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Mark & Graham Pressman The Bungalow Cart Gap Road Happisburgh, Norfolk NR12 0QL Telephone 01692 582 292 Mail us by clicking here
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17th November 2011
Over the decades we have, in England, experienced a number of resessions and, indeed, wars. I refer in particular to the 2 World Wars. As each of these major events have drawn to an end there have been thousands upon thousands of unemployed, wondering how they could turn an honest living. At these times manufacturers of small printing and foiling machines have done very well. There have been quite several of them. The latest printing machine manufacturing company was Adana. After WWII and during the resession which followed, Adana made a vast number of their little portable printing machines and sold them to people who set about learning to print. As an apprentice-trained printer, it is my view that these folk were clever souls. An Adana is not the easiest of presses upon which to learn the trade.
These same men had also to learn typography. Or not, in some cases! We have been comissioned to produce some Wedding Invitations for a couple who have asked us to follow the style of a late 1940's circus ticket. Fonts are highly decorative, serif and sans serif faces are very mixed. I am reminded that Adana sold very small fonts of type in tiny little type cases into the boxes of which a thumb and forefiinger would barely fit. sometimes, especialy with the display fonts, people could barely afford to buy enough to set a couple of lines in any one size or font. The result would never be accepted today. It would be considered bad form and completely rubbish design. However, it worked in a very strange sort of way.
It is wonderful to be following this style, if only once in my career. It has brought to mind the feeling of entrepreneurship which must have led to hundreds of successful printing businesses being established throughout the country. No doubt many failed, but I have little doubt that even the firm by whom I was apprenticed probably began from these first tortuous steps from demob or depression and redundency to self-employment and eventually to respected professionalism. I am deeply consious that my old teacher, Tony slaney, was demobbed after WWII and was soon teaching art and printing in a secondary school with a teachers traing course of several week's duration under his belt and that is was in or after a post war depression that the firm with which I was apprenticed was started in Pinner Green, Middlesex. Did that begin from similar simple beginnings? I don't know. I do know that by the time I started there in 1970, I had just missed the Wharfedale press, which had been replaced by a new Hiedelberg cylinder. We had less type than I have now, albeit it slightly better oprganised and only two automatic platens. There was a Multilith 1250 and a Rotaprint R30 in the second, adjacent, shop, with a Johne Perfecta Guillotine, which the safety elves would have a field day over these days. The R30 operator worked the guillotine, providing a constant supply of materials for the 2 platen mainders and cylinder minder, as well as for his own 2-press litho department. He also drove the Austin Mini delivery van, which was all sign-writen to perfection. Very smart!
Out in the warehouse were 3 women, folding, packing, stapling and padding all manner of products, printed on the 5 presses in the front shops. The Composing department had 2 full time comps. (a journeyman and his apprentice), fed with work in large envelopes printed with a form, which was able to describe any oprinting job ,i.and,/i. cost it at the end, by the 2 men in the office. In the comp room we took turns answering bell rung by the constant stream of customers who would drop in to make enquiries and place orders. These we would refer to the office bods, who were in the back of the premises. That team of a dozen people all had well paid work, 3 were apprentised and 3 were company family members. The owner of the business would come in every Thursday at 2:30pm sharp with the wages and entruset hie son (in his 40's and the Hiedelberg cylinder minder and in charge of the apprentice on one of the platens) to hand round the little printed packets of cash.
I remember that one of the platen minders left and set up his own little business in Wembley with a platen. He too worked away for years on end as a self-employed printer. Those days were hard for him. PC's were about to come in. Litho was becoming more and more affordable and the future was bleak for anybody who could not afford to invest in new equipment to keep up with technological advances. But, once again, the Thatcher years supplied a vast number of redundant printers, many with huge redundancy packets, who invested in the new kit and moved the nation forward on the back of the failure of the established old-school printing compaanies, like The sun and Odhams. It all bears some thinking about! It was the same period when the newspapers were mmoving to The east End, setting up their new computer typesetting and litho presses and many new businesses started up all over the country. The problem with them was that they were borrorwing. Loads failed as a result. soon it became clear that the only winners were the baankers. Young people, school leavers in particular, quickly signed up in banking to make their fortunes. The problem with that is that theere was no-one left to do any work. Not to worry! The bankers lent money to foreigners. The Universities trained them in our skills and manual work moved abroad, where of course, all the manufacturing is now and where all the money is to be earned today.
