Thanks Mate. I did it 'downunder' in Australia. I used to love seeing people shown through the pressroom. It was like they went to another planet. I my humble opinion, we did it because we loved it. Might sound strange to some people. Smell of the inks, solvents, hand cleaner and the body odour of the crew. You had a challenge each shift achieving maximum output for minimum input. I even took that so far as trying not to walk extra steps if need be. I found that some of the aspects of the job couldn't be taught it was a sound, a rumble, a resonance, a feeling. I remember, during my apprenticeship, being made to stand, leaning against the side frames of the press, eyes closed sensing the environment of the pressroom. You got to know when the machine was performing at optimum and when she wasn't. Thanks for the memories, took me right back to the 12-hour shifts and the craft we have as machinists. I liken it to railwaymen, sailors, truckers, pilots etc. and others with forms of 'forbidden knowledge'. Those that had a symbiotic relationship with technology.
24 years and still running press, Harris N-1650, Goss Metro, Goss Color Towers, Manroland Uniset, and a few single wide junk buckets.. From Reelroom to Folder Op to supervisor...its always been a great experience. So sad to see it all coming to the end. Ill truly miss it.
I was a pressman for 32 years working at The Dallas Morning News, the Atlanta Journal/Constitution and was pressroom manager for Houston Community Newspapers. I started out on a 1949 model Wood Hoe letter press and 1975 model Goss Mark V. Eventually progressed all the way to running a Swiss made Wifag shaftless that cost millions of dollars. I truly enjoyed the work and everything about the newspaper world. Your videos bring back countless memories of hard work and great people.
My dad spent 25 years on press at various plants. He was an MIC / First pressman at the Chicago tribune and the Cleveland plain dealer. I'm 22 now and have gone into the plain dealer with him since I was a kid. I'm still in awe of these machines when they wind up to full speed. It's nothing short of amazing.
From 2001 to 2008 I worked for the Chicago Tribune in operations. I was a quality assurance person and a plate room supervisor and spent a lot of time in the press room. I was never an operator but absolutely love these videos!
nice as a 42 years on a press. roll tender to Pressman/Supervisor (Press Operator 1 to 3) it was in my blood. I did sears Jc Penny ,AARP, RadioShack, Aldi's, Chicago trib Toys R Us and so on.
A very good watch and brought back great memories. I worked at Goss UK for 20 years building the presses. Then worked at a newspaper plant for 8 years on maintenance. Careful around those slitters, I have the scar to prove how sharp they are !
At 40:35 I would say that you are right. The rollers can not be going faster than the paper without a seperate source of energy. Love your channel btw. 1st of August I will start (return to) my career as a printing press operator!
When I was in college, I worked at the old Sacramento Union plant. We had one of the largest Goss presses in the West and it was a beast when running. It put out 65,000 newspapers per hour when at full speed. It is long gone now and it seems that the days of printed newspapers are limited. Too bad.
Back in 05 I worked at Morning Sun newspaper, I wasn't in the pressroom but the packaging department, we operated a carousel and an inline inserting machine, along with a couple stitch & trim machines for magazines. I always found the printing operation really interesting and now I work as a pressman at a small shop making printed receipt rolls mostly for Dollar General and Family Dollar, along with other various stores. My press is nothing like a newspaper press though, it's much simpler, an infeed unit with an auto splicer and auto guide, it runs straight though 5 units, under a UV lamp and to the rewinder. And we run a different types of papers, and some unique inks like UV ink and other special colors. One person operates the whole thing, we don't have a press team like newspapers.
got laid off from bar job but have an interview at a local book manufacturer for folder operator. never done it, but other experience that could transfer and they're willing to train right person. was curious what the position involves and this to be very informative. thanks for making the video.
Thank You for taking the time to show how a newspaper should be printed.Your are very organized and in control of your press. Including the videos of the reel operators, the unit operators.
I was a Papermaker (3rd hand trained BT) when Minneapolis and Winnipeg modernized I went as part of a "TEAM" (lol) to go see the presses and help. Essentials we brought them doughnuts and watched the Men run the presses. I really didn't like the hours, but as a specialty machine operator myself I was fascinated by the presses. At one time in the '90s I was considering, actually in the parking lot at The Calgary Herald, knocking on the door and getting in on press work. Sadly, those press's are no longer there.
