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lithographic printing – any advice on small set up?
In the village where I have my business, I keep getting asked about doing decent sized runs of printing. I have some space in my unit available about 300sq ft and was thinking about setting up a small litho print service.
leaflets, business cards, flyers blah blah… I could easily be turn over 2k a month doing this, not a great deal but it’s an extra income. i have someone who wants to work it part time who already does litho for another company, but he’s not got any idea about where or what to buy..
Anyone have any experience they could share in this dept for me? I would also be interested to hear if there is a cost effective digital solution out there. As an example I was asked today alone if I could do 2500 double sided A6 flyers on about 180gsm (or there abouts) I could have got the job for £100. I turn stuff like this away every day (I out source but I make pennies on it)…. any advice would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
BigMo -
10 Replies
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don’t know about litho machines but i use a laser on click contract for low run cards and flyers. works well for us but as its late and my maths may be wrong that job is not worth it. at £100
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Hi Mo
These guys run an iGen3 digital – great quality and prices for digital that you wouldn’t get near unless you have lots of money to invest.
http://printkiosk.co.uk/For litho try Quinns of Belfast
I run my OKI for very short runs and use the above plus other for everything else.
Don’t forget all the possible associated stuff you would need, guillotine, poss collator, booklet maker, creaser etc etc.
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I really wouldn’t invest in that equipment as buying print is so cheap and easy, concentrate on making sure your files are press ready. I use Caralan – Aubergine print and Fairprint for various types of jobs. I wouldn’t be able to produce that sort of quality print without spending a fortune on equipment and have loads of room. If you have money to invest concentrate your investment on what you do best ie signs.
Alan D -
Yeah, thanks Alan, I appreciate that every time a post like this appears everyone starts shouting "OUTSOURCE" lol but I don’t want to do that, I’m looking at a short run solution for a: my own sales literature and advertising and b: local businesses that contact me that require a very small amount.
I have and do outsource but I change my campaigns frequently to cover a large variety of products, we don’t just do signs, I have a few other business interests that would benefit from instant availability of in house printing.
Having said that and now having done some extensive "wee hours" research, I think that a decent laser print set up would be the way to go. I would probably be looking at about 7-10000 prints a month max and that’s absolute max. I was more worried about media weight and so far I have only found a solution that goes up to about 230gsm. That could be enough for me, I just need to check the quality of the media at that thickness.
But, I think the cutter as you say would be the stumbling blocks and start ramping up the price, but I do have an uncanny nack for finding 2nd hand bargains…….
Thanks for your input guys…. If any of you have a laser set up that covers decent sized runs I would be interested to know what you have and how it works out. At the moment vehicle of choice is an HP laser set up around 3k
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at 230 gsm you have ruled out the best bit Cards. and you need A3+ for flyers
i will pm you later with my set up but 10,000 sheets a month is pushing a laser system
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quote Chris Wool:at 230 gsm you have ruled out the best bit Cards. and you need A3+ for flyers
i will pm you later with my set up but 10,000 sheets a month is pushing a laser system
Cheers Chris, as I said that would be absolute max I doubt I would get anywhere near that…. personally business wise my own personal needs wouldn’t probably extend past 500 a month, I wouldn’t need to print more than that as I could do them add hoc. But as an example I have an order (it’s for a local charity so it’s a freebie really) for 300 letterheads. I can do them on my ink jet without any trouble but I think laser would be so much quicker.
It’s stuff like that I’m interested in really and a few hundred A6 250gsm flyers here and there and also maybe 500 or so A5 100 gsm leaflets
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quote Chris Wool:at 230 gsm you have ruled out the best bit Cards. and you need A3+ for flyersi will pm you later with my set up but 10,000 sheets a month is pushing a laser system
PM me too Chris, I sub all this out the now but really thinking of getting something as my main printer for day to day office printer doesn’t work anymore so once it goes i’ll have floor space…. not much but i’ll work something out haha
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Lasers are going to be better for short run – fair enough but not comparable quality wise with the litho output from a trade house.
Alan D -
i use to run a Richo C900 at my previous job, one of the best litho quality digital machines on the market,
It will print up to 350gsm SRA3 at 45spm (£100k machine though)
I also ran the 4 col Heidelberg speed-master,
the Richo was cost effective up to 1000 copies (500 d/s sra3 sheets)the costs for litho aren’t made for short runs plate costs, ink costs, set-up and print times, wash-up and drying times (even-longer if you dont get a 4 col or aUV press or an inline coater)
then you’ll need a plate maker & guillotine and someone to collect your waste chemicals (we paid £1k a month regardless of quantity)
I use the company i worked for for all my digital and litho stuff and i get very good trade prices and excellent quality , i couldn’t even consider spending the money to match the equipment they have even on a smaller scale, and believe me i think about it every-time i send them a job
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Modified OKi units – maybe worth a look.
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