16th November 2011
This world resession we are all hearing so much about seems to me to be te very thing of which I have been warning that we in the UK we find ourselves involved in for some years. I did not, however think about the European nations which seem to have sufferred the effects before we have.
We have let our manufacturing base dwindle to a little shadow of what we need it to be. We have encouraged what I was taught as being "invisible earnings", when I was at school. In other words we have been encouraging trying to earn something for precious little effort at the expense of real labour for our pay. It is unsurprising to me that it is the country which has retained a manufactuiring base (Germany) which has suffered the least.
No the less, even Germany will go the way of the rest of us; and believe me when I say that I am firmly of the belief that the UK will be close behind Greece, Italy, spain andd (I think before us) France. Why? I have said it before. I think we are all consuming too much and producing too little in comparison with the countries which are living at a lower standard than our peoples and producing so very much more. We would need to produce vastly more and live to a very much lower standard, even than they, to catch up with them and become their equals, economically.
Finally I want to ay that I don't believe we can simply leave all this to Goverment. It is my view that we must, all of us, take personal responsibillity for seeing that eac and every one of us produces at least as much as we consume and that, as far as we possibly can, we each buy from UK manufacturers.
Oh! smoking in our cars!
Them dr's has gone daft! I would much rather die of smoking, over a 20-40 year period than in a second, of road rage. so F off and mind your own bussiness, which is looking after the sick, not preventing us for providing you with the need to work. It's our choice and we're the ones paying through our tobacco tax).
10th November 2011
Mark has finally stopped working at The Hill House (except for emergencies), which is a relief to me. I only hope he is going to be happy with that too.
He is now foiling Christmas Crackers for The Butchers Arms in East Ruston. I printed them a couple of days ago, then cut out the shapes, ready for the foiling. Once that is done we will need to get them folded, the snaps, party poppers, jokes and hats inserted, ready for delivery. It's all a bit slow, it being a job done by hand. I think the customer aught to be doing the folding and packing themselves. It seems to me to be an opportunity for them to save money. Oh well!
I have agreed with the management of The Association of Hot Foil Printers to take on that magazine from next month, merging it with Foilink Magazine. We are looking forward to that.
4th November 2011
Well, the winter seems to be progressing reasonably well. The quiet spell we had in October seems to have abated a little and we are all running along merrily, just a little slower than normal.
Foilink magazine is almost ready for publication to members. I am just waiting for 1 article from a contributor.
A friend of ours has just come back from Africa, where he has been teaching English. I have no doubt that much has been learned on his side as well as that of his pupils. His attitude to our western way of life may have altered just a little!
We have supplied crackers to The Hill house and will be doing so for The Butchers Arms, in another village locally. I have to admit that we have been tempted into a little foiling for that job. We are using the "toner foiling" method for that, as it is a fairly short run and the hieelberg is set up for running muffin boxes. Added tot hat, the cost of a plate for a cracker is high as it is quite a large job. Toner foiling is a prcess whereby the toner laid down by a digital press is re-heated to the point at which it begins to melt and the foil is applied. Then, as the toner cools and re-solidifies, it adheres to the paper (or card) permenantly. Provided you get the temperature, dwell time and pressure combination right it is a brillant process for short run work.
30th October 2011
Right! That's summer over for this year. If anybody wants a full day from now on they will have to get up an hour earlier. I know at least one person who is not about to do that. Grrrr!
29th October 2011
That was all I had time to type before i had to pick and pack yesterday's orders.
We are taking a bunch of photos this morning of your gilded boxes. We have decided to go with silver and gold only, although there are red, green and blue available to us as well. We are working towards popping them up in our Ebay shop at www.Ebay.co.uk. I hope they should all be done this morning. No doubt it will take the whole morning though.
28th October 2011
We hope to be adding another product line, or a variation on an existing line, to our ebay store today.
25th October 2011
I have been under the inpression that i have been loosing my earsigth (hearing) now for a little while. The reason is that i have been failing to hear properly on the telephone. I phoned Plantronics this afternoon,, who made my headset. I see sir, came the reply to my explanation. Please fing ths switch here and set it to 4 and that switch there nad set it to 1. BIINGO! I can hear again. I had the mocrophone volume turned up too high and the the earpiece volume turned down to minimum. There is nothing wrong with my hearing and my microphone has not been in my mouth for the past few months. I aplogise to those for whom my voice has sounded too load and to whom I have been crying what? Eh? Perdon?? for ages.