I used to be a folder man on a 1/2 folder and a 2/3 folder in Las Vegas for the RJ back in 75 to 78 and it was a lot simpler running those folders back then than it is now
Wow that's a bit more serious than the Urbanite I started off on. Great video BTW .I had to jump ship to commercial printing around 07' with the writing on the wall for newspapers. Being a smaller press jobs were a bit different, typically had rolltenders, an inside page guy who ran around setting all the single color units, a colorman for the front page webs and a folderman/forman. It's amazing at how much better newspaper pressman are at some things and completely lost on others. When I got into heatset I noticed these guys have no Idea how to handle the web itself, I've never met a commercial guy who could work out wrinkles and web walking the way you did here. At the same time newspaper guys tend to not have any idea what color is actually supposed to look like, hell our forman was colorblind. UV guys say "the ink/water window is huge compared to UV which is completely backwards, UV guys just don't know how to set rollers........actually I think only heatset guys do. The only pressman that seems to understand that he's supposed to speed the press up is a newspaper guy. Commercial printers are horrified at the idea that they'll have to run back to a unit after it heats up to watch out for a plate drying up. Come to think of it I haven't seen another pressman set his water by actually looking at the plate since I left the paper. Paper guys say oscillator, commercial guys say vibrator. Paper guys call it a pipe roller, commercial guys call it a an idler. You say paster, they say splicer. You say angle bar, they say turn bar. A double circumferential plate cylinder or printing yellow directly off a reversed plate would blow a heatset/UV guys mind. I always admired the way it was done at newspapers. The folderman basically ran the entire building at night, everybody in every department does what the folderman says. By the time ya get down to smaller UV presses you can't even get an assistant to listen to you without screaming at him. Strangely enough the money is about the same across the board, at least around here. Turns out maintenance is where it's really at, definately did better to get ahead when I stopped running them and started fixing them and I've run everything from a Goss to a Man Roland. Ever had the head of maintenance give you printing advice? I still haven't found a single person who can tell me what the hell 10/13 sides actually stand for. I'm sure somebody on here must know but it has been a mystery throughout my entire printing career.
Great post. I also find that the terminology changes from plant to plant even just in newspaper printing. I recall a fella that was completely baffled by "Make it hot", instead of "Put it on a walk." Maintenance guys can be very helpful when diagnosing problems. What they lack in press experience, they make up for with mechanical and electrical knowledge in a, it just isn't designed to do that kind of thing. Regarding the 10/13 side, every cylinder and roller on a unit has a number to identify it. It is common, that if you tell a maintenance man RFB L6 they'll know what you're talking about, but if you say the RFB for unit 12 they might not. Although every maintenance guy I know knows how to identify the inside ink form, it was designed so that you could simply call out the number of the roller you wanted them to check and they'd be able to look it up and identify it. As the numbering goes, the 10 side is always the plate cylinder on the left side, and the 13 side is always the plate cylinder on the right side. I alluded to it at this time stamp. ua-cam.com/video/_s7f9SRaetE/v-deo.htmlm52s Thanks again for the post.
I started off on an urbanite too. 10 units. Spent 16 years with that press. I'm a folder operator/color setter for a 5 tower dgm 440 currently. It's so easy to use. I get annoyed when guys complain. And ya, we have an ex-commercial folder operator that runs slower than a snail. Drives me bananas. As far as money, Union pressman jobs near the bigger cities pay well, but the smaller paper's production's are being contracted by other bigger papers or they are paying pitiful wages these days. It's really kind of sickening considering the responsibility of a machine like a newspaper press. Even the smaller ones, such as an urbanite or community, 440. Terminology. "Put it on the move" Means "Put it on the mark". "Move that web in" = Move the web gearside. "Out" = Operator side. I've ran into so many other variations of press terminology. Those are a couple. Lots of various hand signals as well. I so miss second fold rollers.. they weren't without their own issues but they seemed a heck of a lot more trouble free then our jaw folder that can get jammed up every time you put the press on the walk if someone isn't right there to watch the bucket.
10 and 13 side refer to the way the cylinders are numbered. Facing the unit on the operator side. The plate cylinder on the right is number 10. The Blanket cylinder is number 11. The plate cylinder on the left is number 13 and the plate cylinder on the left is number 12.
What is this b.s. ? 1st Pressman , (2) 2nd Pressman , Rolltender , (2) Jogger A crew of 6 on a 2 web M1000BE Or is it dumbed down to a Press Operator and 3 temps ?
