Not sure if anyone will be able to answer my question, but I thought this forum was as good a place as any to start.
Hello!
A couple questions for you...
a) Are you considering a single-color press or envisioning a multi-color or even full-color product? Trying to print multi-color pieces on a single color press can prove challenging as you try to register each color on the pages.
b) How many pages are you thinking your magazine would be?
And now to provide some insight to your questions:
1) There are any number of ways to approach this - the big factor is going to be budget. You could find an old AB Dick (now Presstek) small-format press for $1000-$2000. Better models are available once you get into the $3k range.
2) With the increasing presence of digital black/white and full-color presses, some of which have book-binding capability built in, it may be more cost-effective to find a print provider that has this type of equipment. Otherwise, you'll need to have all of the following:
a) Some means of making printing plates - with AB Dick models, paper printing plates are available that can be made relatively cheaply. I don't remember a lot of specifics about how to make those plates.
b) A press. The press will need rollers, ink, blankets, fountain solution, wash-up solvents, etc.
c) Some sort of finishing solution - if you wanted to make saddle-stitched (magazine-style) booklets, you'd need a stitcher of some sort. If you were willing to feed manually, you could get a decent manual stitcher for a couple thousand dollars. You would also need a folder to fold all of the sheets in half (tabletop one for a couple thousand dollars would be fine).
3) A copying device with a bookletmaker is going to run tens of thousands of dollars, and can easily run over $100k.
Hopefully that'll be a start for you. I've been working in large commercial print shops for a few years, so I may not have referenced the most economical components for this type of operation, but I think it's a pretty reasonable ballpark - anyone else with more small-format experience is welcome to shoot me down.
Good luck!