19th October 2011
Following on from my most recent political comments around young people and their attitude to my generation, this morning I heard that some idiot seems to think he has a right to demand that as we get older we aught to be forced to live in smaller accomodation. UPDATE - This is still a democracy and we are still free to accomodate ourselves as we please, to the limit of our ability to afford it. We may spend as much or a little of OUR money on whatever form of housing we choose. If some of us (seems odd to me but ...) choose to keep a spare bedroom or two for our kids, should they be persuaded to come to stay, however misguided that may be of us, it is our right. If we decide to use one of their old rooms as a toy-room or a make-believe office, that too is up to us. These are OUR houses they are talking about. WE have sweated blood and tears over them for a lifetime and WE will decide. That's one of the privalages of being grown-ups. Anyway, you'll be glad of the inheritance when it comes. If we cash-in now, I have little doubt that our kids will find some way of extracting thew money from us before the due date. Patience, my dears!
I am told there is a housing shortage! OK, so there always was. so stop importing foreigners to do the jobs them kids don't want to do, let our own young peple do those jobs and then, maybe, they will earn the right to live in them. As long as we have half of Europe living here and 1 million young people declining to work at less than half a million pounds a year because they have a degree, there will be a shortage of housing. Get real!
Nuff for now!
This is turning into a rant.
17th October 2011
I have just formally turned down the offer of a Double Demy Miehle and anotherTompson, for sale in Wales. The retired owner only wanted scrap value for them, but add that to the cost of getting them home and together, they would have come to £3000.00. It is so sad to know they are likely to go for scap, but I cannot do with paying so much for such old machines. It is so very sad!
16th October 2011
Let me be clear! I am NOT one to wring my hands and cry "oh, the youth of today!". But I have to respond to what I see happening today with world-wide demonstrations by young people against my own generation. They seem to be saying that people of my generation have squandered their futures. My response cannot be terribly positivie, it has to be said. Please let me mention a few of the positive things that we have done for them.
We have been the 1st generation for a long time not to have indulged in a World War and used our youth to fight it.
We were the generation who, perhaps foolishly (I hope not), banned beating, caning and slappping young people as a method of instruction and chastisement. For that you owe us your respect and gratitude. It was a supreme act of a civilised generation and put the youth in a place of trust for the first time in human history.
We left school at 16 and worked for much less than is now the minimum wage (in real terms), even by the standards of young people today.
We are the generation which has introduced all the technology that they now consider to be a basic human right to own and with which to play endlessly.
We have watered them, sheltered them, fed them and clothed them in designer cloths, when we would have been told to earn it or do without it at their age.
We are the generation which has educated them to University standard, when we could not afford to go even to college if we failed our GsE's or whatever it was we were forced to take in our day. Even if we could afford evening classes, they were over before we finnished work at night.
Frankly, I think they have a flaming cheek!
On the other side of the coin,
They decline to sweep the streets, or tube stations. The refuse to be a "bin man". They tell us there are no jobs out there, as though that's the fault of our generation. We have to bring in East Europeans and other imigrants to do those jobs!
They do not want to look after the elderly. they ask "why should I?" We have to bring in East Europeans and other imigrants to do that!
They refuse to do anything usless they can describe it as "fun". That's utterly unreaslistic!
They can barely bring themselves to lift their eyes from their social networking pads to work, when they are being paid so to do. We have to bring in East Europeans and other imigrants to do that!
They just want us to pop our cloggs and hand over our houses and bank balances!
They cannot be bothered to get up in the mornings, but they can party till well into the night.
such behaviour is unsustainable! I think they lack the imagination to get up and do something for themselves as we did and as did our parents before us.
Whatever they want, they just buy on credit
Frankly, I think that attitude is lazy and very rude!
There are exceptions, but they are sadly rare!
I now expect a violent knock on the caravan door or for something to be stolen to compensate the little so and so's for my inpertinance!
14th October 2011
Isn't it a funny old world! Ebay introduced a new "add to cart" button on their listings and sales dropped 75% overnight. The reason we thonk it odd is that doing so makes it so very much easier for people to understand and to select a variety of products from our shop. It's clearer and simpler. People are odd!
