using AB dick laser cut plates

We currently use a canon 3220 for making our plates if they are mostly text and not a bunch of halftones. We also have a hp 5100 ps but it is getting old. (I personally hate it) don't want to pay for the actual drum that it needs. I know that xante has a wonderful machine but we just got a xerox 7435 workcentre for color work and walk in booklet making. The detail ,looks great. Anyone have any luck getting the masters to hold up and if so, what settings are you using. Have not played with much, just (2) masters so far and only got between 3,000 to 5,000 impressions. We do still have a dark room, and can burn old style negs. even metal plates. That we use for repeat customers and detail screen work.

thanks

Anyone have a recommended laser printer for sale or just like = = = up to 12 x 18 would be great.

Michael Busby

 

Three months ago or so I was informed that my plate system was being discontinued!...I was shocked, but somehow knew it was coming!...I was using a Silvermaster SLM BFIII....shoot through the back poly plate you could expose on a vertical camera system...it was old!!!...but it worked good enough for what I was doing....soooo....about 10 years ago I had tried the "Laser Poly Plates" and purchase and HP 5000....I tried for 2 months to get it to work right, but the image would come right off!...I hated it and was mad that it never worked like they claimed!...and of course....It's always the pressman (ME) who doesn't know what he is doing...that’s according to their tech department!....I was very reluctant to even think of buying these plates again or even trying to use the HP 5000…I was looking into the Xante and decided to try their plates from Smart Plate…the plate worked great and I was really impressed!…I just didn’t want to go through buying another laser system and end up with the same results again!…so I kept looking…and was talked back into trying my HP 5000…I too hate my laser printer ( because it didn’t work for plates the first time), but at least own the darn thing and $5000 bucks for an Xante wasn’t real exciting to me!…The lady at “Hurst Chem” gave me 100 plates and the fountain mix and told me to give it a try ( I’m my current Fountain mix not theirs…I do use the Toner Scatter Remover!)…I was still scuffing my feet and sure it wasn’t going to work….I went through and set it up like they told me….you have to have it on the Postscript driver and on card stock…it takes longer to spool in the printer and it goes very slowly through the printer!….your density has to be set to 1…you would think heavier, but the lighter coating of toner allows it to bake better on the plate I guess?…needless to say….It works great for me so far!…I did have a little trouble getting the default set-up on the print driver, but finally have that figured out….I’m almost positive the HP 5100 will produce the same results!…It’s only been 2 months since I have been using this system, but I’m pretty happy with it thus far….also…I got samples from Baseline, Smart Plate and my current one “Hurst Chemicals” and they are all the same plate made in Indonesia!…I don’t care what they say….they all work the same, so shop around!…I guess “smart plate “ won’t tell you how to set up your printer correctly until you buy into their product?….if you need more info, I would be more than glad to send you what was sent to…the plates you will have to get from one of the companies…Oh…the Xante plates look very different (Whiter in color” than the HP plates…you can see that right off the bat!…hope that helps!

 

We don't have a problem with imaging with the 5100 or the canon 3220 for that matter. sometimes we run them through twice on the canon but It usually works fine even on plain. We run the 5100 through with rough settings. We are just always looking for an all in (1) method & we had that with our canon but service contract is up. and the hp 5100 is going to need a new fuser roller and drum. just looking to see if anyone has ran the plates on anything besides the standard xante or the hp . . . Just wondering/

 

Oh...I see...Well I only have the Hp 5000....I haven't seen any other all-in-one systems out there other than the Xante....The lady I talked with before buying the HP plates said they had the paltes for the Xante...and they are very different looking...she said they weren't sold on the plate system for it....that is what she said about their plates....I honestly think if I was going to settle for the Xante Plate system...I'd go for the "Smart Plate System"...it's the Xante Laser printer with their name stuck all over it....It's actually an Okidata laser printer you can't buy new any more!....but at least "Smart Plate" would have to make sure everything works like they say...and you get Tech support too!!!....2 things that bugged me about it was 1. The $5 to $6 grand base cost and the toner for all 4 colors added up to $800!!!...that's my 2 cents!

 

Universal Fountain solution from BestChem&Supply works great with all dampners.

 

Anybody using an aftermarket toner cartridge for the hp5000...I cannot find any fresh cartridges anymore as they have been discontinued. Just wondering if anybody else had been using any aftermarket cartridges?