UK Paper Supplier & Guillotines

[Billabongchick]

Hi guys, thanks for all your help on my previous topic re buying a Xerox DC250. Very helpful. I had a couple more questions if anyone can give me some advice please. The first is about guillotines as I will need to purchase something basic to trim business cards etc. What would you suggest for a budget of around £500 max? Ideally it could trim SRA3 so 320mm width which leads on to my second query... which is...

Paper Suppliers...

Who do you use? In my previous 2 jobs we used Antalis but I assume the volume of orders in a high street shop/being on account meant that the costs went down as having looked on their website they seem quite expensive. I will be ordering on a small one (wo)man band basis and I would like to order in the following sort of basic stock before my machine arrives:

- 100 - 250 sheets SRA3 350gsm card silk finish for business cards and postcards etc,

- 250-500 SRA3 sheets 170gsm high gloss coated for leaflets

- 250-500 Basic A3 or SRA3 100gsm coated for everyday printing/low quality flyers

- A small amount of Conqueror hammer 300gsm or similar for wedding invites (A4 or A3) No more than 100 sheets.

What brand names would you all recommend going with as I want to put decent stuff through my machine to avoid jams etc and where would you recommend as being good value/decent products/helpful for smaller orders of stuff like Conqeror? Is there a good alternative to Conqueror board that is digital compatible?

Any pointers would be really helpful thank you!

 

[lfelton]

PremierBeswick & Eliott Baxter are both good & their reps should be able to give advice on suitable paper.

Guillotines are difficult. A manual one will be fiddly and time consuming for business cards, especially as you will have to double cut them. A better solution for that might be to subcontract them out to a reliable supplier. You might want to have a chat with Chilvers (just google) as they often have second hand kit and can offer advice.

 

[Billabongchick]

Thank you very much, I will look those suppliers up. Just tried bidding on a nice Ideal programmable guillotine but it went for a lot more in the end unsurprisingly as it was rather nice but I have my eye on a couple more so will see what happens. As you say I may just buy a basic hand one for now and sub out anything too time consuming but would rather keep it all in house!

 

[chrisg42]

Give the Antalis sales office a call and ask about setting up an account. They have cash accounts where payment is by credit card online as well as normal credit accounts. A craft letterpress printer local to us has one of these (he uses us as a delivery point). It's then possible to negotiate on price. Obviously you won't get prices as good as a larger customer, but you should be able to do better than the "list" prices. The prices you see on the website change when you are able to log in as an account holder!

For small guillotines, in addition to Chilvers, you might try KC Digital in Bristol and Total Print Finishing in Weston-super-Mare.

 

[Billabongchick]

Thank you Chris that's really helpful of you. I did have a look on Chilvers but nothing much in my price range guillotine-wise but will check out your other suggestions if the other Ideal I have put an offer on doesn't turn out. Paper-wise I am going to speak to another local printer who is friends with my other half and see if I may be able to buy stock through them temporarily until I am more established then look into an account with someone like Antalis.

My Xerox arrived today so very excited and jobs waiting to go on it so need to get cracking on getting something in stock-wise!

 

[rainman23]

Hi fella, try buying direct from xerox. You Have to buy a box of paper at a time but prices are good and the colorprint and colotech ranges of paper work brilliantly with your 250. As for guillotine keep your eye on eBay and you will find an ideal will come up for a few hundred quid. Try and get an auto clamp with maybe a manual back gauge. I started with one but manual clamp and backguage, very frustrating. You might find you can get auto on both counts if your lucky plenty of good machines about at the moment.

 

[smo]

I'd suggest the following suppliers, we use/have used them all:

KC Digital (speak to Kevin)
ASL Group (speak to Chris Gillard)
Citrus Digital (speak to John)

They are all really helpful and can support you with machinery and supplies for your machine

Regards
Simon @ TRNC

 

[Billabongchick]

Hi guys,

Thank you for all the info on here and sorry for the delay in replying. I have found a guy who is willing to supply small quantities of Xerox Colortech+ paper/card in the weights I need and delivery is next day so until I get a bit more regular work in that should suffice but I will refer back to your suggestions when I need to use someone with a larger range of stock. And I found a guillotine which is now settled in well and I am happy with. Old but very serviceable although my other half keeps telling me that people don't want to see photos on my phone of something that 'looks like a giant metal box from the 80's!!! How rude!

 

[smo]

Who did you go with in the end?

 

[Billabongchick]

For paper a company called Executive Paper Products in Herts. The guy is a bit grumpy but paper is good, price seems good for the quantities I require ie one or two reams at a time and service good. For the guillotine I ended up with an old Ideal

 

[smo]

Ideal make great kit, we're on our 5th in 20 years now