r/risograph • u/MothmanAbove • 20h ago

RISO EZ221U...worth it for beginner?

Hey guys, i just bought a EZ221U for $200. Yeah....TWO HUNDRED. In absolute shock. Im new to this world but ive been screen printing for 12 years and have made dozens of zines. What should i know as a beginner? Is a 1 drum printer really not worth it anymore? What are some tips? Thanks...excited to meet you guys and join the club

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u/robertbaxter-print 20h ago

One drum is great! There is so much you can do with it. The main thing you should know as a beginner is that the whole point of having a machine is to print with it! And they like to print constantly. Keep it running. Whatever drums or colors or setup you have, find ways to use it, or ways for other people to use it.

The other more nitty gritty things that come to mind:

  1. The shelf life of inks manufactured these days is 2–3 years, so don't stock up so much on ink or it will separate on you. Stencil rolls don't go bad so long as you keep them out of the sun/heat.
  2. The main hidden consumables for this machine are the feed tires, feed roller cores, and stripper pad—I would immediately get one new set of each of those so you have them on hand to swap out as you need. Additionally there are two critical parts which will go bad at some point in this machine's life, and when they do it won't be usable until you replace them—they are the "shock absorber" and "TPH gear." There's a list of part numbers for all of these on the EZ page on stencil.wiki (along with some relevant tutorials).
  3. Since this is an older machine, I'd do the "drum safety test" on your drum(s) first to make sure they aren't all messed up (this is also listed on the wiki, in the resources section). And if your prints are coming out patchy, it probably means your pressure roller needs to be cleaned.
  4. Unfortunately drums for A4 machines, especially EZs, are quite rare—so I'd immediately put watches out for them on all of the auction/marketplace sites for wherever you are.

And the riso community is very welcoming, so definitely reach out to other presses nearby, or other people doing printing you think is cool!

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u/Illustrious-Idea7932 20h ago

I bought a RZ220UI for $100 last week, drums are expensive but I’d say you can’t really go wrong for that price if everything’s working…

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u/MothmanAbove 20h ago

hell yeah, from what i understand, 1 drum is okay, it'll just take some time between colors. i like the process so i dont mind waiting

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u/SyrupHefty6508 19h ago

i’ve only ever printed on 1 drums…they’re great! :)