Opinion on this Screen Printing Carousel (for beginner)

[LRC]

What about this? http://www.dalesway.co.uk/vastex_v1000.htm

Does anyone know anything about daleway and or vastex

[mr-gobby]

What did you encounter with Dave ropers customer service to make you unable to recommend it Justin? Never dealt with them myself but come across the name a few times when looking into screen print as an option.

[John G]

Just my humble opinion - i'd buy a heavy duty carousel, second hand, off ebay and take it from there. The majority of companies/people buying new kit, that haven't screen printed before, end up putting the same kit up for sale a few months later, as they don't get along with it, or realise they're out of their depth - just look at all the second hand gear on ebay, there's loads.

You don't need micro reg, it can come in handy, but it's not necessary - its all about setting the stencil up in the right place on the screen and getting the position on the carousel, bang on, before you put any ink on - this comes with practice. If you haven't printed before - it'll be a good few years before you're doing full colour sets - its a big learning curve.

I have 2 carousels, one with micro, one without - the one with the micro is never used and is busy rusting away in the garage - lol

[logobear]

the platten is only a bit of MDF.
easy to cut out of scrap wood / kitchen units or whatever

[logobear]

remember that you have to thread over the platten, so large size means cannot thread small T's

[LRC]

Thats very true. So ideally i want a set up with interchangable plattens. Im seriously considering buying the vastex v1000 1/6 table top. It comes in at just over 2k. It is a lot more than i wanted to pay but you get what you pay for. I have researched this carousel and although it is not as good as the v2000. It is still a really good quality carousel and hold registration brilliantly. I am looking at the 1/6 table top configuration because CMYK halftone is something i would really like to offer. This is possible woth a1/4, but that set up completely throws chances of printing on any other colour that white straight out the window. I understand that having more that one platten arm is best for productivity, but as 2k is already over what i wanted to pay, I just cant push for it. Not only that, but i dont think the table top version comes with more plattens. This is my thinking... I'll be working with waterbased inks (for many reasons that i wont do into) and process inks. Process inks are fine because they are printed wet on wet so the need for extra plattens is redundent. I am researching wet on wet techniques for waterbased inks which looks very promising and actually intelligent. With this in mind.. do you all think this would be a sensible purchase considering all of the above and the fact that this would used in a low capacity initially. Also when the time comes that an upgrade is essential. I plan to buy something like the v2000 and keep the 1/6 v1000 with great registration, as a CMYK carousel as 1 platten is all you need for cmyk (sure you can use more plattrnd but can only put down one colour at a time so production would not benefit all that much) .....there. im finished lol

[LRC]

Hi all,

Strike the v1000. That a no go lol. Looking at a Riley Hopkins Junior 2/6 for just over 2k. Considering the above minus the v1000. Does this make sense?

Thanks guys. Really appreciate the input