Thats awesome. I agree with you there, Robert has been nothing but helpful to me and I have not and am not going to in the near future spend any money with him. I am going this weekend and pick up a used Javelin and shot an email to Robert asking for any tips on moving it myself and he said "call me" so I did and he spent almost a half hour of his time giving me advice and said when I am down there to call him at anytime if I run into something that I am not sure about or uncomfortable with and he said he does not care what time it is. That is one thing about Robert that people dont see because they focus on the online persona junk, its the passion the man has for this industry and the machinery. When it is time to grow up and out of my little Javelin I will be contacting him for advice and guidance. And for people to say that it would be a bad idea to call a salesman for advice I beg to differ as when I was considering buying new he did not try to shove something down my throat just educated me on whats out there and let me make the choice. I am glad to see it worked out for you as you got an awesome machine at a great price.

__________________
Prosperi-Tee Industries
Clovis, California
www.prosperitees.org
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prospe...18725491496344

I can't remember exactly how I heard about Robert Barnes or Spider Machines. Maybe I got his mobile number from a digitsmith post. But I was in the market for another machine last year and I called him. He seemed to know a lot about the equipment. In fact by some strange coincidence he happened to be in Miami the same day I called him.

I already have ten M&R machines so I was hoping to find another late model used M&R. He told me about Printex, the price was right, so I took the chance. We've had the machine over a year and I don't think the it has been down for even a day.

We had a problem with some bulbs for the flashes and any time I emailed him he sent me what I needed immediately.

A few months ago he called me to tell me about these sporty China blue dragon machines. We're doing well with the Prism and it won't be long before we hit a million prints so we are going to take the chance with the sporty machines too.

I read this crazy stuff on digitsmith but I don't post much. I had to respond to musterd because Robert helped me too.

Really cool of you to post Muster! The guy may like to stir it up, but, the fact that you were taken care of, just as agreed on shows that doing business with Robert can be a good thing. When I am ready for a new machine, I will be talking to him. Everyone's machines, or deals, or situations could have possible issues, it's how those issues are handled across the board that matters. This post not only helps show that Robert isn't that evil guy some paint him to be. It also shows that both Anatol, and Printex make solid machines. 

Remember, make FunPrints!

 

 It looks like there are many people out there that have had good experiences 
with Robert Barnes and I am one too.
Robert and Sara have been to my shop for a visit and spent several hours
here discussing printing and giving advice on improvements at no cost or
expectation. I've also called Robert to discuss used equipment I bought
and how to set up properly.
My wife, children and I spent an afternoon with Robert and Sara. They treated us
to a great steak dinner and had a good time getting know one another.
These are great people and don't be afraid to call Robert for any questions 
you may have, his phone persona is a lot different than the internet.

Also I am very interest in how the China Sporty turns out as we are working
in expansion mode and may be getting a bigger auto in the future. You can 
bet I will be talking to Robert.
I have been self employed for 40 years and seen many scam artist
and Robert Barnes is not one of them.

Long live Prinex, Mustang Printers and China Sporty.

Looks like this is the day when we are praising Robert so I will chime in my experience
My first contact with Robert was when my pad printing machine braked down in 2 am. I was printing some urgent job that had to go out by 8 am. 
In that time I was frequent on DS as I was looking for new carousel and I was following "war" at that time for entertaining. As I knew that Robert is very knowledgeable about fixing machines I sent him PM explaining who I am and what problem I have and that I have to have machine fixed "soon" so I can finish job. 
By the time I made myself coffee and lighted cigarette he reply giving me his mail and asking me to take photos of cylinders from all possible corners and to e mail them to him.
I did it and half an hour later he reply explaining to me how to tune them so my machine can work again. 
I did it and I was able to finish that urgent job.
In that time I never had any contact with him before and I am sure that he know that he could not have any use of me, or that there is no way for me to be his potential customer as I live in New Zealand, but he took brake from with his verbal "war" with some funny character "Midget" to help me fix my machine.

I must say also Robert is a great guy, and a super guy to do business with. If anyone out there is in the market for new or used, I would definitely call Robert he will have what you want or know where you can find it. I bought an M&R Gauntlet from Robert which he found in Springdale , Ark. I drove up took a look at it and bought it, and an Nurc 3140 from him, the thing that impressed me about Robert and his crew, was the great detail they went into to in making sure that every part of the purchase was packed and secured for delivery. He didn't have to, but Robert drove the delivery truck from Springdale, Ark. to my shop 100 miles away through snow, and helped me get everything into my shop. I must say anyone that is reluctant to deal with Robert because of all the BS, and attacks from others on the boards, don't let this cause you to miss a good deal. Robert calls me at least once a month just to see how I'm doing, and to see if my press is working ok, matter a fact he has answered alot of my questions, and solved alot of problems, when others would tell me that I needed to get a tech. So Yeah I like the guy, he seems to be honest and up front when it comes to doing business, I don't think he would screw you over just to make a sale. 
A good guy, he is.

Robert can be quite a character on the web and always draws drama with his gorilla marketing he does. Some people do not like it and thus jump in to stir the pot. But the bottom line is Robert is a man of his word. He is off Digitsmith not because he was banned but because he gave Marc his word he would stay off the site for one year. Knowing Robert as I do he will honor that word he gave Marc.

The one thing I found out about Robert when he flew me to Miami a year ago was he is passionate about the industry and cares more about helping people then you can imaging. While in Miami I visited mkael66's shop to see the Prism II. Robert went over the machine and then showed me how it was designed differently than the M&R Challenger sitting next to it. Never once did he trash the Challenger but only pointed out the areas where Printex exceeded.

