I currently buy printing for a state agency, but have done it all. Sales through delivery. Anybody else have the misfortune to make this a life calling?
Scott

18 years in the biz: started out as a keyliner, then a typesetter, art director, press helper, stripper and platemaker, cutter, folder, etc. Went on to DTP when Macs got into the act. Gravitated from there into PCs, then networking, now I'm a Database Admin. Funny how you wind up in something totally different than what you start out as. But this whole time I've worked only for printers, publishers or ad agencies (my current gig).

Kind of miss printing though, I still love the smell of ink and [whacko]solvent.

AK2KX,
You ever set hot type? I am thinking of starting a letterpress shop. Just for scoreing, diecutting, foil etc...
Scott

No hot type for me, just Varityper, Compugraphic and Mergenthaler, but the person I learned from had 20 years of Lino experience, then moved to photo type. A shop like that would be a neat specialty to have. Where in SC? I worked for a while in the 80s in Hilton Head in a print shop there...

I'm in Columbia. You know, just a bit up from hell, we get the breeze from there.

I am sitting at a Mac in the Electronic PrePress department right now. I hate this job! I am 1/3 owner of a graphic design corporation and when they can match my salary here I will work for MY company full time!

Ah Ha , I should have known there were a few printers lurking around here. Yep guilty as charged, work in prepress. We currently have 1 Creo Trendsetter and 2 Krauses, and also got Macs and Barco too. On the floor we got 2 40" Speedmasters, a 40" Komori (all 8 color), 40" Mitsu (6 color), 38" Planeta(2 color) and next week we fire up a new Heidelberg CD 9 color.
OH and the best part is that we are for sell!!! Came to work last week and they dropped the bomb on us, but this isnt the first time. So if anybody wants to buy a printing division (I forget how many plants total are up for sell) then make a bid. Just let me know, maybe they'll let me nogiate the sell, I'll work on comission[:D]

thistle,
are those sheet fed or roll fed press's.
hey guys how is biz,you guys on a roller coaster like we are??
what is the name of the co. for sale
you have no e-mail address in your profile
boxer

Every thing is sheet fed. Oh forgot to mention we also got a Flexo deal not to sure of all details on it though.[uzi]
When I get home this morning I'll email you some info.

GUILTY. My family has owned a commecial offset company for 20 years.
-DR

AK2AX, Interesting, I moved in the other direction. Worked in the computer field for 13 years and now I work for a commercial  printer in Rochester NY. We have all sheet-fed presses, lots of bindery capabilities, on-demand digital printing, CD reproduction and over 200 employees.  
But I'm on vacation, enough talk about work!

Man, there are a lot of us ink heads. I have always worked in sheetfed up until I went to the "dark side" & started making the unreasonable requests. Thisle, that Kentucky plant is a good setup. You guys with Donnelly by chance? Boxer, you in sheetfed? I really think you must be in heatset web.

I have never really worked in EPP, I never had the patience or talent for that. I'd rather get the job and bring it in without the fonts, the scans in rgb, etc... and expect you guys to "fix"it. We can always bill for alterations... I miss the pace at times, but not the pressure when the job is gonna be late or wrong. Oh well, I'll be back in the game soon. I can handle those situations better now.
Keep those presses rolling.

Funny as I was going to bring this topic up myself...
I as well work for a small digital printing company. Just have a Docutech and a 5360 and a small two color press.

I could use some help though, I am starting a newsletter of my own, going to print it at work with discount from the boss. It is for ATV riders in the state through the Association, and several dealers have expressed interest in advertising and subscribing to hand out, but how do I go about figuring charges for advertising and subscriptions? I know there are alot of variables, but I have no clue as to how to go about figuring this. if someone has a simple formula or could lend some experience it would be great!!

Thanks

Sometimes I think it would be nice to work in commercial printing where you have plenty of time and jobs are actually scheduled. I work in financial and all of our turn around times are in hours, not days or weeks. We don't even have a print shop anymore. All of our jobs are digitally sent off to other sites to be printed.

I started in the printing (pre-press) industry in 1994.  Still here, gravitating to the web, though.

Currently looking to expand my side business, which is Adobe Acrobat PDF and PostScript training/consultation for printing and color separation.

BTW, my company (on Long Island, NY) has just installed a Heidelberg Quickmaster DI Digital Offset Press.  That machine kicks butt!

Anyone interested, go to my web page at http://interzonems.hypermart.net.

I used to run a 4-color Propheteer roll press.  Was also the warehouse manager.  We made LOW wage for the printing industry..but being in west Ky what do you expect?  