Saludos, estoy en México tengo un doblador un poco mas antiguo pero no tiene las cambas, podrias publicsr un vídeo hacerca de las cambas y su posición y tiempo del las agujas por favor
damn all the work that goes into this its crazy lol ,,,all our presses are so simplified compared to this. how old is this press? we have 7 in our plant 2 retail and 5 others...a bit of a mix.old and new ...but none of ours require all this effort just to print something...i guess we have a lot more manual settings..most of our nips are manual..set while press is down tweak while running.. and i love the way you retrieve a copy ,,,wish we had that...
The conveyor is fantastic. I started working here in 2006 and they told me it was installed 7 years ago back then, so I'm guessing around 99. Compared to the older GOSS/KBA press I came from it's very complicated, but after a week training with a good man I was able to run the folder solo. It took about 6 months to get what I would call comfortable with the whole thing.
I thought a Headliner press is a Colorliner with a whole lot more bells, whistles and upgrades. I won't call it a crybabys Colorliner. I don't want to piss anyone off but the steps you take to troubleshoot a winkle are ridiculous. You did a whole lot of climbing for no reason. Nice video though. Good luck.
Serious information I miss being a Jorneyman pressman. 37 years in the business. thanks for the video its dope!
Thanks Mate. I did it 'downunder' in Australia.
I used to love seeing people shown through the pressroom. It was like they went to another planet.
I my humble opinion, we did it because we loved it. Might sound strange to some people. Smell of the inks, solvents, hand cleaner and the body odour of the crew. You had a challenge each shift achieving maximum output for minimum input. I even took that so far as trying not to walk extra steps if need be.
I found that some of the aspects of the job couldn't be taught it was a sound, a rumble, a resonance, a feeling.
I remember, during my apprenticeship, being made to stand, leaning against the side frames of the press, eyes closed sensing the environment of the pressroom. You got to know when the machine was performing at optimum and when she wasn't.
Thanks for the memories, took me right back to the 12-hour shifts and the craft we have as machinists.
I liken it to railwaymen, sailors, truckers, pilots etc. and others with forms of 'forbidden knowledge'.
Those that had a symbiotic relationship with technology.
24 years and still running press, Harris N-1650, Goss Metro, Goss Color Towers, Manroland Uniset, and a few single wide junk buckets..
From Reelroom to Folder Op to supervisor...its always been a great experience.
So sad to see it all coming to the end.
Ill truly miss it.
37 years here 4 different goss presses Tks color top 5000 also 4 different plate rooms ALSO did SGV FMC system
I was a pressman for 32 years working at The Dallas Morning News, the Atlanta Journal/Constitution and was pressroom manager for Houston Community Newspapers. I started out on a 1949 model Wood Hoe letter press and 1975 model Goss Mark V. Eventually progressed all the way to running a Swiss made Wifag shaftless that cost millions of dollars. I truly enjoyed the work and everything about the newspaper world. Your videos bring back countless memories of hard work and great people.
My dad spent 25 years on press at various plants. He was an MIC / First pressman at the Chicago tribune and the Cleveland plain dealer. I'm 22 now and have gone into the plain dealer with him since I was a kid. I'm still in awe of these machines when they wind up to full speed. It's nothing short of amazing.
From 2001 to 2008 I worked for the Chicago Tribune in operations. I was a quality assurance person and a plate room supervisor and spent a lot of time in the press room. I was never an operator but absolutely love these videos!
nice as a 42 years on a press. roll tender to Pressman/Supervisor (Press Operator 1 to 3) it was in my blood. I did sears Jc Penny ,AARP, RadioShack, Aldi's, Chicago trib Toys R Us and so on.
A very good watch and brought back great memories. I worked at Goss UK for 20 years building the presses. Then worked at a newspaper plant for 8 years on maintenance. Careful around those slitters, I have the scar to prove how sharp they are !
At 40:35 I would say that you are right. The rollers can not be going faster than the paper without a seperate source of energy.
Love your channel btw. 1st of August I will start (return to) my career as a printing press operator!
That's awesome! Glad to hear it. :)
Just finished my 40 hours week operating a press, no i'm sitting here enjoying your channel man! gotta love the trade!
When I was in college, I worked at the old Sacramento Union plant. We had one of the largest Goss presses in the West and it was a beast when running. It put out 65,000 newspapers per hour when at full speed. It is long gone now and it seems that the days of printed newspapers are limited. Too bad.
