Years in the Industry

trebor · June 24th, 2011, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Printwizard

Maybe we can tell the remember when stories.... Rubilith, photocopying letraset, manual art before computers and imagesetters, thinning the thick plastisol inks with turps, all screens were coarse, no such thing as doing a process print....... I still have some of our early prints, cringe, cringe, cringe....... Printing on shirts with shoulder pads in them.......

My first shop.....we rented a house. Printed in the living room, put it on the dryer belt, it went through the dining room and fell in a box in the kitchen. How's that for remembering when?

Printwizard · June 25th, 2011, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trebor

My first shop.....we rented a house. Printed in the living room, put it on the dryer belt, it went through the dining room and fell in a box in the kitchen. How's that for remembering when?

I remember eighteen months printing under a house when we relocated to Auckland, it had five and a half foot headroom and we had to stoop and swing our heads around the lights. We used to print a lot of solvent with the doors closed to stop airflow drying the ink in or moving the nylon panels laid out and air drying. After a day of that we would be toasted, have a beer and go out into town and get refused service. We weren't drunk, just still high off the solvent. The cops would show up every six months to search the house because we drew so much power they thought we were growing drugs hydroponically with lights.

Printwizard · June 25th, 2011, 05:03 PM

There is an old advance large format in Auckland, for sale for a year, struggling to give it away...... Those old cameo autos, thinking about that, cringe, cringe. Simple, but had to retire our transfer cameo when we bought an Atma.

veritas · June 26th, 2011, 10:42 AM

I have been in the print and design industry since 99.

Prosperi-Tees · June 26th, 2011, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iowa

People are really starting to like the Printex shade of blue!!

Yeah Robert put a 22K offer on the table for me. 6/8 workman with flash shipped installed and trained. I contacted Geneva Capital to get me a quote on a lease. I will probably know more on monday.

Printwizard · June 26th, 2011, 04:02 PM

If you can afford a blue Hyundai or Toyota and it does the job, why would you buy a blue skoda or Mercedes that you can't afford? Doesn't matter how many years some people have in the industry, they can't understand simple concepts that other newbies can.
On that note, we could have a thread of worst staff ever and some people don't get screen printing and no matter how long you persevere with them they are just no good at the job. Some don't get screen printing, likewise some printers who are amazing move on into their own businesses and struggle because as good as they are printing they are not business people and their customer service, marketing and management and accounting skills are non existent.

Screentex · June 28th, 2011, 11:09 AM

Bought Screen-Tex Graphics in 1994.
Have been in and out of the industry prior to that since 1985.

raygaeto · July 2nd, 2011, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by screenmachines

I thought this would be a good place to start a thread about the guest of DigitSmith. How many years have you been in the Industry? Hope people can be honest here.

I entered the industry in 1988.
23 years in August in Screen Printing.

PS. This is Drama free zone...

[SIZE="7"][/SIZE i started printing yard goods on tables in my fathers plant in new jersey in 1963.
we moved too nc that year and started printing towels and t*s on automatics in 1965. i ceassed operations in 2002. from 1978-2000 we printed 2-3 million pcs. per year. since 2002 i have found buyers for used equipment. i miss those good times. it has been 48 years of the screen printing industry
ray gaeto

Big E · July 3rd, 2011, 01:22 PM

I was a JV/Assistant Varsity Girls BB coach so I was assigned the job of getting tees and sweats for the team. I made a trip to the closest screen shop which was about 30 miles away and had to go into the print room to talk to the owner. It was a basic manual shop with a 4/4 press and a small conveyor dryer. I had never seen shirts being printed before and I was hooked. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. i researched it on and off for about 2 years and bought an 3/6 Eagle press with BBC flash and taught myself to print. I used the upper story of the farmhouse we lived in at the time. You froze your butt off in the winter and sweat it off in the summer. My 1st job was for 45 pieces - Navy tees with white ink on the front, back, and left sleeve. It took 90 pieces to get 45 good ones. That was back in March of 1991. I did it part time for 10 years and finally became a dedicated shop in 2001.
Since then we've added embroidery, vinyl, sand carving, a 6/8 auto and now a crystal setting machine. I love dealing with people and try to learn something new everyday.

I'm feel that I'm in the minority in this world that I love my work and really don't want to do anything else to earn a living!!

inkbrigade · July 8th, 2011, 02:05 AM

Started working at my first shop at 17 in 1990. Printing flatstock for hallmark. What a drag.
Anyone remember Onetia Power Tees? They were awesome. Wonder what happened to them.

Started Ink Brigade with my wife by accident. We just wanted to print a few shirts in 2007. Next thing you know we have 2 autos, and employees! Yeow!