DSF

My opinion having looked at loads of equipment and confused the life out of myself Martin and Scott at BMS were perfect with giving me plenty of advice etc and all without the trying to sell me everything under the sun. they were happy to help and i felt that confident in building a decent reationship with them that i placed an order with them for everything to get me started and they come highly recommended from me.

We have done a bit of trading in 2nd hand presses (including buying and fixing broken ones) almost exclusively with Adkins/Insta, Jarin and PressMech ... all expensive presses, and from the point of view of ease of use and maintainance/repair, I would put the PressMech at the top of the list.
http://www.pressmech.co.uk/

The Pressmech look superb and are made in the UK. I spoke to them at the show this year and they were keen to get involved with the forum and offered to lend me a press to see how good it was for myself. Unfortunately all attempts at contact have failed since then so maybe communication would be an issue.

I've phoned them before, have mobile number of their main guy - he's talked me through some repair work over the phone before - happy to pass it to you Justin if you want PM me.
We got one of their presses for a massive bargain nearly two years ago now, and since then it is our main press, when I the element went, it was a pain having to use the Jarins or Adkins we had lying around (not including the Adkins Omega 8000 which is a different league!) in comparison, and a relief when I got the PressMech back up and running!

They know where I am if they're interested

Thanks for all the replys guys, It really is appreciated. I've decided to go with the A3 Ricoh, the xpres clam press (is it really worth the extra for a Swing???) and hopefully the rest of my kit off Martin @ BMS.
Well here I go, through the door of 'Sublimation World....!' Dont really know what to expect.

Swing press is better if you're working on clothing as you can look right over the top and align transfers/logos etc. but you should be OK with a decent clam press.

If I could choose again it would definatley be a 'swing away' press or one of those with the base that slides out then in (forget the name).

I have a clam press and although it works well, as Justin say - it's a pain to work 'over' garments.

That said, the way I have things set up now I would have to clear a lot of stuff away for a swing away press (it needs to go somewhere when 'swung').

You will always hear great comments on this forum about BMS,. and The magic Touch, but many (me included) have had very indifferent communication & support from xpress,.....

i have to say that xpres are impressive at their training/ opendays, but unfortunately the office is not always that easy to deal with, you will be just an account number along with a lot of other account numbers and issues that arise are not always dealt with quickly or easily. i have decided not to continue a relationship with them, as there is nothing they sell that i cannot source from other companies who offer the most important thing to me "i am a customer and i matter to them"