Holznudel - DIY Letter Press

In this post I want to describe and highlight a funny DIY project named “Holznudel”. It is an open source letterpress which allows you to make prints with lego tiles. It was a lot of fun to build and it is a great activity for the kids - but also for grown-ups. This post is divided into five sections: 1/ discovery 2/ construction 3/ pieces 4/ cleaning 5/ next steps.

Discovery

While scrolling through the presentations of the 37. Chaos Communication Congress (37C3) online, I came across a talk about “Holznudel”: “analogue pixelprint with lego tiles and open source printing machines" by Alain Wohlfarth (@handdrucksachen auf Mastodon).

In this 3 minutes long video, Alain describes his DIY letterpress which relies on a pastry roller. In German, a pastry roller is often called “Nudelholz” (literal translation would be “pasta wood”). So, the name “Holznudel” (English „wood pasta“) is a pun. The project is inspired by the Provisional Press.

Construction

You can find more information about this project on holznudel.de (which will actually redirect you to Alain’s online presence on https://handdrucksachen.de/37c3workshop/ ). On this website, you can discover great examples for prints, as well as detailed instructions on how to build this wonderful little device. As I had never seen a Holznudel in real life, only pictures and videos online, I was lucky that Alain was willing to assist me on my construction journey. I did send him a lot of questions on Mastodon. You can find a long exchange between Alain and myself here: https://hachyderm.io/@davidbeck/111947860492825001 Once again, thank you very much for your help, Alain. And also, a great shout out to our Ostsee Opa who helped us with his chop saw.

While I ended up with a slightly adjusted construction, I don’t think it makes sense for me to discuss the construction in detail in this blog post. Alain’s website is the go-to resource for this. But let me add a couple of images, which might be helpful for people who aim to build their own Holznudel.

Pieces

What makes this project so neat is that you can use lego or lego-like pieces in order to create your printing templates.

In my case, we are relying on a mix of original Lego dots and tiles from Bluebrixx. These is the set, which I found very helpful (no affiliate link): https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/assortments/401168/Brix-Fliesen-gemischt-Dark-Tan-BlueBrixx

Printing is a lot of fun. Here are a few examples:

The bird you see here is a copy from a book named “Print & Play – de kunst van LEGO letterpress” (see https://tacit.studio/kunst-van-lego-letterpress/).

Cleaning

One thing I learned is that the iFixit Jimmy is a very helpful tool to remove the dirty tiles from the base plate. You can find it here: https://store.ifixit.de/products/jimmy

I usually clean the pieces in a strainer and dry them on a kitchen roll.

Next Steps

Needless to say that kids enjoy working with the Holznudel. It’s simple, but you can create awesome results. For Easter, we printed a lot of cards for grand-parents and friends.

We will certainly try more complex prints moving forward. With two or three colors.

And I am wondering whether it could be fun to transition the construction of the Holznudel to a 3D print. Wood is a wonderful material. But when you have a lot of small pieces, it becomes a lot of effort. Different sizes of screws are needed, for example. For some people, a 3D print might be easier to do. The base plate could remain wood, I think. It is the by far biggest piece in the construction. I would not change the IKEA pastry roller either. But the rest of the construction could be 3D printed, I think.

We’ll see where this will take us. In any case, this was a fun non-IT project. Thank you Alain.