tpitman

I can tell you that I spent HOURS trying to line up a 3-color job on an all-metal press with sh*tty micros. Since then, I bought a good all-metal press with great micros, and I can tell you that with a good press WITH GOOD MICROS, set ups are a breeze, and a good press won't lose registration. Trying to set up a job on any press without micros might go quick if you're lucky, and it might take forever. The advice that micros are an expensive scam is BS. These forums are filled with people that use crappy metal presses purchased on Ebay who found out the hard way that you get what you pay for. Just being a metal press won't guarantee that your job won't slip out of registration during a print run. Do a search and try to find people who've spent over $4000 on 6-color presses such as Vastex, M&R or Antec who complain about them going out of registration. All you'll hear is crickets.

Now to answer your question. There is one company that I know of that sells aftermarket micros that will supposedly work on just about any press, but from what I could see from the pictures, they really didn't look like they were manufactured to tolerances that would make them effective. Unless you've got an old Hopkins that can be retrofitted with newer BWM Hopkins printheads, frankly, I'd be inclined to struggle without micros until you can either buy a good new press, or a slightly used one from someone who had more dollars that sense, and discovered screenprinting isn't as easy as printing money. There are some good deals out there, but make sure you KNOW what you're buying. Don't fall for some mustachio'd huckster on Ebay.

 

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