# Riley Hopkins press and exposure unit



## T-Grrl (Feb 6, 2006)

I have been researching which press to buy since I went to the ISS show earlier this year. There are a lot of packages on ebay, but I have not seen any positive reviews unless it was used equipment on ebay. I've narrowed down to the basic BMI/Riley Hopkins four color-one station press to get started. I know I will have to upgrade, but for my budget and available space it seems a good fit. The local sceen printing shops seem to like the company. I don't think it has micro-registration. Has anyone used this press? Reviews, opinions? Is not having micro-registration a deal breaker? Also, I had someone tell me that without a vacuum exposure unit I will not be able to get true halftones. Has anyone else heard this?


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

T-Grrl said:


> I've narrowed down to the basic BMI/Riley Hopkins four color-one station press to get started.
> 
> 
> I don't think it has micro-registration.
> ...


The limits of a 4 head 1 platen press is that you will have to turn down 5 and 6 color work. That might not be too bad, BUT with a 1 platen press, you will not be able to spin the table under a flash unit and dark garments will be slowww to produce one at a time, instead of loading 4 shirts (and they will heat under the flash as you spin the table to load them), printing the under base color and spinning the platens under the flash as you print the next colors.

Without micro registration, you will learn to loosen the clamps so the frame will move easily, and position the image with just your hands.

When is comes to halftones, diffused light undercuts any positive, and it will definitely effect the size of a dot. You can combat this by tricking the pesky exposure lamp by making the dots bigger in art, and predicting what the final size will be.

If the positive is not in intimate contact with the stencil when you expose it to UV-A light, the light will undercut the positive and make your dots smaller.

Thousands of printers have used weight instead of vacuum to keep the positive in contact with the stencil, it is just more time consuming and more work. You have to learn to beat the eroding of your dots.

Before you buy, see how hard it is to upgrade or trade in your 4/1 press. You may have to buy another one, rather than upgrade.


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## dennyk671 (Sep 22, 2008)

Hello, I just read your post. First things first. The Riley Hopkins press are great presses. I have used a 6 color 6 station hopkins with micro registration 9 or 10 years ago and up to this day no other manual press compares to the quality. I have not tried a M&R Chameleon so I can't compare to that. I'm assuming you want to get the tabletop press. 

The press you want to get is a good start up press. Don't worry about micro registration. If I'm not mistaken the press you want to get has joystick registration. That's good enough. It's better than registrating by moving the screen with your hands then tightening the clamps whie your holding the screen in place. Just make sure to follow some guidelines when preparing artwork. Trapping and choking your artwork will eliminate any gaps in between colors. Since the press only has 1 pallet or board it may be time consuming if your flashing your ink in between colors. Definately no problem if your design can be printed wet on wet like 4 color process or simulated process. 4 color process on light colored shirts is no problem but you need to have some knowledge of color separation. If you have a white base for dark colored shirts then you need to flash and print 3 other colors on top.

For your exposing don't worry about that also. Yes vacuum exposure units are standard and better. Keep the design simple yet looking nice and clean. I suggest using 45 lpi with eliptical dot at 22.5 degree angle. This shouldn't be a problem exposing. Make sure theres enough padding on the bottom of the screen and enough pressure on top of the screen to push the film down. If your doing 4 color process you can use 45 lip but it may be too low depending on the design. If I remember correctly during my early days of screen printing You could get away with 55 lpi on those type of exposure units. You won't get all the dots but you can get away with that. Just make sure the design looks good on its own when printed on the shirt.

One more thing, the newman frames with the square bottom are perfect for hopkins presses. If you can't afford those then just get those cheap wooden frames with prestreched screen on it. These are good for one color jobs and can be reclaimed over and over again until the frame warps. Then again you can still use warped frames. Over time the screen will lose alot of tension, but like I said, they can still be used for one color jobs. You can still get away with multicolored jobs too no problem.

I recommend if you do decide to get this setup, offer and sell sell sell sell alot of one color jobs to your customers. Offer specials on cheap 5 .oz white shirts with one color printing for promotional products or something. Do whatever it takes to make as much money on your startup press in the fastest way possible. Load a white shirt, print it, no nead flash, unload and dry, that's it! Print large quantities with this kind of order! No halftones in the design, even better! 

After that invest in a Hopkins 6 color press. Also you need to Learn more about color separation since you might want to do multicolored jobs. White shirts, full 6 colors. Dark shirts 1 or 2 whites and 4 or 5 colors.

With your budget, I say go for it! The way your going is up.

Have a nice day!


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## Tyler gooner (Jul 26, 2010)

Hi guys this is my first post. i have decided to come back into the screen printing game having spent some time out of it. I purchased Fast film or now known as T-Sep some time ago from states a great colour separation software that works in photoshop on a press of a button. I am looking to purchase a Riley Hopkins
6 colour 4 station carousel. My Question is are they available to buy in the UK.
If so where and what kind of price would i be looking at.
Cheers Tyler


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## thedeadpress (Mar 12, 2009)

> Hi guys this is my first post. i have decided to come back into the screen printing game having spent some time out of it. I purchased Fast film or now known as T-Sep some time ago from states a great colour separation software that works in photoshop on a press of a button. I am looking to purchase a Riley Hopkins
> 6 colour 4 station carousel. My Question is are they available to buy in the UK.
> If so where and what kind of price would i be looking at.
> Cheers Tyler


Don't think Riley Hopkins have a dealer in UK, you'll be able to get your hands on a hopkins/bwm in the uk through www.nesms.co.uk or an M&R Sidewinder or Chameleon through M&R Screen Printing Equipment & Silk Screen Printing Machines :: Nuarc :: Amscomatic. I'd give ether a ring as dealers always have quality secondhand machines taken as exchanges and you'll get more bang for your buck starting out with a good quality secondhand press IMO.

Whatever you do don't get the RH with joystick registration as I think that's a joke?


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## Celtic (Feb 19, 2008)

Tyler gooner said:


> Hi guys this is my first post. i have decided to come back into the screen printing game having spent some time out of it. I purchased Fast film or now known as T-Sep some time ago from states a great colour separation software that works in photoshop on a press of a button. I am looking to purchase a Riley Hopkins
> 6 colour 4 station carousel. My Question is are they available to buy in the UK.
> If so where and what kind of price would i be looking at.
> Cheers Tyler


I believe that Ryonet (silkscreeningsupplies.com) ships to the UK. Ask for 'Don'. I believe he handles all of their over seas shipping/ordering.
He's a nice guy, too.
They not only sell Hopkins presses. They are close to where they are manufactured and deal directly with them.
Hopkins presses are GREAT !
I've got a 8/4 win Hopkins and love it!
Well built, holds registration well .


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## Gettingitdone (Apr 27, 2019)

I was looking to upgrade and found a busy shop that had a Riley for sale because they went all automatic. When I asked how long they owned the press they said they bought it new 4 years prior when I looked at all their other equipment the cleanliness difference of the press which was absolutely clean to their M&R's was night and day. For the price they wanted I said I would get back to them. I went to a restaurant for lunch and saw an operator there so I bought him lunch and he told me everything the owner wouldn't. He said from brand new the press was a lemon and the supplier was in many times to try and rectify. After many visits they came to an agreement and the owner kept the press. He told me look at a M&R unit and you will be happy. This got me thinking all this YouTube stuff is all fluff and I bought an M&R new and am pleased as punch.


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