Pressman Exchange

Maybe i could exchange my wife for a younger presswoman?????

You can come work here. We pay in beans but they are DELICIOUS beans.

Tramp printer huh , you know me then !!! its good going from place to place you never get bored , you get a higher rate of pay and you are rarely miss treated as they always want you back when needed!
One company i go do for has two permanent staff on nights and the rest of us are contractors. it is at present the only way some firms are surviving as they dont have men with nothing to do on staff and they dont have to pay our insurances as we pay our own its a good way of keeping your firm ticking along in the hope of an up turn in the market . I keep a heidelberg platen in the garage and fill my gaps in work by taking in cutting and creasing the stuff that is too small for the trade finishers i have dies ready for most common formats so i dont have to charge for a new die every time i get a neqw job and they get to pay a portion of the cost towards a re knife ,we all happy .
Dick G and there was i thinking you were the one with the talent around there !!!

Peter, its not talent, its the only thing i know how to do. i moved my letterpress operation back to my garage about 12 years ago, like you i take in small jobs from other printers, some of my old offset jobs i have changed over to type and print a fair amount of forms and envelopes, business cards etc. Although my wife can run a press she is more than happy to do the books and collect the money (mostly collect the money).

A mate and myself have a small addressographics multi 1250, getting on in years but good for runs of carbonless sets we number on platen or a rotary morgana FSN ,we also have a socbox we dont use but have in case of need , I have two treadles a Swift (john haddon ) and a Cropper ,we also have a laid up vertical Miehle ,its all in use to an extent , sometimes its cheaper to take the machine to the job than to move the job to the machine !!
Transport costs are killing businesses in the uk . the cheaper the option we do it . My windmill has 1950 on the plate but has a red ball so one of them is wrong ! I dont do the arty stuff as a lot of the members seem to here i just run these machines its my kind of fun and like you it becomes easy till you try showing someone else and then you realise how much you do without realising it .You cant teach a lot of todays youngsters till you have taught them basic maths ,how to read a micrometer , a ruler ,weights and measures . the list is endless !

I’d join the Missouri river pirates in a heartbeat! We’d sail down the river on a makeshift rafts, catch bass with “mouths wide enough to stuff a keg in,” threaten to drown the competition…