Back in 05 I worked at Morning Sun newspaper, I wasn't in the pressroom but the packaging department, we operated a carousel and an inline inserting machine, along with a couple stitch & trim machines for magazines. I always found the printing operation really interesting and now I work as a pressman at a small shop making printed receipt rolls mostly for Dollar General and Family Dollar, along with other various stores. My press is nothing like a newspaper press though, it's much simpler, an infeed unit with an auto splicer and auto guide, it runs straight though 5 units, under a UV lamp and to the rewinder. And we run a different types of papers, and some unique inks like UV ink and other special colors. One person operates the whole thing, we don't have a press team like newspapers.
got laid off from bar job but have an interview at a local book manufacturer for folder operator. never done it, but other experience that could transfer and they're willing to train right person. was curious what the position involves and this to be very informative. thanks for making the video.
Thank You for taking the time to show how a newspaper should be printed.Your are very organized and in control of your press. Including the videos of the reel operators, the unit operators.
Thanks a lot :)
I'm lead Operator on a DGM 4 tower heat set press.
This is so far advanced than anything I've seen it's almost overwhelming.
Good tutorial though.
@@traviskruse2153 No, but there are still DGM technicians that still work under that name.
This looks like so much fun!
Superb 👍
I was a Papermaker (3rd hand trained BT) when Minneapolis and Winnipeg modernized I went as part of a "TEAM" (lol) to go see the presses and help. Essentials we brought them doughnuts and watched the Men run the presses. I really didn't like the hours, but as a specialty machine operator myself I was fascinated by the presses. At one time in the '90s I was considering, actually in the parking lot at The Calgary Herald, knocking on the door and getting in on press work. Sadly, those press's are no longer there.
I used to be a folder man on a 1/2 folder and a 2/3 folder in Las Vegas for the RJ back in 75 to 78 and it was a lot simpler running those folders back then than it is now
Watching this as i run a press at specialty print!
Thank you for this comprehensive video. I never thought I would say it but I'm going to. Thank God I print magazines!!
:) I've only ever dealt with newsprint, so maybe you can fill me in on the other side of the industry.
Really cool to see behind the scenes. I own a newspaper but don't own a printing press. I print my run through Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Dead pipes? We call them idlers or idler rollers. RTF stands for Roller Top of Former which is driven.
Ya a lot of this terminology bugged me. Made it hard to follow as the video went on.
Still a good video though!
Recently switch printing jobs, all newsprint as lead Operator.
Terminology from place to place varies wildly.
Wow, I’m glad I stuck with sheetfed
Ran big metros and finished up with man Roland, loved runnin the press
Wow that's a bit more serious than the Urbanite I started off on. Great video BTW .I had to jump ship to commercial printing around 07' with the writing on the wall for newspapers. Being a smaller press jobs were a bit different, typically had rolltenders, an inside page guy who ran around setting all the single color units, a colorman for the front page webs and a folderman/forman. It's amazing at how much better newspaper pressman are at some things and completely lost on others. When I got into heatset I noticed these guys have no Idea how to handle the web itself, I've never met a commercial guy who could work out wrinkles and web walking the way you did here. At the same time newspaper guys tend to not have any idea what color is actually supposed to look like, hell our forman was colorblind. UV guys say "the ink/water window is huge compared to UV which is completely backwards, UV guys just don't know how to set rollers........actually I think only heatset guys do. The only pressman that seems to understand that he's supposed to speed the press up is a newspaper guy. Commercial printers are horrified at the idea that they'll have to run back to a unit after it heats up to watch out for a plate drying up. Come to think of it I haven't seen another pressman set his water by actually looking at the plate since I left the paper. Paper guys say oscillator, commercial guys say vibrator. Paper guys call it a pipe roller, commercial guys call it a an idler. You say paster, they say splicer. You say angle bar, they say turn bar. A double circumferential plate cylinder or printing yellow directly off a reversed plate would blow a heatset/UV guys mind.
I always admired the way it was done at newspapers. The folderman basically ran the entire building at night, everybody in every department does what the folderman says. By the time ya get down to smaller UV presses you can't even get an assistant to listen to you without screaming at him. Strangely enough the money is about the same across the board, at least around here. Turns out maintenance is where it's really at, definately did better to get ahead when I stopped running them and started fixing them and I've run everything from a Goss to a Man Roland. Ever had the head of maintenance give you printing advice?
I still haven't found a single person who can tell me what the hell 10/13 sides actually stand for. I'm sure somebody on here must know but it has been a mystery throughout my entire printing career.
Great post. I also find that the terminology changes from plant to plant even just in newspaper printing. I recall a fella that was completely baffled by "Make it hot", instead of "Put it on a walk."