Months back I had a guy contact me about some problems he was having with his automatic. It was not one that Robert has anything to do with but I figured I would call Robert and see if he could help the guy out. I called Robert who was in China at the time and he answered his phone at what would have been about 2 am China time. I got him and the guy hooked up and Robert helped him iron out the kinks in his machine. All for free and all the way from China.

Until today Robert has not been allowed on any forum. He is off Digitsmith for now and cannot come back on SPOF. Naturally he would never be allowed on the M&R forum or the shirt board due to the biased nature of those two forums. Anyway today I setup SPO-UnCut that is a small forum totally separate from SPOF. Robert and everyone else that was barred from SPOF is allowed on SPO-UnCut so if you want to ask Robert anything that is where you can do it.

 

__________________
SPOF for the screen printing and embroidery industry; unbiased for a reason.
SPOF-Radio
Printex Dealer - Online quote request
Free 1 years subscription to PriceIt Master when you buy a new Printex Automatic from SPOF. Click here for details.

I didn't know Mark Durham had a website until Sara sent me his info last night. I knew he was an independent tech, but didn't know all his info, but I'd highly recommend him and his business Affordable Services if you're planning a press install, moving a press and need it torn down and set back up, or if you just need it set up and leveled correctly.

It wouldn't be his site if it didn't have a pic of him with his bluetooth earbud!
http://madxpress.com/index.php

Affordable Services Testimonials:
http://madxpress.com/index.php/testimonials

__________________
www.screenprintpress.com - Used Screen Printing Equipment Classifieds

After seeing this thread I thought I would throw in my opinion on Robert Barnes. We bought a Printex Prism that was installed last November. The first time I met Robert was back in his Progressive days when he visited our shop with a local ink supplier.

I had no contact with Robert again until last year when we were considering buying a new auto. Robert and Sarah flew me to Memphis to see a Printex in action before we committed to purchasing the press.

They, along with John at Sundial, were very gracious in putting me up for a couple nights and showing me around the machine and taking time to answer my questions. After those couple days our company decided to take a chance and purchase the Prism. 

A few days after the press was delivered the install crew (Robert, Sarah, Mark, and Brian) arrived. They had the press installed and running within two days and Brian even stayed around for a couple more days to make sure if we had any problems in the first couple days of production he was there to fix them. 

One of them most beneficial things Robert did for us during the install (not related to the actual press) was finding out that our 3 phase electrical service had a high leg. We already had two autos and two dryers hooked up and running and none of the other techs with those installs notified us about the high leg.

Robert explained the issue in detail and said there is a good chance that you will not have a problem, evident by our previous machines working properly, however for the cost of a small transformer he thought it was a good insurance policy. I called our electrician who ran our drops and he also agreed that it was a good idea. Our electrician said he would get back to us shortly with a quote.

After a couple hours the quote came back and Robert said do not pay that much. He felt the markup was too high. Since that day I was busy, Robert took it upon himself to try and source the transformer. Robert found the transformer from a local company for half the price and a quicker delivery. We were very grateful for the time he took to help us out. 
After the transformer was installed the press was up and running and were all set. It has been almost a year and we have ran it ever since. 

Mark

 

Al I got to say is RWB has always been honest and up front with me. He has always delivered on what was promised. 

When I purchased my Printex Spectrum I was shown a picture and told it would look something like this but would have these features and the machine did exactly what he said it would. The only thing I regret is getting a 8 color instead of a 10, which is exactly what he said. 

The funny thing is when I am working on another mfg press I go do something mine will do and find it does not have that feature. I could really use another press with the work load and thought another brand would work but after running others I found it will be best to wait for another with the same std features.

__________________
Owner/Operator of Middletownink
Provide service and support for Printex

 

I have also found RWB awesome, informative and straight up. Sure he plays games when attacked online, but only the same slagging that he is receiving. I looked at TAS, MnR, Anatol, Printex and RPM. In the end I ranked the Hurricane / RPM and Printex as the ones to make a decision between, but fortunately we had another opportunity to invest in another business in the signage market and have more than blown our deposit investing in that, but we should be ready to buy within the year a 14 or 16 colour. When that time comes there will likely be one call to Robert. 
For now we are growing our new Media arm www.compark.fr to see the product, it's carparking signage for malls and hypermarkets, where you rent the advertising space out and do the digital printing and change outs, something that opens up new avenues amongst the advertising agencies.
Robert loves machines and is very approachable. Hurricane, Marcodie and Printex are damn good brands as good as MnR, TAS, Anatol, MHM etc and if you compare feature value and price you would be naive not to evaluate his machines, but I do suggest not to enquire on a public forum, but pick up the phone and call him at a time that suits you, he will answer or call back. I found him WAY more approachable than the other so called leading brands. Anyway, must go and prepare for tonights games in the Rugby World Cup! Go the Mighty ALL-BLACKS!!!!

Being and outsider from another country I landed up buying a printex machine. I have had excellant experience dealing with Robert and the quality of the product has held up to what Robert said it would. Robert has help me with other machines that I have in my factory and I can strongly recommend him as he has a vast knowledge in the printing industry and is always willing to help when any make of machine is down. I am not involved in the politics but will do business with Robert as I feel that the professionalism from his service and company must be commended. People may contact me for a reference at Chris @letslogo.net