Renting a small offset printer... Help?

[ConcreteMushrooms]

Hi everyone,

I'm a member of an artist collective which will be performing an exhibition in New York during the last 3 months of 2010. During this exhibition we plan on distributing a newsprint newsletter which ideally we print on site and distribute to the visitors.

We were hoping to find be able to rent a small offset machine to bring into the museum from October until the end of the year for this purpose. Something like the Ryobi 512 would be perfect but any two-process machine is fine as long as it prints on newsprint...

Do any of you have pointers, directions, or ideas on how to go about renting a small sheet-fed offset printer for such a short period?

Any input would be deeply appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[JasonFF]

I've never heard of renting a printing press before but I'm sure it has been done. You might have to find a leasing company and then negotiate a very short term lease. I just googled and found these guys, Printing Press Financing - Lease Products - Operating Lease. Their website seems to be out of date and I'm not recommending them, but that might be the type of company you need to contact.

Are you planning to operate it yourself? Also consider the plates you'll need every time you update the newsletter. Assuming you are looking at printing yourself because you are going to be running and distributing a whackload of these, folding the newsletters might prove to be a challenge as well. Would there be any cutting of stock required?

You might also be able to negotiate a pretty good price with a printer in the area if you know you are goign to need a lot of copies. These are just a few things I would think about if I were in your situation. Hope it helps.

[spectrecom]

I think you would be better off just farming out the printing...how much printing will you need? What size and number of pages of a newsletter will it be?

Problem is setting a press up and running it is a chore...maybe buying a used one?