Inherited small print shop...

robbg439

Well-known member
Let me start by asking your forgiveness. I am pretty much a complete newbie to offset printing, so pardon any ignorance you might encounter as you so graciously read this post.

A family friend ran a tiny offset shop out of his home from the 80's until his untimely death in 2004. The equipment sat idle in his shop until a week ago.

I'm a book designer and printmaker (albeit intaglio and silkscreen) who's had dreams of getting into offset production. So I convinced the widow of the owner to let me inherit the equipment and resurrect it to working order. Now I'm playing detective and trying to figure out how to get the equipment up and running again, without manuals.

The press is a hamada 611 ECD 1-color 320 x 450mm with a crestline dampening system. There's an Agfa Repromaster 500 vertical process camera. And then there's the mysterious "3M 1142 FP". I assume FP stands for Film Processor, but I can't find any information about this particular piece of equipment on the internet. It seems 3M divested their prepress equip. department to Imation, who in turn completely phased it out. I think he was working with Silvermaster plates and processing them in this machine, because there is a note on it which seems to record when the silvermaster chemicals were changed. These chemicals were left in the machine, and have completely dried out. Any suggestions as to how to safely clean it?

So thats what I know. Can I assume that he was exposing the silvermaster plates right on the process camera using opaque paste-ups and then processing them in the film processor? Does anyone have any experience using this equipment and/or press? Any help, advice, words of wisdom, etc. would be greatly appreciated, both by me and the ghost of printer past.
 
First off.....sorry to hear of your friends untimely death. I'm sure he'd be thrilled that you're trying to get his shop back up and running.

With that said......IMHO....if you just replace all the rubber in the press and oil it up it should be good to go unless there were problems with the press beforehand.

I know in another post you said that ink was left in the train. It's really not worth trying to save those rollers. If you replace all of them now they'll last you for years in that type of shop.

As far as the film processor goes......I really believe you'd be better off finding a shop to supply you with plates. Someone may have a different (better) opinion on this, but it's old technology and you'd most likely spend more getting it back up and running than you'll get out of it.

Good luck
 
Silvermaster activator and stabilizer is pretty nasty stuff after it has dried. The rollers inside the processor are shot and probably not replaceable. With the onset of the computer process cameras are pretty much a thing of the past. If you can get the press running do as mentioned above and get metal plates until you feel you are going to have success at this. If so maybe look at a ripit system. They run poly with pretty decent quality and the system will not break the bank. You could also probably pick up a Itek 617 camera for a decent price.
 
I agree, toss out the chemical system. The chems go south every 30 days or so even if you don't use them. Metal plates are best, but you could also get a hp 5000 and make plates from that. If you are just going to be printing black and no pictures, then you might just want to go to a cheap digital printer.
 
old camera lens

old camera lens

What will you do the lens? I still have 2 old nikon lens from a big robertson camera.
 
Just like mentioned, scrap the Itek and the camera. Get a laser printer to produce cheap plates like the HP5000 (which is ten year old technology and no longer supported by HP) or a used Xante platemaker that image laser plates. As for higher quality plates buy out the plates if someone offers them in you area, or buy negs from a service provider and process your own plates in house, but you'll need a plate burner--we just sold one for $200.
 
Hi RobbG
If I have got it right from memory the hamada 611 is the small footprint machine that feeds paper direct into the printing unit rather then along a small conveyor belt that the traditional hamadas did. If that is right I remember that they were a cow of a machine to get to feed nicely. However having said that if your elderly relative has used it for years there is a good chance that he had it well set up. The key to those machines as I remember them was to get them set up for a tandard paper size and adapt all your jobs to suit them. Have a look around, your friend sounds thorough, I wouldn't be surprised to find he has a manual that he has made notes in (or even a notebook). Have you had paper feeding through it yet. As to the silver master I am with the other guys they are limited in their use and require a regular use to make them worthwhile with chemical cost. I would go for the laser printer and poly plates although you could just get some metal plates made from a GTO 52 size or a quick master and cut them to suit ( although you may need to get them punched if the machine doesn't have a straight edge clamp system. If this helps let me know and I will give you more info.
 

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