Looking for Manual Stencil Printer for Production - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 09:42:52 pm
content: I run a small business designing and selling 3D printer electronics. Since the beginning of this year, I've been working on moving production in-house. I ordered a Tronstol A58 PnP back in February. It seems sufficient for now. I already had a reflow oven, a DIY Controleo 3, but it didn't do a great job with thick multi-layer boards so I got a Neoden IN6, and it seems pretty good.I got a new old stock Manncorp RT2100 manual framed stencil printer from eBay. It has a bent knob but otherwise was in great condition. Unfortunately, its hinge is awful, and the stencil moves too much when printing paste. Also, the PCB holder part doesn't always move when you turn the knobs, so it's a pain to use. My PCBs all primarily use 0402s, and the finest pitch component on the first PCB I want to move in-house is 0.4mm. I can't get good prints back to back with this stencil printer no matter what I try, I always have to print several times until I get a good print, very wasteful and labor intensive. I need a better stencil printer.I'm very space limited currently, and I only have standard sized doors, so large used automatic stencil printers from eBay aren't an option. Looking at the usual Chinese companies catalogs, they all seem to have the same semi-auto stencil printer, rebadged, with YX (3250/5070) having the best price. These are still too big though. I might be able to make a small one fit, but it'd be very difficult. So, I think sticking with manual stencil printers will make more sense for now. Haven't heard great things about YX anyway.Based on my experience with the Manncorp RT2100, I don't want to buy another stencil printer with a similar mechanism, like "3040" printers. I noticed Manncorp's MC110 has locating pins at the front. This style might work better, but that stencil printer is too big, too expensive, and after my experience with my last Manncorp printer, I don't want to try another Manncorp printer. I can't find a similar printer from any other manufacturer, in stock, anywhere though.DDM Novastar is another brand that keeps popping up, but I can't find any photos at post-2000s resolutions. IDK if they'd be any good. Ideally, I'd get something cheaper anyway, but I can't find anything decent looking for a few thousand dollars (or less).When I search the forums here with Google, I keep finding cheap $200-300 hobbyist printer recommendations, mostly frameless tiny printers and "3040" printers, and giant automatic used eBay stencil printer recommendations. I need something in between, something I can use for 1-2 years for production (repeatable good prints) until I'm able to move. Is there anything like this out there?

author: SparkyStan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 11:16:53 pm
content: We currently use a Essemtec SP002 printer with success for small production runs of 10-100 PCBs. It is similar to the Manncorp MC110 IIRC, however it has a vertical release mechanism so the board is released vertically before you lift the hinge to move boards in and out. This helps with a cleaner release. The guided squeegee is also nice for repeatable prints. The SP002 was around $5-6K USD used and a new one from Pbtworkshttps://www.pbt-printing.com/stencil-printers/manual/uniprint(I believe the Essemtecs were rebrands) is around $10K USD. I suspect this is more expensive than you're looking for and it is also on the large and heavy side.Back when I was looking for equipment, I came across Fritsch which might have some optionshttps://www.fritsch-smt.de/en/printing. They are represented by Amistar Automation in the North America if you're interested in getting pricinghttps://www.amistarautomation.com/.When I Google for vertical lift printers, this style comes up from a few vendors which may also be of interest, however I'm not sure how well the workhttps://www.elmisrl.it/en/product/em360-smt-stencil-printer-with-vertical-lift-pcb-max-255x355mm/.PM me if you'd like to know more about our manual printing process.

author: Rat_Patrol
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2025, 12:40:47 am
content: I'm going to be totally honest with you: It isn't financially worth assembling your own boards. The reasons to assemble your own boards and it makes sense (but perhaps not financial sense) IMHO are:1. Quick turn prototypes of 5 or less boards at a time, rapid iterations.2. Mixing NOS or take-off components or some other 'can't get them on the regular' components for some reason.3. Keeping things as proprietary as you can for as long as you can. Not super applicable in your market I would think.Especially with 3D printing stuff, and ESPECIALLY if you are after the hobbyist or prosumer market, cost is everything. You cannot do it cheaper than having it done for you.

