this was purely by eye, I then extruded the roller gear to the width of the bed, we will need 3 of the roller gears, at this point I 3D printed the bed and one of the roller gears to see if all meshed well before going any further.

To hold the geared rollers in position I designed some flat head pegs, in turn these would be secured within the roller with CA Glue at the assemble stage.

The next part to be designed will be the vertical slider arrangement, this will run in the guides created in the main body.

This component needs to slide within the guide rails on the main body and needs to slide smoothly vertically up and down, springs will be in place to force roller down, and create pressure to produce the prints.

To start this design I used the top surface of the main body and projected the channels to which the slider will run up and down, I offset the projection internally to 0.3mm this will give enough clearance for the slider to run up and down freely, this needs to be designed to incorporate the smooth roller and also finger recess's to allow the roller to be raised up to accept or remove the press bed.

With the sliding mechanism designed, I designed the smooth roller, this has a bearing pressed in at each end and is will be secured with flush end fitted 5mm steel bar, the holes for this in the slider are made at 5mm for a snug push fit, allowing the roller to be removed at any point for cleaning etc.

I further designed a handle which goes on the top of the sliding arrangement, this in turn with the finger recesses is used to lift the roller/slider mechanism, this is secured in position with 2no 5mm Low Profile Allen Head Bolts

I purchased some springs from Amazon to provide the necessary downward pressure to print and the next job was to design the top part of the print press.

There were 2 reiterations of this component, the first would only give a limited amount of upward travel with the roller, so I redesigned so the slider arrangement would slide within the top component allowing additional upward travel and expanding the scope of the press, this component is secured in place with 4no Low profile Allen Head Bolts 20mm Length.

The holes to accept these bolts were made using the top component as a guide, the top component was designed on top of the main body and saved as a new body, I projected the bolt holes onto the main body at 5mm and extruded down to 22mm and used the thread tool to model the threads, the Allen head bolts screw in nicely to secure the top component in place.

This component can be removed to add stronger springs should the need arise.

Finally I added some text to the top of the top component "MINI PRINT PRESS"

The handle was designed to incorporate a turn knob, this is a simplistic design as in the photos, its a lever with a pin, the pin will go into the centre roller at the assemble stage, the turn knob is held in place with a 5mm low profile Allen Head Bolt, washers and a Nyloc nut.

I designed some flat headed pins which would hold the geared rollers in place on the main body.

As mentioned previously, if you want to use the press in a permanent location, then it needs to be secured using the 4no Counter sunk holes prior to fitting the geared rollers, for the purpose of this Instructable I used double sided tape to secure the press, but the option is there.

To start the assembly process, I applied some CA glue to each end of the 2 end geared rollers internally, then held in position whilst I pushed the pins in, then pushed the pins in and left to dry.

The next stage was to glue the handle in position using the same method, but leave enough of the handle out to clear the heads of the end roller pins, the turn knob can be secured in position before or after this stage.

I pressed the 2 x bearings into each end of the roller and prior to this I had cut some 5mm steel bar so it would be flush with the sides of the sliding component, file to suit, the roller was positioned and the bar inserted and pressed into the holes on the slider.

The handle can be fitted to the sliding component at this time, I forgot to mention earlier that I had designed into both the slider and top component some spring guides, the springs fit over and under these to hold the springs in place.

The sliding component can be inserted into the channel guides on the main body, ensure that the sliding component runs freely up and down the guides in the main body, file if necessary and apply a little candle wax for the slider to run smoothly, 2 springs can now be held in place and the top component positioned and bolted into position using the 20mm Low Profile Allen Head Bolts.

The final thing to do is to lift the sliding arrangement and insert the print bed.

I designed and 3D Printed some simple text tablets, and this would be my first attempt at relief printing.

I have no idea about relief printing but wanted to demonstrate and prove the press, I had bought 1 x tube of relief print ink, a roller to apply the paint, an acrylic plate to which the paint is applied and some suitable paper to which I would print, in theory.

A felt pad is used between the roller and print paper, the felt pad was purchased from a printing supply company for little money and cut to size, enough to make 2 felt pads.

At this point this is where my artistic talent left me, I salute the relief print Artists, I got the Ink everywhere, those guys make it look so easy.

I did manage to produce some prints just to demonstrate the press, but I will leave it up to the people who have more artistic flair to prove if the press is a viable addition to the Art movement.

This press is aimed at the younger generation of printers, the idea of using the springs is to lessen the chance of finger traps etc, it can be used to print text or many other relief print projects, the first prototype I gave to a friend with a young son, she very kindly tested it with Linoleum and her son loves it, and managed to produce some lovely prints albeit not text.

There you have it, a very cool project to be involved with and hopefully a too with which people of all ages can have a go at creating some Art work with not too much expense.

All print files are available on the BambuLab Makerworld site as a lot of the files are over 25MB and wouldn't download on the Instructables platform use the link below

https://makerworld.com/en/models/522776#profileId-439410

Fusion 360 Files added by a request in the comments.

Thanks for Looking.