Rejafix
Hello all,
I am currently looking at purchasing a Rejafix press however, I have been advised that this may not be the best route for a beginner. Does anyone have experiences with any of the Rejafix presses? Can someone elaborate as to pros and cons of a press like this for a letterpress beginner?
I always thought the Rejafix was an offset press where the typeset image or plate was inked, pushed against a rubber blanket and then the image transfered to the final substrate.
If the press you are purchasing is this type of press, you will not be able to make a deep impression on the stock, and if you use traditional type, the printed image will be laterally reversed (wrong-reading).
Special fonts were cast for the Rejafix which were right-reading so the image would come out properly when offset to the substrate.
Unless you can deal with these “problems”, or solely print from magnesium or photopolymer plates which could be made right-reading, you should probably await the purchase of a “regular” relief press.
John Henry
Hi John,
Thank you for your post. The press does come with reverse type (thankfully). I did not know that the machine was offset, its very difficult to find any information on these machines. Are all the Rejafix presses offset?
There are a couple of different types of Rejafix presses one uses reverse type. These little presses are “cute” but difficult to use. Probably not the press for a beginner.
Can you elaborate on why its difficult to use? You are the second person to say this.
Hallo,
I have also one of Rejafix press. Model L6. Do you have any information in which country was Rejafix press produced? What model do you have?
Hi,
The Rejafix is not too difficult to use but it is NOT a letterpress printer. It is offset and is useful if you want to print onto items such as inflated balloons or milk bottles.
Definately not for a letterpress beginner.
Don’t know why, but this evening I did a Google search for “Rejafix” and found this site.
In 1972, I was hired by Popper & Sons, Inc as the Assistant Manager of their Marking Machinery Division (Department).
Popper, a manufacturer and distributor of medical products, headquartered in New Hyde Park, NY, had this smaller department which was the Sole U.S. distributor of the Rejafix line of marking and imprinting machines, supplies and ink.
Rejafix was located in Brentford, Middlesex, England on, I believe, Harlequin Avenue.
The U.S. Rejafix line, during my tenure, consisted:
1) The M1-AD and its motorized version, the Devon 10
These were offset printers that came equipped with parts to allow them to also do letterpress imprinting.
2) The Derby 560 which imprinted letterpress on cylindrical parts, fed from an automated hopper.
3) The K400, K600 and LP300 automatic feed letterpress imprinters which printed on folding cartons, card stock or labels. Often used for adding variable information to preprinted packaging. These machines, utilizing rubber printing plates, were among the first to allow in house printing of the (then) new UPC barcodes.
There were other models in the Rejafix line that were not part of the line presented by Popper. Of course there were other models that preceded my involvement. Some of those that I am aware of were: M2-AD (larger print area than the M1-AD), the 555 (rotary printer that was, I think, a silk screen unit),
In April of 1977, I left Popper to go into another industry. A short time later, Popper decided to devote its resources solely to the medical divisions. The Rejafix line, along with all U.S. inventory were transferred (sold, bartered, given?) to Eastern Marking Equipment also located on Long Island.
In 1982, I returned to Popper to, eventually, head the sales and marketing department of their medical products. On occassion, I ran across some of the Rejafix machines out in the field and handled the occassional phone call from old customers not aware of the changes in distribution.
I left Popper, this time for good, in 1995. Eventually, I became a NYC Mathematics Teacher and retired in 2010.
Additional things I know:
Popper and Sons was acquired in the last severa years and is now part of Cadence Scientific located in Virginia. There is no one at Cadence that has any history or knowledge of the Rejafix line.
Eastern Marking is still in business, Hempstead NY, but I do not know if they have any of the old inventory left.
I do not believe that Rejafix Ltd. still exists as a manufacturer of this type of equipment.
If any of the spare parts for these machines exist - - be careful of parts that deteriorate (rubber rollers, pads, etc.) as this stock may well be years (if not decades) old.
Inks that work with these machines may be available from many sources. We used to buy most of our inks from Rejafix but did source a couple of lines domestically.
One from General Printing Ink (Sun Chemical) that we called Glasstick and another, called ES-300, sourced from a company that I can no longer recall or find.
All in all, these were great little machines for their intended purposes. Alas, in general, there time has come and gone.