Screen printing presses
A curse and a blessing for screen printing is that many things can be done wrong or in a far less than optimum way and print the job and possibly have a satisfied customer. Add the low price of entering screen printing and you can see how sometimes the mythology of screen printing can interfere with the progression of so many printers.
Sadly we are also saddled with a plethora of parasites, narcissists, crooks, and numskulls (and a combination of all of the above) that make life difficult for the new person.
One issue that is prevalent is the lack of quality tools. A high end press will cost much more than you may have expected. You as a buyer need to be realistic, yes, good stuff DOES cost that much, but from the eyes of an experienced printer the prices are lower than we would expect, if you want to complain about the cost of good screen printing press, just try looking at embroidery machines...
There are lots of entry level presses and for the most part they do the job (some better than others) but the cost reflects a lack of features.
Those features may not seem like much now but as you start working to make money (you know profit) you will find that the frustration and time taken to work without features would have paid for a high end press quickly.
I have heard and seen the lament, why is there no "reasonable price" good equipment... because they like you any manufacturer will need to make enough profit to stay in business - good stuff takes expensive parts and trained labor... If you cannot understand that possibly you need to rethink getting into business.
Almost all of the high end press manufacturers LOVE entry level and old used equipment because newbies get started in the business with it and the high failure of the industry filters out the folks who are not going to make it do to lack or interest or ability. What is left will start looking for the features and will pass up the mid level equipment and almost to the person go immediately to the high end equipment!
Some things you can "skimp on" to start with, and many things you can make yourself, but there is a reason that professionals use quality tools - in any industry.
Can an experienced user make the entry level stuff work, yes in many cases they can even do a better job than a hack with mid to high end equipment, but they will be hampered by using that equipment like a cement anchor.
