Help! Anyone know where to buy Toko R2 Press Parts?

[billy123]

hello all,
my family runs a print shop here in Ohio and we have a few presses.
2 of them are Tokos R2s. (one is an SL model)
These presses were made so long ago, that with the exception of blankets and rollers, we can't find a place to buy parts from.
We had one of the sensors go bad near the registration table and I'm looking for a place to purchase another one. I have a part number from my book but can't find any place online. IF anyone has a source, I'd be very appreciative!
Thanks everyone! -billy / CSQP Printing / csqpprinting@gmail.com

 

[discountprintingservice]

I have a Toko R2SL that I bought about 4 or 5 years ago...I really like it, prints and registers very well and runs impressive solids and heavy coverage. I upgraded to a nicer press though so we mainly have it as a backup now. As for parts, I had a jam sensor on it go bad also. On the PC board there are 4 dip switches in the upper right corner that you can turn the jam sensors off. Press runs fine without them. You can get parts from Pro Graphics Network, don't have their number handy but you can find it on Google. Jim is the parts guy there and is very helpful. I believe they were the master importer in the US for Toko parts until Toko went out of business. Just learned of that the other day. I could have bought the sensor but didn't want to pay the price for it just for it to sit as a backup press, if we ran it every day I would have bought it...

It is troubling to me though that parts for many small offset machines are becoming harder to find and even more so that I only know of 2 new options for small format presses which is the AB Dick/Itek/Presstek/Ryobi 3302 or the Baumprint 18 (formerly heidelberg quickmaster)...I believe there is still a need for small format offset for things digital "presses" just can't do or or not cost effective to do. We run 75 to 80 percent of our work on offset and business is growing, only a small percentage of our work goes on our digital machine. First it has to be small enough in quantity (<1000 typically), quality of the piece has to be acceptable off the machine, has to be a stock that it will run okay without issues, speed is a factor as our offsets will run circle around our digital machine and last click charges must be less than or equal to the cost of labor + plate cost + ink cost of the offset...now I do believe digital has its place but I think to many printers all over the US have been to quick to dump their offsets...I pickup new clients regularly who want offset quality because their former printer went digital and either the cost went way up for the same job or the quality wasn't up to par...just my too cents....

 

[billy123]

Thank you!!!

wow! thanks for the very informative reply! i am very grateful to have the Pro Graphics Network contact and your info on the dip switches. I will be in touch with them later this year. And I agree, we use digital and offset presses, but the offset presses are still superior in many ways. Especially for exact color matching. I can't thank you enough for your help! Glad to see that us printers can stick together and help each other out. Merry Christmas!...billy & family