Greetings, fellow dirty people!

Hello everyone, my name is Dave.

Just out of curiosity I decided to type 'Printing Forum' into Google and found this place - how wonderful!

My printing career has been pretty standard and undistinguished to date; barring about 10 years apprenticing in my Grandfather's shop as a child (Willowdale Press (letterpress and offset) in Toronto, now 20 years closed) I've been working about 25 years in a variety of offset fields from commercial sheetfed to commercial retail and directory web. Up until seven-ish years ago I was running a Mitsubishi 5FC WB/UV 7-col machine in folding carton; occasionally jumping onto a 40" Komori L640 when required. When that plant closed I made the big jump out West, willingly taking the downgrade in position and pay to work as a 2nd. on a commercial M-300 in a big Web company. I found the transition between Sheetfed and Web fairly comfortable though far from easy; there was quite a bit of rethinking that had to be done, and a high learning curve - makes life interesting.
Following several years of cutbacks, layoffs, new management and ownership etc. I'm currently 3rd. on a shuddering, leaking, wheezing, creaking, moaning wreck of an HH(Heidelberg-Harris) 966; an excellent machine (when it works) for retail. (When it doesn't work of course, it's an excellent machine for making its sticky, sweating crew giggle inanely and wave at the butterflies...but I digress.)

However creaky the machine I serve is; I'm blessed with a good crew - a quartet of friends and professionals and that makes all the difference. I suppose I can say I'm lucky; despite the current conditions I still enjoy coming to work.

Cheers! I'm glad to be here.

 

Uhh...perhaps its my OCD nature or mere impatience but really...lots of views but no-one willing to even say 'hello'?
Maybe I was wrong - Maybe this forum is not for what my shift calls the 'dirty people' - the Pressmen and operators which make the machines work. I've spent a few hours on this board and most of the posts seem to be management in nature. So I guess I found the wrong place after all. I'm just a press schmuck; not management. I make the press sing; I don't care about the score. So I'll bid you farewell, and see you on the floor.

 

Sorry I read your post yesterday but didn't have time to reply before signing off for the day. This is a forum though not a chatroom so don't expect an immediate reply. People reply when they have something useful to add and often it takes a day or two. I do like your eager frame of mind though. I was going to reply with a long, but the short of it is that I share your outlook. The problem with a mature industry like printing is that it's easier for people to gear up on the up side of the hill than on the down side where people get lethargic and frustrated. It's all a frame of mind. Now the challenge is keeping machines running well a little longer and getting creative. Take everything as a challenge and it can be rewarding. Look at the cars that cuba keeps running and the color and character it added

 

He sounded so delighted to find the forum. What a let down.

 

A 'let-down' it is; but I must remember that I am a guest and don't fully understand the nature of the place I've found.

I am a Printer - and one, I might add, of extraordinary ability; I play the console like Liberace played the piano, but I have come to learn that that ability doesn't communicate well with the outside world. When I'm on console I can run colour like few others - even George ( our one Master Pressman) cannot fault me. The web comes easy for me as well; though I've only run Web for seven years; the rest of my career has been all commercial Sheetfed.
I'm aware I'm a bit of a savant; I love ink and water and little else; I live my trade and exclude all other things. So I suspect I might have been hasty in retiring from here but really - all that said a forum is a place for like-minded people to collect and chat. To share ideas.

If this is not that kind of forum, I cannot be interested. I'm very sorry...I was looking for companionship in this most dynamic of industries.

Your friend,

Dave

 

Greetings Dave, I don't get a chance to get on here as much as I'd like to. You should be able to find a variety of folks on here with many talents. Some only run one machine while others run as many as they can...well ...ok as many as they have to.
Pull yourself up a chair and glance down through the Forum, you will see many interesting topics and I'm sure your input may help many from your years of service with ink ! I'll look forward to reading....