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2025, 09:32:30 am
content: Quote from: SparkyStan on July 21, 2025, 11:16:53 pmI heard of the PBTworks one but couldn't find it in stock anywhere in the US, and couldn't find pricing information either. $10k sounds about right for that stencil printer, it looks great. I didn't know about the Essemtec rebadge though. I did a quick search and only a website called CAE seems to have a used one, no price, no photo, no useful description. Still, might be worth trying.It looks big and definitely would prefer something a bit smaller, but for something that looks like a quality stencil printer that'll print for years, I might stretch the the space requirement and the budget as much as I can.Fritsch also looks good. I can't find US pricing anywhere so I guess I'll have to talk to them. I might go with these if the price is right.Thanks

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2025, 09:58:34 am
content: Quote from: Rat_Patrol on July 22, 2025, 12:40:47 amI've done my homework, I wouldn't have spent tens of thousands of dollars before making sure it was going to be worth it.You're right that this is a highly competitive space with manufacturers targeting low prices, because that's what the majority of customers want, and they try to make up for it in volume. That's not how my business works though. Even if I wanted to do the same as these Chinese companies, as a US business, even with Chinese manufacturing my costs would be too high. My target is small niche spaces in the DIY 3D printing space. I make PCBs other companies don't make, new, innovative things that enable people to do things they couldn't do before, or enable new open source projects that couldn't exist in the same form without it. Then the Chinese copy my work, but I have 6 months or so when I'm the only seller selling a product on the market that the customer wants.This also means low volumes (50-1000 PCBs per batch) and a ton of prototyping. The assembly fees added up even before the tariffs, and now they're massive. What's worse is chip prices in China also increased dramatically, likely due to their tariffs in response to ours. So the effect of these new tariffs are exponential.Even before the tariffs, I was planning to do this though because of terrible QC, and high assembly costs. Now, it's a no-brainer. I have spreadsheets for costs, I "pay" myself over 10 times what I paid the Chinese, yet it's still cheaper thanks to lower tariffs on the chips. Yes, I'm accounting for labor, yields, etc as well. Most of what I "pay" myself is going towards the equipment and its financing.Another issue I had with outsourced manufacturing was their awful quality control. Crooked chips, missing solder on pads, and all sorts of issues like that. For some SKUs, out of a 50 piece order (under de minimis), I'd sometimes get as many as 5 bad boards (average was 2.7). This was also a massive cost, but it was still cheaper for me to work with this company and do my own QC than pay a different Chinese company, or any other contract manufacturer in any other country including the US. Nobody can beat JLC's pricing.Larger operations with bigger volumes might be a different story, but for my business it absolutely makes sense to move it in-house.

author: SparkyStan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 22, 2025, 01:04:39 pm
content: Quote from: xbst_ on July 22, 2025, 09:32:30 amI should have clarified the Essemtec variant is discontinued so you will have to look for it used at this point. If you want to pursue the pbtworks options, Marctech was their distributor for NA and should be able to get you a quotehttps://marctechnologies.com/

author: Rat_Patrol
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2025, 06:29:33 pm
content: Quote from: xbst_ on July 22, 2025, 09:58:34 amGood on you doing your homework, and good luck!!!Anyway, we have been very happy with the Neoden frame-free stencil holder for low volume production. I made some 3D printed jigs for the boards, so alignment is super easy and repeatable.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 04:50:47 am
content: I am looking at stencil printers every now and then, and I'm quite disappointed in the quality of what you can get for a reasonable amount of money.I would go for a frameless stencil printer myself. Especially if you have space constraints yourself. The frames are just to bulky. Expensive shipping, and difficult to store.A simple, but high quality stencil printer is relatively easy to make. The most important thing is a very solid and slop free hinge system, and preferably something that lifts the stencil before it rotates.To get an Idea of what you have I looked up the Manncorp:https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=+Manncorp+RT2100&ia=images&iax=imagesBent knobs can easily be straightened, replaced or modified so they're not so fragile anymore. Backlash in hinges can mostly be compensated by adding some sort of spring. Have you looked at your current printer and thought about how it can be improved? It may last you for a few more years...But if you have production runs of 2000 pieces, then maybe it's getting time for a more automatic stencil printer?Quality control of outsourcing is indeed a concern, but that also depends on to who you outsource. And I'm curious: have you made a realistic overview of the cost of outsourcing compared to DIY?

