Let's talk about setups and microing.

[cvreeland]

Does anyone here run the newman pin system? i'm interested to see how accurate it is. I understand i'll have to bump things here and there, but as a whole, how quick is it to use to register?

I used to have the Newman system. I didn't feel that the swing-arm thing was as accurate as the tri-loc press attachment. That & the after-market doo-dads you need for the rollers are expensive and take time to install. We also frequently bent the little pins and had to replace them a few times -- also not cheap. The Tri-loc doesn't need any frame modifications. I much prefer the Tri-Loc.

I might get in hot water with Newman for trashing their system, but that's how I feel. It didn't get us much closer than just lining 'em up by eyesight. I love roller frames. They changed the industry. But some of their add-on stuff is over-priced & doesn't work as well as you might hope.

[ZooCity]

I got us a used Pin Lock a couple years ago.  Love it.  It's very accurate (see my comment in italics earlier in the thread, your press must be in calibration to use this).  A very tiny, linear, left to right bump is typically all that is needed, if anything. 

We use Pin Lock over a tri-lock b/c there is nothing on our glass.  If we had a tri-lock on our big vac frame we would have to pull it off or have another big vac frame for the large flatstock screens so that was a deal breaker.

I'm a big fan of the swing out platen arms- no need to pull the platen on/off, just swing em out and swing them in when you are done. 

Would I buy a new Pin Lock?  Hell no.  As posted above, it's stupid expensive.  I would go with tri-lock or a homebrewed setup if buying new and did not have the "no crap on the glass" requirement. 

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M&R's old manuals for autos (pre tri lock I would presume) had a simple system laid out for using platen marks to reg.  If you can't afford a pre-reg system platen marks and a basic film alignment table will get you really close and let you reap 75% of the benefits for no up front cost.

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Last off, we print actual testers, flash and reg for the exact reason that your reg needs to work in the actual production run, which may involve flashing and does not involve pellons, tape or the like.  WB/DC runs are no flash here and I actually found that flashing a key color to align the others is deceptive and will differ from WOW registration a dozen shirts in, as a case in point so I may simply load an print, adjusting micros by eye and gut feeling in those cases.

You can line up screens dead nuts to each other but it don't mean a thing if one screen is printing WFX Performance UB grey and the next 5 are printing fashion soft (no one should ever do this, but just to illustrate the point).  The screen printing caulk thick ink direct to the shirt is going to have far different pressure dynamics than the ones printing soupy inks onto flashed ub.  Toss in shrinkage from flash and there's why most will line up their screens perfectly but still see the ub off.