just bought an offset press...

[paul204]

Yo,

I do screen printing on textiles and flatstock as well as letterpress stuff.

This weekend I happened upon a deal I couldn't pass up. Dude was selling off the remnants of a small print shop--2 Gestetner 11x17 offset presses from the 60s, a 30" Challenge paper cutter, saddle stitcher, paper drill, and about $1000 worth of plates, blankets, inks, chemicals, solvents etc. for only $800. One of the presses was still operational and had been meticulously maintained, so I'm not too worried about that. The other press is mostly backup for parts.

The presses come with complete user manuals and operation instructions, but I'm going to be fumbling my way through everything other than that (i.e. platemaking.)

Anyone else do offset stuff? Am I totally getting myself into trouble thinking I'll be able to operate this thing? Any resources out there that would help me? There is tonnes on the internet on screen printing and letterpress, but traditional offset is just on the cusp of being taken up as a craft, so not a lot of diy stuff yet.

[ohdanielsan]

Don't know anything about offset myself, but just wanted to say that is a killer deal! Look on the bright side: if you can't figure out how to get that stuff working, the value alone is enough to make some insane resale profit. Don't know what condition it's all in of course, but I imagine that challenge cutter alone is worth about $1500 minimum. I see guys selling them for $3000+ all the time.

Good luck with it all.

[windflame]

I would recommend checking out:

Offset Printing Press Forum - Color Printing Forum

If I had the space or time I would offer you double for everything, you got a killer deal!

[paul204]

Yep, quite a steal, although everything but one of the presses is in the guy's basement, so it's probably going to cost me double what I paid for it to have it moved.

[squeegeethree]

this is awesome.

[paul204]

Yep. I guess if no one has experience or tips I'll be leading the vanguard off craft offset printing. I've got to renovate to make room for this stuff, but once it's in I'll make sure to fill everyone in on how it goes.

[jayryan]

i do not envy your move.

note from experience: there is no such thing as "too tied down" when moving presses and cutters. bring like 2000' of rope and 507 cargo straps. get a lift gate truck and a pallet jack, obviously. bring along about 8 big dudes and a lot of wrenches. take lots of photos during disassembly.

congrats on a great deal. if you survive getting the stuff into your space, you will have a cool setup. photos when you're ready.

[windflame]

take lots of photos during disassembly.

.

[phoondaddy]

I ran offset presses right out of high school, but smaller AB Dick presses for PIP. Learned offset at vocational school, but always got caught messing with the screenprint stuff. Offset was boring to me. Platemaking has changed alot on the past 15-20 years, I think we were running PMT type plates at PIP 20 years ago, use em and toss em. But in school we used photo sensitive aluminum plates. Not sure of the press you bought. Good luck, could be fun to experiment with. Take off all jewelry and neckties when using it!

[El Raton]

Am I totally getting myself into trouble thinking I'll be able to operate this thing?

Most likely. Maybe not though.

You got a good deal on the cutter. Most of the smaller presses like the old Gestetners are referred to as duplicators and have phased out by Kinkos and the pdf. They’re good for doing small spot colors jobs (letterhead / BC / envelopes / NCR / 7” covers) but don’t expect to do heavy solids or super tight registration with it… it’s a duplicator.

Also, be prepared for a learning curve… are you mechanically inclined? it’s way trickier than screenprinting or letterpress. Sometimes just getting the paper to feed properly can be hellish, all the while trying to get your water / ink levels dialed in just right so the image doesn’t look like crap. Kind of like fixing a car while you’re driving on the freeway. So many things can go wrong too… walk away for a second and a sheet can misfeed and get sucked into the ink rollers (which can sometimes take an hour to clean out if not caught in time). Too much ink will cause the image to offset on the back of the sheets and smear all over the place, not enough and it looks washed out and shitty. Lots of people have lost fingers and hands to these little presses… watch out.

There’s a reason you can find presses like these for next to nothing. The newer presses are safer to operate, have more form rollers (better ink coverage), better dampening systems and special UV dryers / coaters which produce way nicer prints. Either way, running an offset press is not an easy skill to master. If the press has a decent dampening system and you’ve got the patience / willpower you can do a lot of work with it. Otherwise it will become a huge piece of crap that you’ll curse at regularly, that weighs a fucking ton, takes up much needed space, and you’ll eventually sell it or give away to another poor victim…