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 05:12:28 am
content: And a picture search for frameless stencil printers.https://duckduckgo.com/?q=frameless+stencil+printer&iar=images&t=h_80% of the pictures are either Neoden, Itech (light thick foot) or EM300 (Two sheets of "plywood").They are (nearly?) all quite small, size would be plenty for me, but what size are you looking for?I am experimenting a bit with AI, and asked duck.ai:50 brands of pcb manual stencil printersAnd it complied.Then I ordered:repeat with website linksAnd it added the links. I don't know if they work, but it's a place to start. But you can attempt to narrow down the list with your specific wishes. Maybe you want a specific size or a local supplier.QuoteThe links did not work when pasted here, so I instructed:repeat with full URI in textQuoteIt looks like this AI thing may actually be useful to automate simple tasks. It can probably generate CSV or spreadsheets too...A little bit later ...The results are a bit disappointing. I checked out a bunch of those links and the quality is quite low.

author: loki42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 09:55:08 am
content: I'm really surprised your saying the QC was bad. I'd be amazingly shocked if someone with basic gear does better than a mainstream CM. They'll be much better and much cheaper. Just find someone half decent and make sure you're not asking for something insane. Like make sure all the parts come on reels. They should have SPI, AOI and maybe AXI and you'll have glancing at it.I have decent gear and still other people would do it cheaper and better. Obviously wages are a lot lower in the USA so it's a bit different but I suspect given all the extras you need it would be similar. Cleaning, PM, air compressor etc isn't free.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 10:32:00 am
content: I use the Eurocircuits onehttps://www.eurocircuits.com/ec-equipment-ec-stencil-mate/This uses pin registration, which works very well and eliminates the need for x/y/a adjustments.It clamps and tensions frameless stencils very wellThe implementation is complete overkill and way more heavy, complex and and expensive than it needs to be, but works well.It does need better PCB support - I uses some 3D printed blocks.

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 04:36:24 pm
content: Quote from: loki42 on July 23, 2025, 09:55:08 amThe stats I shared (average 5.4% bad, worst 10% bad) are for this PCB:https://store.isiks.tech/products/bme280-sgp40-air-quality-sensors-for-nevermore-air-filtersNot much going on there, just some 0402s and 2 QFN chips. Yet, they always failed to solder at least one QFN pad properly on a few PCBs in the batch. Since I got my PnP, I assembled 1 panel of 49 of these PCBs and did much better than them. I have no idea why they were so terrible at assembling them.This PCB is the one they're worst at, I have more complex designs with better yields, but they often manage to assemble at least one PCB badly in a batch. They sometimes mess up the entire batch. I had a batch of PCBs where they didn't solder the USB connector shields.Costs are definitely much higher for in-house assembly vs China. I "pay" myself 10 times what I paid JLCPCB because of these costs. But no tariffs on assembly fees, less tariffs on chips, lower shipping costs, savings from ordering bare PCBs and chips I use on other SKUs in bulk, being able to source components from different sources sometimes allowing me to find cheaper prices than LCSC, all add up to significant savings.

