[Steve Chapman]

Hi all,

have been thinking of late of buying a risograph machine to print my own leaflets, they're pretty cheap now on ebay and surely it must save a lot of money, does anyone else use one?

they print about 120 copies a minute, i use to use a laser printer, but a bit too slow, but this should speed the whole process up and you can change your designs as often as you like

What do ya think?

regards
steve

[AquaMagic]

are theese mono only?

Dene

[Steve Chapman]

From what i can gather the ones i'm looking at use one colour at a time, but you can change it if you want to add colour,  but the basic colours are either black, blue or red.

but i'm thinking you can still get a good looking leaflet in mono colour or on coloured paper so it might be viable & cost effective if doing large quantities.

The problem i've had personally in the past is having thousands of leaflets left over with an out of date offer or service on them, which is just a waste, least this way you could print them as & when you needed them and change the offers regularly.

Just a thought

regards
steve

regards
steve

[AquaMagic]

We use that back of our a5 flyer to print any offers, i know what you mean about the date tho we just chucked about 400 in the bin that were designed for easter week.

Dene

[Mike Osbourne]

You haven't got a loft then

[will01]

Why change the design of a leaflet? keep your design familiar to the customer and never have special offers. In my experience special offers never increased by job per k to cover the extra work.

will

[Art]

We use that back of our a5 flyer to print any offers, i know what you mean about the date tho we just chucked about 400 in the bin that were designed for easter week.

Dene

Surely you could've kept them for next year ?

[ianharper]

carpetdoctor

best move i have done all year getting a riso.

you'll save loads. cheap to buy, cheap to run.

I have two very expensive photocopies on lease and have just bought out of one that cost me 2.5k to get out off. the upside was that i got a riso machine from ebay for just £125, yes thats right. and it had been used by a church so the copy count was very low for the age.

two things to look out for one, the copy count, lots off riso's are used by printers so this can be high, so do what i did and ask what its been used for. second some of the old machine dont print a true a3. you can print a3 from these machines but you have a large border around the edge.

the value of these machine can dont be overstated. my copier has cost be £200 a mth for the last three years and then the 2.5k to get out. a new riso is only 4.5k and with the new ones you can scan in from your computer so the quility is very good.

btw regarding quility my riso prints text as good as my copier. photos are a bit of a problem but my stuff is texted based so thats no problem.

A riso will pay for its self in no time. to have 100,000 a3 leaflets printed cost aound 1.5k and you would have to have runs that large to make it worth your time as costs can ge high for low runs at the printers. so if you has a budget for 1.5k then you would get a very upto date machine and after your first run off 100k its paid for.

good luck, and make sure you are at your computer at the end of the bidding as you dont want to lose a good deal at the last second.

respect

ian harper

[Steve Chapman]

cheers ian,

I think i will go for one, as you cant really lose at that price, the only thing that bothers me is the size of the thing, they look pretty big so will take up a bit of space, but i guess that s the trade off with having a machine to handle all your printing.


regards
steve

[ianharper]

good luck

[calmore]

www.auctionsniper.com is useful if bidding on ebay..

It's also worth looking at cheap laser printers. You can get a new Samsung ML2010 laser for under £45 from www.ebuyer.co.uk that will print 2,500+ sheets on the cartridge supplied.

A bottle of refill powder costs £8.50 from here  http://www.consumablecafe.co.uk/ that'll allow you do do a further 2,500+ sheets per refill.

Yes, it's slow but you just leave it printing while you go off and do something else.

[Mike Osbourne]

Nice one Calmore, does look a good idea. Now tell me where I can get a4 yellow tint paper reams for under 3 quid.

[Steve Chapman]

yeah a good idea, its the idea of printing 120 copies a minute that interests me, iv'e used lazer printers before amd its quite a chore leaving them churning out hundreds of copies, whereas the riso you get 1200 in ten minutes

plus they do A3 size as well fot the big flyers  or posters

regards
steve

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If I did my own printing I'd want to have colour photos on a A3, and make it like a newspaper.I guess this can't be done with a Riso?

Shaun

[Steve Chapman]

The short answer is no! unless you buy a newer one and want to spend a few grand

The ones on ebay are around £125 - £150

The thing i've found with leaflets is that whether they are full colour or not doesn't seem to make much of a difference, more just the content and whether they are well written and if you put enough out.

Thats why the riso i think would be an economical answer.

i normally pay around £125 for 10,000 a5 leaflets, and they don't last very long, but printing your own you can just keep on churning them out

The bonus is you have them instantly and you can vary them as often as you like.

It just gives you more control, I think.


regards
steve

[Mike Osbourne]

If anyones interested, just bought one of those lasers off ebuyer and if you pay through google checkout you save another £10!