Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 18
June 30, 1966
NUMBER 9, PAGE 9b-10

Right Or Wrong Equipment

R. L. (Bob) Craig

The most common means of producing a bulletin is still the old stand-by, the stencil duplicator. Next, and gaining more and more in popularity is the offset process. Third, and little used any more, is the spirit duplicator (hectograph or Ditto) process. Each has its good points and bad points.

The Stencil Duplicator

Some have wondered why I use the above designation rather than the more familiar term, mimeograph. Actually, the word mimeograph belongs, or perhaps I should say, belonged to the A. B. Dick Co. It was a manufactured and copyrighted trade name they gave to their stencil duplicator. The name caught on and has become a part of our common language and is so regarded in unabridged dictionaries, Very much like all gelatin desserts are called Jell-O; all electric refrigerators are called Frigidaires; all copying work is called Photostat. These are all copyrighted trade names that caught on and became common parlance for all such in their category.

You can purchase a mimeo for as little as $25.00. You can pay as much as $500.00. Both produce a printed copy in exactly the same way. One will do it more easily but both will produce about the same quality work if we really put forth the effort required. Of course it takes so much time and patience that most give up and go ahead with a sloppy product and blame it on the machine. The moral: don't waste money on a $25.00 mimeo machine because eventually you will digress into a two-bit bulletin with it. You will not put forth the effort to make it or keep it first-class. And if it's going to be a two-bit sheet, you can't expect people to have more concern for it than that. So, wait awhile. Save your money---original cost, paper, stencils, postage, etc., ---for a few months and invest in a little better machine.

Two Different Stencil Processes

We have the ink reservoir, cotton pad, one cylinder duplicator such as the A. B. Dick, Speed-O-Print, Heyer, etc. Then there are the silk screen, paste ink, two cylinder jobs, such as the Gestetner, Rex Rotary, and Geha (ugh!). Each one is the best---according to someone. This is a matter of preference. I know of some outstanding bulletins being produced on all these. I am more sold on the silk screen machines, myself. Generally they cost a little more, but do a little more. You can print to the edge of your paper; you have better control of ink; your copy, usually, is a little sharper; ink dries more quickly; and mechanically prepared stencils work much better. Before you buy any machine, talk with some users — unbiased users if you can find them — rather than swallowing all the sales talk.

Among some of the neatest mimeographed bulletins I receive are: Gospel Guide, edited by Bob Franks, Lafayette, La; The West Side Weekly, edited by Bill Crews, Fort Worth, Texas; Winnetka Ave. Bulletin, edited by Roy Cogdill, Canoga Park, Calif.; and Truth Digest, edited by Carl Vernon, Vernon, Texas

The Spirit Duplicator

As far as I am concerned, the only thing this machine is good for, is to save a little money. Its first cost is smaller and the operating cost is smaller, but the product is pretty sorry. One other good point; you can get ready to go in a hurry. But don't use one for bulletin work. Larger churches, or churches with more money, could use one in the production of a limited number (25 to 100) of lesson sheets, where many different-sheets are going to be used. It is good for teachers to use in reproducing a few outline pictures for a class to color. We (in Crane) have a small projector ($7.50 to $10.00, I think) that can be set over a small picture and projected to an 8 1/2 x 11 size. The teacher can then trace this projected image on a spirit master and run off a few very quickly and inexpensively, if she desires. (Few so desire, and our projector and spirit duplicator generally sets idle.) Spirit master paper costs about 5 cents each in comparison to a stencil cost of about 15 . Don't waste your money on one of these machines unless you have a lot of short run stuff such as the lesson sheets, test sheets, pictures, etc.

The Offset Duplicator

Here we get into the first step of the lithography industry. You may be able to buy a second-hand model 80 Multilith for as little as $150.00. From that you could go all the way to $2750.00 for the same size reproduction but with many more features. As far as I am concerned, the cheap Multilith is a complete waste of money. It is extremely difficult to maintain the proper ink and water balance on these cheaper models, and the feeder is also a constant source of trouble. If you get carried away with the idea of offset and are going to buy one regardless, be sure you have someone show you that it will work and how to work it before you spend a dime on it. The desk models of the A. B. Dick Co. are more simple to operate but cost more.

The Word "Offset"

I use the word "offset" when speaking of that smear on the back side of a printed copy caused by too much ink, whether mimeograph or Multilith. Actually that is the same idea of offset printing. The image to be reproduced is put on a plate (metal or paper); this plate receives a water mixture and ink; the ink adheres to the image; the water adheres to the blank spaces; the ink sticks where there is no water. The inked image is transferred to a rubber blanket and the rubber blanket "offsets" that image onto the paper. Simple, isn't it? Until the water and ink mixture gets out of balance. Too much water will cause a washed-out print and also cause the paper to curl and roll as it comes out of the machine. Too much ink will overcome the water and cause filled-in letters and finally a gray streak or tone will appear. Unless controlled by more water that tone will finally become completely black.

A church needs to consider carefully the many angles involved before they invest in an offset duplicator. No matter what they are told concerning first cost, that is only the beginning. If you are not going to use it a whole lot, then you don't need it. Get a mimeo. If you are going to use it a lot, you will need a folder, a cutter, a long-throated stapler or stitcher, a light table, a camera, etc. and etc. And, the next preacher you get, probably will not have any of the mechanical aptitude it takes to operate it nor will he have the disposition — so there your investment sets!

Excellent work CAN be done with offset. I get several bulletins run on offset owned by churches. Some are good. Some are not nearly as good as the mimeographed sheets I mentioned. I think the greatest, problem in producing good offset work is a lack of experience. This is a complicated printing process and it takes time to learn — in particular when something goes wrong. Another thing that has hurt the quality of offset bulletins is the slip-shod copy preparation. Clippings and reprints are thrown together with typewriter prepared copy and the result is disconcerting, to say the least. Some of the reprints have been reduced to fit a certain area and have become almost unreadable. Some are trying to get too much use out of a bad blanket and have light spots where the blanket is worn. Others, trying to compensate for those low spots, put too much pressure on the blanket, thus getting a double impression. I'll not try to go into all the problems connected with offset because this would become endless.

One offset bulletin I am receiving that has gotten better in workmanship all the time is The Gospel Visitor, edited by Dudley Ross Spears, Okla. City, Okla. I get other nice offset bulletins, but I am not sure that these are produced with the church's equipment. Some are pretty bad, but they are striving for improvement, I am sure. The best one I get is The Reflector, edited by Paul Price, Groves, Texas, but this one is done in a commercial shop operated by one of the brethren in Groves.

Who Should Use Offset?

A big church with lots of money and lots of work can justify the expense of an offset printing department. If a big volume of tracts, lesson material, charts, etc., is not going to be printed, a church of any size would be wasting the Lord's money to invest in offset just for a bulletin. Of course, a large mailing list (five to ten thousand) would eventually save enough on postage to pay off their investment. Using 2nd class mail (which MUST be a printed produce and offset qualifies) on a nation-wide basis, will save approximately 3 cents per copy plus some on a permit.

Should a church (through the whims of the preacher, usually) decide to go offset, it would be well to know that someone in the congregation will learn its operation, because the next preacher may not be a printer and he may not want to become one. Why not keep him busy preaching — teaching classes — helping small groups — etc. Of course, if he is not going to do anything but preach a couple of times a week and fiddle around the rest of the time, get an offset machine. That will certainly take up his spare time.

-Box 1294 Crane, Texas 79731