11th October 2011
Following on from the last article, I have to make it clear that I fully appreciate the other effects of this QE, that I have been commenting upon. I am aware that people who import goods and services will find that their goods and services will be more expensive, due to the changing (falling) value of the £. People exporting goods will benefit in that their goods and services will seem cheaper to foriegners. By the same virtue, home (Brisitsh)-made goods will befenfit from the reletive increased expense of competative imported goods. The only real problem there is little made in England any more. I our case, we have to buy in foreign made card from which we manufacture our Wedding Favour Boxes and Tyvek wristbands. Nobody yet makes coloured card or a paper like Tyvek in the UK at a price that can compete with inported (from scandenavia and france respectively) material on price.
Equally, the route by which the new money works it's way into the system will, of course, give time preference to the banks over the individuals. Provided that the banks do actually distribute the cash by one means or another, the rest of us will gain the benefits and experience the harships in due course. It really is only a question of whether the banks will actually distribute it. It may be worth mentioning that even if they only spend it paying their cronies, those people will, in due course, spend it in our shops and offices. It is unlikely that they will actually save it, in my view. It's just a matter of time before we get it in the real world, all being well! At least there should be a short buffer before it all washes over us all.
8th October 2011
so The Bank of England are giving away £75bn. We are not quite clear who they are giving it to, but we can sure as anything be clear about who they are taking it from. Caan't we? I think it's obvious, but I am not absolutely sure of my facts, so it is, for now, only my opinion.
I suppose to begin with we need to get our minds around the figure. How much is £75bn? well, there are less thaan 75,000,000 people (of all ages) in the UK. sO that represents more than £1000 each. The Bank of ngland are, so it seems, inventing £1000 for every man woman and child and putting it somehwere in the financial system of the UK. To my mind that means that means that each and every one of us, on average, must have had our property, money, or other possesions reduced in value by an average of £1000 each. surely that's what QE does? It devalues the currency, doesn't it?
On the other hand, I am assuming that every debt is reduced in value by £1000 each, on average. Is that right? After all! It's money that's devalued, isn't it? so if you owe a few thousand, that fw thousand is, on avearage £1000 less and if you are owed a few few thousand, or have saved a few thousdand, it's your savings or credits that have been reduced. That rather sounds to me like a re-distribution of wealth, isn't it?
Didn't they do this a few months ago with about £200bn? so, if so, that's £275bn. Now that, to my mind equates to nearly £4000 each, in just a few months. Hmmm!
I have no idea what thiese figures represent in terms of any one person's personal wealth or personal debt. I don't know what the average level of wealth is. I know how much I am worth, should I pop y clogs tomorrow, but I have no idea how much is average. i have tried so hard all my life not to owe money, but most of my life I have tried to avoid spending money I don't have (and done fairly well, but not succeeded entirely). I do know I am currently in credit. so I do know that I will be one of those who is worse off than I would have been without QE. In many ways I don't mind that too much. It would have been nice to have been asked, but ho hum! What I don't know is what proportion of my wealth, such as it is, has been transferred to the less thrifty. However, I suspect that I may be better off not knowing.
One final thought! If i take this as a form of Robin Hood tax, I would guess that I am certainly now paying more in tax than I can currently earn. That's a shame, because i was feeling that wws a profit in working, for a while. Never mind!
5th October 2011
Our House in Eccles is undergoing a change of tennant tomorrow. We have been very fortunate that our outgoing tennant recommened a replacement as he resigned his tennancy. We are very grateful. As part of our responsibilities we have to ensure that there is a proper fire extinguisher etc. We hav been offerred one wich is gguaranteed for ten years with almost no service required. It is green and clean. What a step forward!
The same company are offering us LED lighting and a PV charging system for it for use iin our new hose, when we build it. That's a fantasic thing! I have never ben keen on these Government funded feed-in taarrif systems, which cost a small fortune and invole virtually selling one's roof for a decade. The basic notion is fine, but the devil is in the detail, as always. However, i am hoping that we can buy a small PV panel outright for a sensible sum, which will provided for lighting at least. I lived for nearly 20 years on a boat, with no ains power, and think that the modern systems tend to be overly ambitious.
Hat and Boots! That's the thing we must consider most for our straw build. The boots being the foudation and the hat being the roof. The boots now seem to be under control. Therefore, we are going for hardcore in wire cages, which will drain well and be dry. At least! That's our most recent idea.