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2025, 04:53:22 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on July 23, 2025, 04:50:47 amSpace and cost savings would be nice, but framed seems easier to setup, and feels like would last much longer. I feel like benefits would outweigh the costs.Quote from: Doctorandus_P on July 23, 2025, 04:50:47 amI tried to remove the screw to unbend it, but it's captive and not coming off. It still works, just annoying. I need to add more springs though.I want to add some pins for alignment as well, but couldn't really figure out a way of doing that. If I added pins it would help with the wobbly hinge. I just can't figure out a good way of doing that.Quote from: Doctorandus_P on July 23, 2025, 04:50:47 amJLCPCB mostly. Sometimes NextPCB and PCBWay but they're more expensive.My costs are realistic. I added the cost of the equipment, cost of finance and 10% on top of all that, divided that into 2 years, and that's the cost of the equipment per day. Divide that by how many PCBs I can realistically make that day, that's my cost per PCB. I time myself with assembly to figure out the labor. I'm using realistic wages for calculating the cost of labor. My spreadsheets take yields, MOQs and shipping of parts, tariffs and brokerage fees, reeling fees, setup labor, stencil, even the cost of solder paste into account. I also add some profit on top, to account for the return I should get from the investment. As I said, assembly cost is about 10 times what I paid them. But there are savings elsewhere I'm also taking into account. No tariffs on assembly fees, less tariffs on chips, lower shipping costs, savings from ordering bare PCBs and chips I use on other SKUs in bulk, being able to source components from different sources sometimes allowing me to find cheaper prices than LCSC, all add up to significant savings.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:17:38 pm
content: Well, I made my own stencil frame. It is super-low tech. Here are a few pics of the setup. There are adjustable rails that have a 1/16" deep step along one edge to set the PC board level with the top. For unframed stencils, as shown, I just tape the stencil to the rail with masking tape. Now, I have added a pair of hinges with a plate. I clamp the stencil frame to the plate with small C-clamps after aligning the stencil apertures. Yes, it is tedious to get it adjusted right, but works well. I did have to ping the hinges with a punch and hammer to tighten them up a bit.https://pico-systems.com/images/Stencil.JPGhttps://pico-systems.com/images/StencilFrame.JPGThis setup works for my limited production setup, I have done several thousands of boards with it.Jon

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 01:15:01 am
content: Quote from: jmelson on July 27, 2025, 11:17:38 pmLooks good. I can see large pads on small boards printing fine with that. Won't work for most of my boards though.

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 08:06:41 am
content: The manual stencil printer really is not a good solution if you want to print fine pitch parts. The process is heavily reliant on the user and their eyesight as well as the rigidity of the printer itself. Depending on how the squeegee is moved its also reliant on consistent motor control and squeegee angle, managed purely by feel/muscle memory. You really want a printer that you can check the alignment and adjust with with every print, a "fixed" physical location stops being enough with fine pitch due to variance.You really need at the very least to be in the "semi-automatic" range. These machines are very rugged and will add control to some of the key processes, they can also include top down cameras and laser assistance to help with parallax errors etc. It is quite a broad range, from the Essemtec/PBT machines mentioned here, to versions of these that have cameras to machines that resemble full blown printers but have a stop/go step where you intervene. Some have an alignment station to one side, which is a style you will probably find 2nd hand quite easily from DEK or Reprint (who still make them)https://www.reprintinternational.com/collections/our-latest-screen-stencil-printers/products/meteor-semi-automatic-stencil-printer,MPM Sigma SMTech and several other brands rebranded a few model like this. I don't think these make a great deal of sense new, as they will cost you as much as a new Chinese automatic printer.Reprint: used to make something called the Miniko if you can find one (Essemtec rebranded this with another name, they used to own a chunk of Reprint or a JV)TWS:https://www.tws-automation.com/still focus and always have on this type of market segment so they have several options.PBT: if you step up to the Go23 or FA23 would be pretty good, but again the FA is awfully close to being Chinese automatic printer money and those would gain you built in underwipe, controlled alignment and other options.We do have an SP003ML, its quite a beast for a "desktop" tool. We found it difficult to tune in as we print a wide range of board thicknesses and adjusting that is not straightforward. As it was second hand we were essentially on our own trying to diagnose what was going wrong and then the PLC stopped talking to the front panel and we haven't had the time or patience to work on it. At some point I will offer it on here as a project for anyone who might be interested. I would suspect this was true of any printer of this style if the pcb holder doesn't work in such a way as to align the top surface of the PCB at the same height regardless of thickness.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 08:25:08 am
content: Quote from: SMTech on July 28, 2025, 08:06:41 amThe pin alignment used on the Eurocircuits printer works well without the need for any manual alignment for panels up to about 250mm and 0.4mm pitches. This doesn't solve the 'muscle memory' issue but is a useful mid-way solution between completely manual and semi-auto

