# Gas shocks vs. Springs



## ric1717

I'm needing to buy a 1 color 1 station press for some pop up print shops. 
Has anyone had any luck with press stations that have gas shocks?
Or prefer springs? Just debating which is better.


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## APlusDesignsInc

All of our presses have springs. I am curious to see what people say about the presses with gas shocks. I have never even seen one before. I didn't know it was an option. 

With springs just make sure there is some sort of safety net or cover over them (any new model does). We had an old press that didn't. I had a close call with a heavy-duty spring that broke one day.


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## ric1717

I've used several presses by Vastex and Ryonet that use Gas hydraulic shocks instead of springs.

The only pro I see is that you don't have to worry about a spring breaking off and hitting you, like you said. Most of the new presses I've been looking at that are springs do not have a safety cover over the springs but it seems like the Gas shocks are hard to come by. 

Just trying to see what everyone's opinion is with them. 
Unfortunately the only gas shock press I can find is this one:
https://www.screenprinting.com/coll...-starter-hobby-press-with-square-platen-14x14

And this doesn't look like a quality press.


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## FatPrints

I've used a lot of spring equipment, and four smaller presses with shocks. From my experiences, if I were going to go buy a bunch of new one color setups I wouldn't consider shocks at all. I have found that they are kind of cheap, have a tendency to wear out quicker, and have a weird resistance that I don't get from springs. I've been printing for a little over 10 years now, and I have only replaced springs on one press one time. just wanted to give it some new life.


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## Twisted Grafix

We have presses that one uses springs and one uses shocks. We cross referenced the numbers on the shocks with a friend at an auto parts store. Turns out the ones we had are used for a trunk support, so we have a bunch of new ones on the shelf for when they wear out. We've replaced all of them twice, and a couple more used heads three times in 10 years on the 6 color press.

We bought the press with springs used. It came with a box of new springs, and it has been our primary press for a few years. We haven't replaced any of them yet, knock on wood.

Both work fine, but I'd rather use the springs because the shocks ALWAYS fail after a screen was lifted and the press was spun so it falls just out of reach and creates a mess all over the floor.


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## alrozac

All of our presses have springs. It's a good idea to have the protective socks on them because when they break they go flying. We never had shocks. Not sure if I would by shocks as I don't think they would respond fast enough for high volume printing. But that's just my thought. We go pretty hard on the springs and don't have any issues. Probably break a couple of springs a year and our manual presses can handle 500 shirt a day without breaking a sweat. All of our presses are M&R and are awesome.


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## alrozac

The other nice thing about springs is that if a spring breaks and you don't have a replacement, we have used bungees to finish a job until we can replace the broken spring. Not sure what you would do if a shock were to fail???


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## Twisted Grafix

alrozac said:


> The other nice thing about springs is that if a spring breaks and you don't have a replacement, we have used bungees to finish a job until we can replace the broken spring. Not sure what you would do if a shock were to fail???


Have extra on the shelf. Unfortunately, it's either that or stop until parts show up. The downtime could be a couple days to a week depending on stock and shipping location. That's a lot of downtime in any shop, especially since they won't fail during the slow times... The springs are a better way to go, but we have the other shock setup as our backup press.


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