As to the roof, we have only got as far as thinking we want it to be very light weight. We know it MUsT overhang lots, to protect the clay walls.It's now questio of how far should it overhang and how low? Mark is ddetermined not to be banging his head on it. For m part I would have it so low that a very very short person would have to crawl. Interesting difference of opinion there then!
25th september 2011
Readers will have noticed that things are a bit odd on our web site today, and were yesterday. That is because we are moving the site onto a new server, still within Fasthosts. We have, for some time had 2 servers at our disposal. It was always my intention to consolidate the webs sites onto one of them. That's what I am doing now. It's take me over a year to find my round tuit. Therefore, please bear with me whilst I sort out the mess I am making of the transfer.
22nd september 2011
Today we moved an Air scource heating unit from the old house, which is to be demolished to accomodate the new house (when we get planning consent and all the other consents and permisssions and regulations with which we have to comply in order to live peaceably in our own home. We have fitted it to our motor home for the time being. that should keep us warm over the winter at a fraction of the cost of the old fan heater we had to use last winter.
We must now get on with producing the copy for the next issue of Foilink Magazine. That is due for publication in the 2nd week of October. Members who have not renewed will not be getting a magazine this next month.
Wedding boxes are still selling OK. We have had a forme made to cut and crease hexagonal party / Christmas / wedding cracker boxes. We are just waiting for a cutting jacket for our English Miehle and they can go into production. One of our Thompsons seems a little worn in it's bearings and will not quite manage this, bigger, forme. The crackers are full sized and cut from A4, with a lot of creases. We don't expect to supply snaps with them. The whole idea is for folk to decorate them on their own and we think a choice between having and not havnig a snap is a good thing.
The seed from the last load of bales, which we brought here from the field opposite, is growing well in the drive. We may even have enough straw for another load by next spring the way it's going - tee hee! I hope I'm kidding.
Our accounts for next year are all up to date, which is the way I like it. I hate to leave that till the last minute. We are still way off the VAT threshold; thank goodness!
We think we are going to end up renderring the bales with mud from our own garden. We have a number of bales rendered with a variety of stuff and we are finding our own home-grown mud to be by far the most adhesive, durable and resilliant. We expect to be coating it with linseed oil - possibly mixed wth a little bees way, dependding on the results of our next experiment.
We have arranged to have a modern (because they will not drip condensate, like the old ones, for some reason) 20ft container delivered next week in which we can store all our books and furniture whilst we are building. It seems a little premature in a way, but it certainly will only accomodate half of our worldly goods and they will be dryer in there than in the old bungalow, which is going to be very damp and cold over winter without heating. All the water systems will have to be drained down and switched off.
17th september 2011
I've been thinking overnight. I am so consious that we are all informed by the experience of our parents. At least, we should be. if not, one wonders what those parents were up to during our youth. Then I realised that our parents experience and behaviour is equally strongly influenced by their parents - our grand-parents. In my case, some of my grand-parents were born and raised Victorians. Maybe that may explain some of my more old fashioned attitudes. It was having thought that through for a bit that it dawned on me that my grand-parents were brought up by my great-rand parents, who's influence must have filtered through to me. In my teens I recal the death of my Great-Grandfather, who was in his late 80's. He too must have been a Victorian gentleman. I was extremely fond of him; but my maternal great grand-parents, who I never di know, must have been born nearer the 1790's as my mother was a late child. Therefore the influence of the past goes back at least to 1800 or there abouts, in my life.
There were no such things as cars for a start. No central heating, no electric light and cetainly no computers. In that period there had been 2 world wars and numerous other major campaigns around the world by the British Empire. Millions of English people had died and yet we are still horrenously overcorwded today. In fact, it seems to me that we have only really had modern motor transport in my life time. My 1st car was an Austin A35, and that was not an lod banger - well it was, but not because it was old, if you know what I mean. The most modern cars iin those days were the likes of the Austin Mini and the Ford Anglia When I was 17 we bought a new Morriss Minor trveller. As a printer, the most modern of equipment for the jobbing printer were the Hamada star, the Multilith 1250 and the Rotoprint R30-90 litho machines. The Thompson, the Hiedelberg Platen and the Miehle Vertical V55 were still in production, if you could afford one. The Autovic automatic platen was still a common sight in English print shops. It was perfectly common to find an Albion or a Columbian in daily use as a proofing press. none of these could do you much good for short run process work, as the colour copiers can today. My goodness how things have moved forward in my short lifetime! No wonder young people see me as old!
