Images Magazine Digital Edition May 2018

www.images-magazine.com MAY 2018 images 35 TIPS & TECHNIQUES His idea of success is all about speed. How fast can he possibly run the press? The boy racer Billy, on the other hand, has been printing T-shirts for five years now. He isn’t quite as long in the tooth as Fred, but he thinks he does okay. Billy runs an automatic press crew for the shop. He learned to print at another company in town and came on board for more money about six months ago. For him, that extra £0.25 an hour made enough of a difference to leave the company that trained him. What he also brought was the bad habits from that other shop. This is just a career he backed into, and if someone offered him more money he would Like a golf swing, it’s all technique. Fred has printed an untold number of T-shirts over the years. During that time, he’s mastered the art of the quick screen ink flood, coupled with the perfectly angled print stroke to match. He knows the secret is in controlling the squeegee angle and the pressure, and using his body in perfect balance like an athlete. He makes it look effortless. Sure, he’s got a grip that could crush walnuts, but the way he prints puts the perfect amount of leverage with his body so his arms aren’t the main force behind the stroke. Each blank T-shirt starts off on the cart at exactly the right angle for him. He doesn’t even have to look when he’s loading a T-shirt, it’s all muscle memory. He loads each T-shirt on the platen with even hands and pulls back the T-shirt so the collar drapes off the front edge just so. The screen drops down. He prints an exact duplicate of the print stroke he has been using for decades. It ends with the perfect flood stroke on the screen as it lifts up in one motion. Perfection. Part of the secret to his output speed is having a good support team. The shop crew feeds him the next pile of orders, T-shirts, screens and ink. All he has to do is set up the job and print. Take down the job and start over with the next order. Set up. Print. Take down. Rinse and repeat. jump ship again. Or maybe go back into construction. “A job is a job, you know.” His idea of success is all about speed. How fast can he possibly run the press? He tries to beat his output from the day before. The other shop he worked for was all about numbers. His ‘craft’ was drilled into him by a management team that barked orders all day like a dog. Okay quality was good enough. Billy runs his press so fast that he misses boards. He also is constantly going through press puller assistants as they can’t keep up. After six months, he’s on number four. He doesn’t understand why the shop keeps hiring these ‘lazy’ people. One big problem that the management team is constantly harping on with Billy is his overuse of spray tack. He doesn’t like to use a water-based adhesive that you card on or apply with a roller. “It slows me down.” Consequently, he does what he wants. The management team usually looks the other way as they have orders to ship. Or maybe they are just too busy with other priorities.