Micro-adjustment is a scam. it's expensive and you have to readjust during the printing process. find a press that is metal on metal and wont go out of registration while printing.
Micro-adjustment is a scam. it's expensive and you have to readjust during the printing process. find a press that is metal on metal and wont go out of registration while printing.
That is some seriously bad advice.
If you want a good working press be prepared to pay some money. I personally would recommend M&R. They are in my opinion the best equipment out there. I have had my manual for over 6 years and it runs like a champ, micros included.
Without micros your in for a major headache trying to register halftone intense jobs. A good metal press isn't the only aspect of a good press. Heck most of them out there are metal and not worth a penny.
Don't know what he means by "haltone intense". However, even for 4 color process registration should take at the most 15 mins. if you tape the design on the shirt board and align the screen up and tighten the registration you can be done with it. the nightmare would be to have to do it again in the middle of a print job and ruin shirts. halftone are no harder, maybe easier simply because when your lining up the screen it is very easy to see if you are off the tiniest bit.
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.
look I don't say to get a cheap stupid press that doesn't work. and I will surly be the first to admit when am wrong, so just fill me in on how it is complicated to match up colors.
Candace
I can guarantee I can set up a 6-clr simulated process, Index or 4-clr process with 2 spot colors on a press with micros faster than you can without micros.
They are not there to generate more money, they serve a purpose. You did state registering during the print run. This happens quite often on a manual press if printing large orders with multi colored jobs. Obviously the press in question plays a major role if this happens yet in my 11+ years of printing I do not know what I would do without micros.
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Don't know what he means by "halftone intense".
Something along the lines of the attached image. 8-color design that consists of each plate/color being 75% + being halftones
If you're trying to register screens by moving the frames in the screen clamps alone, they will often shift slightly out of position as the clamp knobs are tightened - sort of a twisting action the clamps put on the frame as the knobs turn. Some users with no micros will loosen the clamps only slightly and "adjust" the frame in the desired direction with a hammer. Even using micros, the two at the back of the screen clamp will twist the whole screen unless they're both turned at the same time and the same amount if you're trying to move the screen linearly from front to back, or vice-versa. Additionally, micros are just that, MICROS, and really shouldn't be used to make large adjustments, just minute ones. Any more than a sixteenth of an inch, and you should loosen the frame clamps and move the whole screen.
Briefly, my first press was an old Hopkins w/o micros that couldn't be retrofitted with newer print heads. I replaced it with a new CAPS press with micros, but the micros were almost useless. I replaced that press with a 4-month old Vastex with micros, and the difference in setups is like night and day. Of course, I paid almost twice as much for the Vastex used as the CAPS new, and 4 times what I paid for the Hopkins, but it's the best money I've ever spent. The CAPS press was actually pretty well built, and I liked everything about it but the micros, but I actually spent 4 hours trying to register 3 colors on the thing once, and didn't think I'd ever hit it. It did hold registration once I was in, though. An all metal press without micros, no matter how well made, will never be as easy to dial in the registration as one with, unless you get lucky and hit it right off the bat in your setup.
Looking To Buy Micro-adjustment Print Head 