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 03:01:15 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on July 28, 2025, 08:25:08 amYes, its quite pricey in some ways, but if you can live with its restrictions it has come up with a solution that swaps mechanical complexity for a relatatively simple alignment method that avoids the needs for XYT adjustment.The "360" or "240" printers on here seem like an OK solution too, although someone one here has one and it arrived bent IIRC. They seem to be widely rebadged and possily fairly easy as a concept to DIY a clone if you have a friend with CNC.The super cheap clamshells are a waste of space I personally would be looking for a PBT/essemtec or maybe a TWS.Ours was 2nd user and not selling for years before someone dumped it on ebay for <1/2 the original £3500 price. We got a bit unlucky that it failed but it is the variant with the PLC control and motorised squeegee, so more likely to fail, the hand powered one is way simpler and my gripes might not apply to someone with a more limited range of PCB shapes & sizes. The biggest potential snag is there are as I understand it several stencil holding versions, some proprietary self tensioning foil systems, some slightly weird sized fixed frames of a single size, some variable width frame holders etc. Ours requires 23" stencil frames that are 25mm thick. This is annoyingly less than that the 30mm of a DEK vectorguard frame without some bodging.I have previously looked extensively for "in between" solutions. They don't seem to exist, you can have utter crap like the 3040 or its even cheaper alts or spend a quite a lot of money. It of course is heavily affected by the fact you can buy older fully automatic machines built like tanks for £5-10K quite easily and they have advantages too long to list, provided you can find the space.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 03:13:42 pm
content: Quote from: SMTech on July 28, 2025, 03:01:15 pmI'm convinced this concept could be done a lot more cheaply - the Eurocircuits unit is ridiculously over-built

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 07:32:21 pm
content: I agree that a semi-auto would likely work a lot better for me. The problem is, I don't have the room for one. I'm trying to find something that'll work well enough until I'm able to move.The Eurocircuits one looks pretty good. That and Manncorp I mentioned in the first post have the alignment pin thing, which feels like would be good enough for now. I have alerts set up on eBay as well to see if something interesting gets listed.I need to do a bit more research into the Eurocircuits one, but looks promising.

author: meshtron
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 12:01:48 am
content: Quote from: xbst_ on July 23, 2025, 04:53:22 pmUnderrated line of thinking here, it's the primary reason I've decided to do USA assembly myself too. I can buy boards 1000 at a time and get the price break but buy more expensive chips ($4-5/ea) in lower quantities to manage cash better. And it opens the opportunity to standardize higher dollar parts (cough STM32G4 cough) across multiple products to give me a better shot at dipping into discount volumes there too.It's not easy, but with realistic planning and some "how to make things efficiently" experience mean it's not the end of the world either. Depending on what you sell, made/assembled in the USA carries a non-zero amount of cache with it as well.Good luck OP! I'm still using a ZhenBang manual pivot machine with framed stencils and while the hinge is great, the adjustment mechanisms are clunky. I've resorted to 3D printing panel holders that give me the right support, indexing pins and hold-down spots right where I need them. Bit of a rickety setup in the grand scheme of things, but easy to set up/tear down and repeatability has been a non-issue.

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 07:32:41 am
content: Quote from: meshtron on July 29, 2025, 12:01:48 amJust a random thought, but what does the panel of tiny PCBs like the example look like? Automatic printers clamp a panel by the edges and then support it underneath using one or more systems such as pins, automated pin block, customised support tooling or vacuum plates. A panel of many small elements with mousebites creates an array of multiple unstable PCBS that can be difficult to support if all you have is operator located pins. Maybe your panel really needs a custom support and your volume does not justify it but they're not telling you.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 08:56:03 am
content: Quote from: SMTech on July 29, 2025, 07:32:41 amThis is only an issue for double-sided assemblies - for single-sided you can just use a flat block for support.For non-too-dense double sided, a custom 3D printed support with cavities for parts is an easy & cheap option.

author: meshtron
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 04:34:42 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on July 29, 2025, 08:56:03 amYep. 3D-printed board supports helped me the most pasting the (sparsely populated) back side of my boards with the densely-populated front side meaning I had to hit pretty small targets for support points. Having everything in 3D CAD makes it easy to just knock it out and the Z-axis control on my printer is enough to provide nice, level support. I don't know what I'll need to do some day when I move to an automated machine, but I'll solve that problem when I get there.

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 06:39:24 pm
content: Quote from: SMTech on July 29, 2025, 07:32:41 amI don't know how they made them because they weren't panelized by me. But I ordered 50 at a time so I assume probably tiny panels. There were no obvious mouse bite remnants on the side so they probably vcut them.For in-house production, I got 50 or 100 (I don't remember) panels, vcut, 7x7 so 49 per panel. It cost me basically nothing.

