I may need to clarify my point. I do think M&R builds a great press. I just think my was installed poorly and because I had never touched an auto before that I did not know how many extra steps I have to take to get things done. I am very seriously looking at moving soon. When I do I will hire a tech to move the press and go over everything. I have spoken to other diamondback owners and the seem happy. At one point I was talking to someone over at anatol and even he said that the problems I am having are not typical from M&R. I thought it was interesting that the competition was really sticking up for M&R. It does not make me feel any better though.
Unfortunately, the setup can make or break your experience with the machine. A bad install will make it seem like your press is a POS. I know how hard it can be to print on a machine that is not paralleled worth a damn, it can be very frustrating. The good news is if you are even the least bit mechanically inclined, you can dial in the press by yourself. Paralleling that 6/8 of yours and getting it within a tolerance of the thickness of a sheet of copy paper would only take a few hours. There are videos
The problem with your squeegee holders is weird, you'd have to elaborate on that one. The chopper cylinders should last years and I've not heard of them going out that soon on an M&R machine, but I'd be willing to bet that Mr. Hoffman would make that right for you in a heartbeat. The lifespan of the chopper cylinders has a lot to do with the quality of the air going through them. I've heard from at least 2 machine gurus that would prefer to not use an air oiler to treat the air going through the machine but once you've done it you have to keep on doing it (I think, I could be wrong on that one). Not enough oil is damaging for obvious reasons, and I've heard that too much oil is bad as well. Your dryer/chiller needs to be working properly to insure the air is good before it gets to your machine, then most presses have another filter right before the oiler to further treat the air before it can contaminate your press's air lines and pneumatic parts. With your chopper cylinder problems, I'd first look at the air going into your machine. Once you've determined that it's ok, then you can move on to other things that could cause premature failure. The cylinders M&R uses are top notch and should not be an issue but sometimes manufacturers have a problem.
You can test your press's parallelism easily and we can walk you through all of that if you want to check it and don't know how.
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