Rapid Tag/Tagless Printing

[LuxInks]

Hi everyone.
We are looking to lesson the footprint in our shop to do tagless printing, and was wondering if anyone here has the Rapid Tag press or something similar? If so, are you happy with it, any issues we should know about? We are looking to make a purchase and wanted to check in with you all first. In addition, if anyone has anything they want to sell, we are interested in used equipment if it's been maintained well.
Thanks a ton, have a great weekend!
Paul

[ericheartsu]

we have one, and so do a couple of others on the boards. We really like it alot. Ours is just the LP-1, but it works great.

The only downside is, we've always had a hard time printing discharge inks as well as really thick inks, but if you can get your inks in the middle it works great!

We will probably upgrade in the next year or two as well.

[LuxInks]

Thanks for the input. Are you guys still sending the tee down the dryer, or are you curing on press? Good to hear that you're stocked on it. I've just got to get pricing on one. We are looking for the Lp-1 as well. We are just over having to tie up our press for tags, and that end of the business is growing.
Thanks

[ericheartsu]

Usually we try and tag first, that way it's double cured, but if we are in a rush we just cure on press.

[Frog]

ASPE has just joined the board, so let's hope for some manufacturer input as well.

[LuxInks]

Good to know Eric, thats what we do too;) Thanks Frog, will be good to hear from them as well.

[Underbase37]

We have an LP-2. Its cool. Gets the tags off the bigger presses. On ours one big thing I would change is, the flood doesn't have a dial, so getting the right flood can be a bit of a pain. We also print first, so they go down the dryer still.

Murphy37

[Evo]

We use an ASPE LP-2. I like it, it's easy to work with and work on.

There are a few bells and whistles missing on it that most larger auto presses have, but they are not things you miss once it's in use.

Only thing I do miss is some better way to level the pallets. Critical prints that depend on precise pressure like dark on ash and white can be tricky. We use misc shims, etc but it's an inelegant solution.

Other than that, the thing rocks.

[LuxInks]

Great thanks for all the info guys. I really appreciate it. I guess MHM makes one as well, so I'm going to have a look at theirs and do a comparison. I'll be sure to post what we end up with and any input that we can give for others.
Thanks again,
Paul

[kingscreen]

Inkcups Now also has one: http://www.inkcups.com/equipment/screen-printers/t-shirt-screen-printing-machine-r160/

[JBLUE]

We have one as well. Use it all the time. We run our labels fist as well but it is not for curing issues but more for misprints. When that thing is jamming 900-1000 per hour it tends to misprint a few when the loader is not fast enough.

[TCT]

We have the LP-1 and wouldn't buy another one. It has had errors since the beginning. For the price, it is hard to beat though. It does poorly printing white, there is can reason they never print white at a trade show.

There are a lot of other ones out there. As low as $7500 up to $30k. You get what you pay for. All American has a modified ASPE one that looks waaaaay beefer and robust.

If you are not going to drop $30k for a top of the line one, my personal opinion is Workhorse has the best one out there. Don't remember what it is called, the Chariot or something.

[DannyGruninger]

We have the LP-1 and wouldn't buy another one. It has had errors since the beginning. For the price, it is hard to beat though. It does poorly printing white, there is can reason they never print white at a trade show.

There are a lot of other ones out there. As low as $7500 up to $30k. You get what you pay for. All American has a modified ASPE one that looks waaaaay beefer and robust.

If you are not going to drop $30k for a top of the line one, my personal opinion is Workhorse has the best one out there. Don't remember what it is called, the Chariot or something.

The tag machine that workhorse sells they actually just buy and rebrand. Maybe that has changed but a company called the claw was building a very similar machine as workhorse is selling. They look like really nice machines and I wanted to see it at iss but they did not have one there. Here's a video showing the machine that looks almost dentical to the workhorse. Both look solid just wish I could see one in person.

Claw - Sneak Peek MultiColor Auto

I'm going to make a decision this week what machine to go with unless someone wants to let go of a tagger cheap lol

[TCT]

I looked at that a while ago, but I want to say it was almost twice the price.

Spreading Ink had a few of those he was trying to sell a while back.

[Gilligan]