I don't know about others, but I have found it almost impossible to find offset printing equipment manuals online. Rarely, does a manual come standard with a piece of used offset printing equipment. Printing equipment is of course highly specialized, but it seems that you can acquire almost any used appliance somewhere online. Here's just a couple:
http://www.manualsonline.com/
http://www.appliance411.com/
None of these have any offset press manuals.
Unfortunately it is usually up to the pressman through trial and error to "discover" how equipment works. We have gone through great pains to acquire some press manuals in the past year - some were free and some cost dearly. However now that we have them all, I want to share with you the methods we went through to get them.
1. Contact the original equipment manufacturer. Of all the options, this should be the easiest, albeit most expensive. Anything is available for a price, right? If you're like me though, some of the manufacturers you are looking for no longer exist. That leads to the next idea.
2. Find printers who have the same press and inquire of them. Use the internet and find who else has the same press as you have. Maybe you can offer an exchange. Competition aside, most printers are willing to help one another out in a pinch. Explain your plight, have something to offer in return and you never know.
3. Talk to press vendors. Those that buy and sell equipment likely see a press manual on occasion. Phone and ask him to sell you one. What's the worst he can say?
3. Write your own. Last resort of course, but the collective knowledge of the pressmen available is a good start. Make a record of everything you learn about the product and you have something that will grown in value over time.
I have searched amazon.com and bookfinder.com for press manuals, but have come up empty, so I did not include that option above. It seems that printing press manuals do not exist online. If anyone knows a site or simply has manuals they would like to share, please leave a message below. I would particularly be interested in trading manuals for the following equipment:
- Manroland
- Goss
- KBA
- Heidelberg
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