Looking to downsize our manual..Any Kruzer updates?

[XG Print]

We are prepping for an auto sometime this spring and need to downsize our current 6/6 manual press to save a little space.  I know people say you will not need the manual once you automate but we do a lot of uniforms here and some can be tricky placement issues.  I am really interested in the M&R Kruzer.  Looks like a nice press for not a lot of money.  Anyone spent some time on one of these that can give me the good and bad on it.  I like it because I can use the same pallets whether we go M&R or Workhorse which is where we are leaning auto wise at this point.  Any info or better yet anyone have one they want to sell?  Thanks

[mimosatexas]

Kruzer is my main press. I think I have #22 off the line or something, so ha e used it daily since release. I love it. FANTASTIC value, and would be a old deal even at a higher price.  Put it to on casters and look around the boards for a few cool mods people have done to make it hold larger screens.

Only thing I wish washe changed about the design was the ability to add air locks and vacuum lines through the center shaft like the high tier m&r manuals.

[Prōdigium]

  I know people say you will not need the manual once you automate but we do a lot of uniforms here and some can be tricky placement issues.

Not gonna make any statements about any brand of manual press, but I will take exception to anyone thinking that simply because you have an automatic that it renders a manual press useless...NOTHING could be further from the truth. In fact you may find yourself using it MORE, and in ways you may have never considered such as testing a print before it goes to the automatic press. Producing samples on your auto will be a huge waste of money if you have jobs that need to be printed and as you mentioned uniforms, number or name drops...etc all require a manual press.

One note, whatever press you decide on do yourself a huge favor and make sure that your automatic and manual press can share the same pallets...in the end it will be totally worth it.

[Shanarchy]

We very rarely use ours, but I would never get rid of it. I printed a couple orders of totes and an order of koozies on it last month. There will always be things for us that would not be worth us getting 5 pallets for (we can double index).

I would say if you know for a fact that you're going auto very soon to not pay a lot for your manual. Which would make the kruzer a great option. We got a new Antec Legend a year before we got the auto. It's a great press. But I would trade it for a Kruzer in a second right now if I could get the difference in price back. What do you have for a manual now and what would your reason for getting a different manual be? For us we had an 8/8 and it took up too much space.

Pallet compatibility is very nice, but not a deal breaker. We have a Roq auto and a Legend manual with M&R style pallets. Unless you know for a fact you are going the Roq route I'd also look at a Riley Roq, otherwise I'd get something with M&R style pallets.

[Northland]

We are prepping for an auto sometime this spring and need to downsize our current 6/6 manual press to save a little space.  I know people say you will not need the manual once you automate but we do a lot of uniforms here and some can be tricky placement issues.  I am really interested in the M&R Kruzer.  Looks like a nice press for not a lot of money.  Anyone spent some time on one of these that can give me the good and bad on it.  I like it because I can use the same pallets whether we go M&R or Workhorse which is where we are leaning auto wise at this point.  Any info or better yet anyone have one they want to sell?  Thanks

... in addition to using the same pallets, you can use the same tri-lock set-up for registration.

I've been using a Kruzer for about two years now, trouble free, and have become big fan of side-clamps on a manual press. Mine spins easier than any press I used previously (Caps,Brown,Riley,Blue-Max)
Also, I like the low angle of the screens in their resting position... ink stays put (doesn't run to the back of the screen).
Mine came with the standard 15"x16" rubber covered pallets.. it would be nice to have them 16"x22" (that should be an option you can ask M&R for).
 

[mimosatexas]

i bought mine with the 16x22 pallets.  Just had to ask when I bought the press...

It really is a great press and a great value.  I would buy mine again in a heartbeat.