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2025, 06:45:59 pm
content: Alignment pin modI beheaded a M5 screw at an angle and filed some of the roughest parts. I drilled a 4.5mm hole through the stencil into the printer. I widened the hole on the stencil to 5mm and tapped the hole on the printer with a M5 tap. Added a nut on the bolt to be able to lock it in place and screwed it on.The stencil I drilled a 5mm hole in is now a template for drilling holes on other stencils. I drilled a hole on another stencil using it and mounted it. That's what's pictured.Seems like it'll work fine for now.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2025, 12:49:15 am
content: Quote from: xbst_ on July 28, 2025, 01:15:01 amLooks good. I can see large pads on small boards printing fine with that. Won't work for most of my boards though.Well, I have moved to framed stencils from PCBway, they are SO cheap! But, with careful alignment I had no issues with 0.5mm lead pitch FPGAs and 0.65 mm SSOP48 parts. I don't go smaller than 0603 passives.Jon

author: SMTech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2025, 08:13:27 am
content: Quote from: meshtron on July 29, 2025, 04:34:42 pmYou have a range of options, custom tooling, plates, pins, support bars and self adjusting locking pin grids such as red-e-set or grid-lok or Matrix (all basically the same thing) , arrays of pins that are soft/flexible. Here's a manual version of the locking pinshttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009453860544.html. A recent custom option I saw recently was made by Tannlinhttps://www.tannlin.com/tmap-fixturewhich would obviously be cheaper than a massive machined block. Of course the best solution is to avoid panels that need this kind of thing, but if you need tiny or thin or flex or rigid-flex, you are likely to need something specialized.Some printers have a laser pointer that will help you put the pins in the right place, others can place them for you. All printers will come with at least a few pins as standard the other options you have to work out what you need and then work out where you want to source them. Much like cheap clone feeders, there seems to be a bunch of clone solutions in China although I haven't seen clone versions of the automated supports

author: xbst_
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2025, 02:38:23 pm
content: Found a decent looking Manncorp stencil printer on ebay that could work. It doesn't have a part number anywhere, and it's not on their current or archived websites, I'm guessing it's a older model. It's bigger than I wanted but was only $250.The gas struts are too weak, should be easy to replace. It needs new squeegees too, I'll probably need to hack a different printer's squeegees on there. I also need to figure out how I can mount my stencils on it. And I need to test the pneumatic bits. But if it all goes well, with shipping, and a compressor and replacement parts it'll be under $1000.

author: law
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2025, 11:25:04 pm
content: I have a manual printer similar to this.It is a Ren-thang STP-550. Similar to the Manncorp 5500.Yours looks similar, but the top mounting setup is a bit different. Mine uses the compressed air to lift the head unit.It looks like they use the same squeegee setup, though.I bought new (smaller) squeegees straight from Ren-Thang, about 2 years ago.I paid $120USD for a 9inch set. This was the blades and the mounting hardware you are holding in your 1st picture.I've included a picture of the set and the manual for my machine.Try them at:renthang@renthang.comMy stencils do not come with screw in mounting holes, so to mount the stencil onto the machine, I machined some aluminium clamp blocks that would pull the stencil up against the mount frame.This worked very well, but I would recommend helicoil-ing the alumium blocks to not flog out the threads.You can see one of them up the back in renthang_stencil_printer.jpgThis machine was really well built, and was rigid and heavy. It generally worked very well. It just had a major design flaw for when it came to adjusting paste and cleaning during paste runs. I'll bang on about it again:The stencil clamps to the upper moving head. The squeegees are attached to the same head.When in the resting position, the squeegees sit about 5mm above the stencils. You cannot move the squeegees up and away from the stencil to get in and adjust the paste around the blades, or clean the blades.You need to do this periodically during paste runs.This also meant that when initially putting the paste on the stencil, you had to move the head all the way to one side, apply the paste, then flatten the paste right out so the head could pass over it.This was a bit frustrating.Anyway, mine served me well, but I am selling it (Australia). I bought one of those Alibaba semi-auto paste printers.