I remember reading a little book as a child called "When grandma was a Girl". It told proudly of steam engines, horse riding, farming before the days of tractors and reading by oil lamp. That was MY Grandmother's time they were talking about. she told me a lot of her life and I feel very nearly as though I have experienced it personally. I forget so easily that our youth see letterpress and, not old fashioned, but historic. I am living in a past long gone.
None the less, our youth is influenced by my experience, that of my parents and grand parents, just as I was by mine. I wondered if they fear being without electricity? They say not. It'll never happen, they say. It did when I was 18 years old. I see nothing to prevent it in the future. We had thought we were immune to power loss. We had oil, coal, hydro-electric dams and who knows what. How could we possibly run out. The Miners strike soon put that into perspective. Now we have nuks, oil, gas, wind hydro., but if we were invaded by anybody's army, the 1st thing they would do is to put a stop to all that. What makes our youth so certain that we are immune to that? Indeed, many of us had wells when I was a kid. Indeed, I had a well only a few years ago. Buy the old wells have all been filled in for fear someone may fall down them and for fear they may be polluted. Not one of us would live more than a few days without water. What are the chances that we could live long enough to provide water for ourselves? Again, questions of young friends inform me that I'm talking rubbish and that it would never be allowed. Right! I believe that! Of course I do! I say that we are 2 weeks from disaster at any moment.
Can we do anything to protect ourselves from this risk? We could, but would we be allowed to?
16th september 2011
Things are ticking over very nicely here. We have launched our efforts in taking over Foilink magazine and the web site is recieving a few welcome hits. As expected, that is slow, but solid.
Our chikens and mostly laying now, which is a pleasant surprise as we did not expect that tillt he spring. They are rather inclined to mining and have dug deep holes all over their pen.
The Wedding favour boxes are selling well and keeping Mark and I very busy. We are hoping to expand the range again in a few days' time. The new one will be a 6 sided cracker-style box.
Books about (manuals for) Ferguson tractors are also selling OK, although the more we print the less we sell. I suppose that is hardly surprising as there must be a limit to the number of tractors outr there and to the number of enthusiasts.
Our plans for our little bungalow are coming on. We are experimenting with different renders for the straw. That is quite a complex set of variables.
7th september 2011
Foilink Magazine is all ready to print except for steve The Duck's contribution. This issue even has a number of colour pages, which we expect to receive soon
We have managed to find a new drinker for Mini Mark the hen. she had a nice plastic pot, but ket knocking it over and then complaining she had no water. silly hen!
Little boxes orders picked up yesterday, but quietened again today. That's a good thing really as it has allowed us the time to get as far as we have with Foilink magazine. It's a funny old world!
I woke this morning to find that I had messed up the Foilink web site. That took me a while to fix, but thank goodness for backups.
#
sTOP PREss! as they say.
Foilink Magazine is printed and ready to post tomorrow. Woopie!
6th september 2011
We had Mark's annual day off yesterday for his birthday. That was a very pleasant relaxing time. Back to work today. Mark is at The Hill House, working, for most of the day.
We have a house up 'To Let' near here. Our long-term tennants are moving on. Interested parties should give me a ring on 01692 582 292. We are charging about £600 a month.
I shall be assembling Foilink Magazine today, preparitory to printing it for distribution amongst members.
The wedding season seems to be easing a little. Turnover halved suddenly over the last bank holiday weekend and has not returned to pre-holiday norms. We still have plenty to do with making little boxes though. It seems there are now dozens of 1's and 2's instead of fewer 5's and 10's.
1st september 2011
The last of our house has been harvested. Now it has only to be baled, when it is dry, and stored. Errrrrrm! Not quite sure what we'll do about that yet!
31st August 2011
I forgot to mention a few days ago that Mark and I went out and bought 2 more hens to go with the 2 we already have. We bought a very pretty brown one with a gold ruffle, which we named Mini Graham
and a black one with a huge black and white ruff, which we named Mini Mark.
Mini Mark just could not get on with the other chickens in the run and so we penned her separately alongside to main run, in a complete run with it's own nest box and roost. We put that in full sight of the others. They ran up and down in threatening posture for days. In the end, we have given up trying to integrate her. Today, when I went out to feed and water them, first thing, Mini Mark was unwilling to leave her nest. When we called in later, there lay 2 beautiful little eggs.