[244]

We are prepping for an auto sometime this spring and need to downsize our current 6/6 manual press to save a little space.  I know people say you will not need the manual once you automate but we do a lot of uniforms here and some can be tricky placement issues.  I am really interested in the M&R Kruzer.  Looks like a nice press for not a lot of money.  Anyone spent some time on one of these that can give me the good and bad on it.  I like it because I can use the same pallets whether we go M&R or Workhorse which is where we are leaning auto wise at this point.  Any info or better yet anyone have one they want to sell?  Thanks

not sure if you are aware that you as the original owner of a Kruzer can trade in your press towards one of our automatics for the same amount you paid for it within one year. Just a FYI

[Croft]

  I know people say you will not need the manual once you automate but we do a lot of uniforms here and some can be tricky placement issues.

Not gonna make any statements about any brand of manual press, but I will take exception to anyone thinking that simply because you have an automatic that it renders a manual press useless...NOTHING could be further from the truth. In fact you may find yourself using it MORE, and in ways you may have never considered such as testing a print before it goes to the automatic press. Producing samples on your auto will be a huge waste of money if you have jobs that need to be printed and as you mentioned uniforms, number or name drops...etc all require a manual press.

One note, whatever press you decide on do yourself a huge favor and make sure that your automatic and manual press can share the same pallets...in the end it will be totally worth it.

X2 on this, we use our manuals everyday,

[Sbrem]

We have an 8 color Rototex that works all day, every day. We have lots of short run multi color on custom clothing for a couple of customers, and the printer that handles it is crazy fast. The autos are for longer runs, not that we won't do 48 pieces on them... but the manual is exceptionally handy for us.

Steve

[GaryG]

Our 8 color Rototex is 20 years old and still as sturdy as the day it was born.
Trucked through a few states to get here, and upon looking at the press inside truck when it arrived,
one of the print arms was bent from the pallet height it was on - yes - down to the floor of truck!
Had a machine shop bender back like new and has hummed ever since with her new paint job.

Will always need a manual.

The Kruzer looks pretty spiffy though.

[Sbrem]

We are in a 106 year old mill building; the floors are not perfectly level. If we load in one screen on the Rototex, the carousel will rotate by itself until it finds it's level, if I'm wording that correctly. Very well made unit, and also probably 20 years old, we bought it from whoever took over Advance at the time.

Steve

[3Deep]

Why do people think once they get an auto that the manual is no longer useable, yeah I can see if your business model takes full advantage of automatic printing, but even then a manual could still be used from time to time, there are jobs that can only be done on a manual.  Yes I know you don't have to take those jobs and still not us a manual

[Prosperi-Tees]

Will downsizing from a 6/6 to a 6/4 save you any room? Maybe a foot? Is that worth it? If you use auto sized screens on a manual you wont save much at all unless you plan to use 2 screen sizes. We dropped manual frames when we went auto. Now that we got rid of the auto I doubt I would change back to manual sized screens due to being able to get 2 designs or more on one screen.

[Hazzmatte]

I own a Kruzer . an adequate  machine at good price point. We also invested in the m&r tri loc system. Great system as well. With tri lock we print very small tick marks on the positives to line up the film on the light table. The tick marks are so small they don't wash out on the screen so no tick marks to tape off. After setting the screens you ready to go if it is loose register. BUT I do have a complaint on the micro registration. It's a pia to make micro moves on the kuzer because if you move left to right the up and down will move on you. I noticed on other machine there are spring that keep tension on the screen head to aliviate this issue. Work around I found when you want to make a micro move you should lean into the screen befor you unlock the adjusters. This will put consantant pressure on the screen so if you move left to right the up and down won't move. I'm going to ISS show and will bring this up to the guy demoing the machine. Anyone else feedback on this would be great.

[Nation03]

Manual is definitely still necessary for me. I take a good amount of orders under 36 pieces so those still make sense for me to put on the manual until I get more auto size screens and get faster at doing my setups. Plus it's nice to be able to set up 2 different jobs first thing in the morning. Setup the larger job for the auto, then the smaller one on the manual, print one of them then go right into the next one. I may want to downsize my manual also. I have an 8/4 Legend, and even though I love having the extra heads, that thing is pretty big.