And some freaking awesome goodnews. Can I swear? I’m swearing. I got my hands on a sweet ass crazy awesome, zine maker’s dream come true copy machine! Jason and his two friends went down to the ISU surplus sale last week and found, I kid you not, a Canon ImageRunner 5000 (refurbished costs about $3k) for… drum roll please… $100. Seriously! Jason’s friends peer pressured him into getting it for me, then they worked all day cleaning it out (4 years in a ISU building will really mess up a copy machine), and then last Wednesday they presented it to me.
It was still jamming quite a bit and it’s future usefulness was shaky, but after a week of tinkering it’s working reliably, the print quality is great and the only thing wrong is that the finisher (staple, hole punch attachment – which I don’t really need corner stapling or hole punching anyway) is not working and the alignment is still 1/8″ off. Not too bad.
We have a service guy coming out to check it out and after that it should be all set to print off the November issue! I’m so excited about this.
(you see that? “Ready to Copy” Hells Yeah!)
For the last two years I’ve just been going to the local copy center (in dekalb, now ames) to print Craft Leftovers Monthly and every month something is always wrong. No matter how much I make sure my document is set up right, things always happen. And the latest is that they changed all their copy machine margins so I can’t even print to 1/4″ on all sides.
Plus last month’s printing was so bad. The image quality just sucked, if you got it you know what I mean – the face of me as a kid was completely masked out, it looked creepy. I work so hard for each issue and most times I get people who care about the quality, but it’s still frustrating to be given “well, that’s just how it prints”. I mean, pretty much a “too bad, you can suck it, pay up”.
I am delighted that I will have more creative control over the process. If it doesn’t come out right, I can fix it. I’ve been working with copy machines making zines and fliers since I was in 7th grade. I have some know how and skills. A lot of times it’s just a matter of printing it on a slightly different setting (like text/photo vs text only) to make it look great! I’m happy to Welcome in a new era of 100% better print quality.
And a last bit of shameless promotion: Today is the last day to get the zine+kit bundles for November. It’s a great kit for a set of 4 cloth napkins + the zine “just $10.95 + s&h; a $12.95 value! what a deal!” –think cheesy announcer voice. Seriously though, when you order them together, you get a discount on shipping and the price of the zine and kit. Get your’s today in the Etsy shop or the Artfire shop!
(Regularly scheduled post is getting delayed until Thursday for this awesome copy machine announcement + finishing up the November zine for printing)
Happy Crafting! And Printing!
Kristin
Wow! I love a bargain as much as the next guy, but THAT is THE bargain of the century! Good for you!
MGM
I know! It couldn’t have happened if I didn’t have such a techie partner with techie mechanical friends :) They have put a lot of hours into getting it running. I think it was selling it so cheap because they thought they were selling it for parts. Worked out well for me!
bummer, I don’t get paid till thursday. well, december maybe.
DANG. That’s an epic score. What a good sweetie! What good friends! You’re a publishing machine now, my dear. :-)
The repair man is here and is already fixing things up and making them better. Hooray!
Totally cool! Your own copier!