Maintenance guys can be very helpful when diagnosing problems. What they lack in press experience, they make up for with mechanical and electrical knowledge in a, it just isn't designed to do that kind of thing.
Regarding the 10/13 side, every cylinder and roller on a unit has a number to identify it. It is common, that if you tell a maintenance man RFB L6 they'll know what you're talking about, but if you say the RFB for unit 12 they might not. Although every maintenance guy I know knows how to identify the inside ink form, it was designed so that you could simply call out the number of the roller you wanted them to check and they'd be able to look it up and identify it. As the numbering goes, the 10 side is always the plate cylinder on the left side, and the 13 side is always the plate cylinder on the right side. I alluded to it at this time stamp. ua-cam.com/video/_s7f9SRaetE/v-deo.htmlm52s
Thanks again for the post.
I started off on an urbanite too. 10 units. Spent 16 years with that press. I'm a folder operator/color setter for a 5 tower dgm 440 currently. It's so easy to use. I get annoyed when guys complain. And ya, we have an ex-commercial folder operator that runs slower than a snail. Drives me bananas.
As far as money, Union pressman jobs near the bigger cities pay well, but the smaller paper's production's are being contracted by other bigger papers or they are paying pitiful wages these days. It's really kind of sickening considering the responsibility of a machine like a newspaper press. Even the smaller ones, such as an urbanite or community, 440.
Terminology. "Put it on the move" Means "Put it on the mark". "Move that web in" = Move the web gearside. "Out" = Operator side. I've ran into so many other variations of press terminology. Those are a couple. Lots of various hand signals as well.
I so miss second fold rollers.. they weren't without their own issues but they seemed a heck of a lot more trouble free then our jaw folder that can get jammed up every time you put the press on the walk if someone isn't right there to watch the bucket.
10 and 13 side refer to the way the cylinders are numbered.
Facing the unit on the operator side. The plate cylinder on the right is number 10. The Blanket cylinder is number 11. The plate cylinder on the left is number 13 and the plate cylinder on the left is number 12.
Worked on a Goss urbanite for almost 30 years wasn’t that easy to change the lap but everything else is facts.
Great informative video!
Btw, RTF is Roller Top of Former.
Nitpicking, I know.
Still, awesome job of describing operations.
Kudos to you!
You're right. I had to re-watch it to see what I said. Nice catch.
I was thinking the same thing.
yup!
Some places they are also called trolleys. L'm referring to Canada though.
@@billpierson5830, trolleys are not the rtf. Trolley's are the little wheels that sit above the rtf that hold the paper down to the rtf.
Very very great video thank you very much and good luck.
WOW .... where is the demotion supervisor story ?
FOLDER 101
What is this b.s. ?
1st Pressman , (2) 2nd Pressman , Rolltender , (2) Jogger
A crew of 6 on a 2 web M1000BE
Or is it dumbed down to a Press Operator and 3 temps ?
Right? News paper printing is dying bigtime wonder if he's still got a job
We didn't have walkie talkies. We had lights and switches or had to yell across the room.
Saludos, estoy en México tengo un doblador un poco mas antiguo pero no tiene las cambas, podrias publicsr un vídeo hacerca de las cambas y su posición y tiempo del las agujas por favor
Good video
damn all the work that goes into this its crazy lol ,,,all our presses are so simplified compared to this. how old is this press? we have 7 in our plant 2 retail and 5 others...a bit of a mix.old and new ...but none of ours require all this effort just to print something...i guess we have a lot more manual settings..most of our nips are manual..set while press is down tweak while running.. and i love the way you retrieve a copy ,,,wish we had that...
The conveyor is fantastic. I started working here in 2006 and they told me it was installed 7 years ago back then, so I'm guessing around 99. Compared to the older GOSS/KBA press I came from it's very complicated, but after a week training with a good man I was able to run the folder solo. It took about 6 months to get what I would call comfortable with the whole thing.
Have you applied lean tools to eliminate waste?
nice keep it up
Must be a non-union shop.
Is the Las Vegas paper Review Journal? If so I just saw a doc on how your paper was bought out a few years back by that billionaire what’s his face
And you don’t Fuck Up lol
#manincharge
I thought a Headliner press is a Colorliner with a whole lot more bells, whistles and upgrades. I won't call it a crybabys Colorliner. I don't want to piss anyone off but the steps you take to troubleshoot a winkle are ridiculous. You did a whole lot of climbing for no reason. Nice video though. Good luck.
What would you do?
Yeah still waiting for a reply on this one lol would love to know