We had a Komori 6 or 8 color flatsheet press that had the built in dryer.  I think it was 8 color.  Sweet machine and if I remember right it ran $1+ mil  or so we were told by management.

It's funny that almost EVERYONE in the printing industry has a side business!

Slow . Just had to send two typesetters home for the day.
Next week we could be swamped.

I'm the Graphics/PrePress Supervisor for our printing company.
Mac-based.
Traditional and Poly plates.
Sheet-fed presses.
Dream is to be a freelance illustrator. Any illustrators here?

-Coal-Cracker

Add me to the list.  I started out working on web presses back in 69.  I worked in a pretty big shop, worked my way up to pressman, made the switch to sheetfed back 10 years or so.

I've dabbled in most aspects of the trade, from pre press, to the bindery, and all points in-between.  I've ran a 8 unit Hantsho web press (which was a huge pain in the ass) and a number of Miller TP104 5 and 6 unit sheetfed presses.

I am presently working for a small shop running a single color Harris (not hard work it's just hard getting a press that's almost as old as me to run worth a darn), I also fill in on the cutter and make deliveries.  It's a far cry from running quality 4 color work and I don't get much personal gratification from the work I'm doing but it is nice working for a company that actually cares a little about you as a person rather than being a company mule that never could do enough to please management.

Probably none of us. Even though I know someone is kidding I never speak of counterfeiting. The Secret Service has no sense of humor, and I don't want to have to prove myself innocent.
Scott

A bunch of ink junkies, glad you're here. I run a Diddie VIP with U.V. ink. We have 8 units and usually run 4 over 4. Started on sheetfed, then went to 7 units of Goss Urbanite, then a Goss Community Clone, and now it's the Diddie. I just finished the manuel for the new Winchester 9410. Basically a 94 in .410 gauge. The Graphics Arts shop screwed up the manuel, which I noticed, so we had to pull the job. Added a weeks delay to initial shipment, as we print most Winchester manuels. See not all Pressmen are stupid.

I do graphic design/ typesetting & Prepress for a small offset place. Business is good so we keep expanding, but I'm the only real computer guy there. So now I have to take care of Mac, PC & windows NT stations & run an ABDick DPM 2340 Plate Maker (NICE 4 color stuff) all by myself (and learn them while working, no lessons here) I shall soon be driven insane.

[whacko]

So based on this , could you say you tape little pieces of paper onto big pieces of paper? (pasteup). Man that gig will be fun. Wait untill you tell a customer you can do say 3 PMS colors in register & the boss freaks out because he has never ran more than 2 on the POS T-head.
Push the envelope....

printing sucks.......
but i would not give it up for anything.
been doing this stuff since 1976.
started out roll tending a harris, printing a pinko liberal magazine.
two different employers in the last 25 years how's that for leading a dull boring life.
man this stuff has come a long way since then.
boxer

Yea I've been doing this for 7.5 years now. Started in Finishing (bindry) packing a box, worked my way up to jogger then cutter. After 2 years I got into the prepress end making plates. The plant has been thruogh some ups and downs so I'm back in the plate room for now.
I have seen some wild things in my short time here, we've tried running so many diffrent substraits its not even funny. Polyweave was wild, it was made for injection molded plastics, namely anti freeze jugs. Well it streched when it was sheeted, streched when it was printed, curled when it set so it was impossible to jog and was a pain to cut. T-3 ran well on a 40" but gave us problems on our 51". Everybody liked it except the customer. Label lyte is good stuff, looks great after its printed, its just not cost efficent. Now we got some stuff called Ultra Tuff (as in ultra tuff to sheet,print,get the ink to stick to) you have to use a quick dry ink, run the powder way up and it looks like crap, however it is cheap so we continue to sell it.
I guess my greatest accomplishment is that I've held production records on all the equiment I've operated for over 5 weeks. Held the jogging record 3 times. Still hold straight knife record (4,140,000 in 8 hour shift) and all the plate making records. Of course I did all those things when I was younger and cared more. However after getting the screws put to you enough you tend to stop caring.
Technolgy is wonder full as long as it dosent put people out of work, but stuff like that happens. Our Trendsetter kicks butt! I can run more plates on it in 8 hours than I could on 2 Krauses in 12 hours.(anybody in the market for a Krause?) The new CD press will perfect12500 an hour with NO MARKING! If we did not have a perfect unit Heidelberg guarentees 15k an hour with no marking. Oh well I've rambled on enough as it is, got to go back to making plates.[uzi]