29th August 2011
As usual for a Bank Holiday it has been deadly quiet here for a few days. Then it usually picks up on the Monday, which it has a bit. I do have a good order for books about Ferguson TE 20 series tractors to out to Australia. That is ready and will, I hope, leave by Airmail tomorrow. I also have a few wristband orders and a few packs of little wedding favour boxes. No doubt the clientelle will be home tonight and will catch up with normality.
The Foilink web site at www.foilink.org.uk OK, I fixed that now! is now up and running. We are just waiting a couple oof days for new copy for David Chill's entry, some of the ads and for steve's items. Hello steve:-)
We had a wonderful evening with the Doggets Lane Residents Annual party last night. What a lovely bunch they are! They always make us so welcome!
23rd August 2011
I'm sorry to say that sneezy, the last of our ex-battery chickens, died last night in her sleep. she had been quiet yesterday and unwilling to come out. I passed food in to her, but she would have none of it. so I left her to rest with a little slurp of anti-biotics. That anti-biotic liquid had served her well at similar moments in the past. The other two, new-comers, are fit and well. I think, whilst they are young, i will get 2 more to make up a foursome. 2 hardly seems to make up a flock. I will get them from the same place as I got these two and go for a pair of about the same age. Then we may see csome eggs next year.
Today iseems to be another busy day on EBay. Mark is just back with card, which he has had cut to size. it was delivered before 8 this morning.
22nd August 2011
I must phone our hosting provider tomorrow. The username and password thing for the members pages won't work on the new web site.
20th August 2011
I can now announce that Mark and I have taken on Foilink Magazine. Foilink Magazine is an independant monthly magazine "Operated to support Foilers and Foiling in the UK". For those who may not know, Hot Foiling is a method of printing which employs a raised, or relief, surface, which is heated and pressed onto the surface of the material which is to be printed. It is dependant upon there being and even pressure on the image, a good quality foil, which is coated with a suitable adhesive in most cases and nearly always a carrier, the right temperature for that foil in combination with an appropriate dwell time. The resulting image is usually metallic, although matt and gloss colours are also available. The image is usually very dense and can soemtimes be hollographic in nature. There are a wide range of effects which can be imparted using hot foil and it can be applied to a vaste range of substraights and 3D objects. Furthermore it can be utilised in conjunction with embossing or debossing to give a 3D effect by that method too.
We have registered a web domain for Foilink Magazine at www.Foilink.org.uk and plan to create a web site there some time in the next month or so. We shall also continue with the monthly magazine delivered to the doors of members.
16th August 2011
Party boxes went up onto ebay today. They can be found at this ebay page and this ebay page.
Our tennants of the past year or so are leaving our rental house (just down the road from here) in October. We wish them well. They have been excellent tennants. We hope to have replacements very quickly.
15th August 2011
We had a delivery this morning of a new kind of card from which we can make a different kind of boxes. This is called a "cast Coated" board of 250gsm. The surface is very hard and glossy. The colours available are either pale and gentle or very bright. I have bought 5 packs to see how they go. I can get more next day on demand. It is over 3 times the cost of the board we use at the moment.
I have also designed a new party box for this card. I have ordered a new cutting forme to that design. It is of similar dimensions to that of a kind of box imported in large nunmbers from China. The cost of those boxes from China is tiny (much less than we have to pay for the board), but then one has to add the cost of shipping them half way round the planet and pay import taxes on top of that. I hope we can compete, by making the boxes here in Norfolk on vintage machinery. I have made the investment, done the preparations and have the skills and machinery. We shall have to see how the project goes!
I have had an enquiry about printing foil onto tumblers. I have the adhesive, which is needed to adhere the foil to the glasses. I have ordered samples of the foil, which I hope will arrive today and look forward, very much, to printing a few samples. There is nothing quite like refining old skills to develope new products! I think the printing of these glasses will cost customers about 75p - 90p each for decent runs. We will be imparting the image on our Debuit rotary screen printing machine.
so today is largely about waiting for materials and a forme, in between producing the tractor books, under licence, for Ferguson tractors, established boxe types and wristbands.
12th August 2011
Mark and I have spoken for some hours and made a number of decisions.
We have decided that we will continue to do the following sorts of job:-
standard Boxes and shapes, as available from us on EBay or FaceBook
Quantities of t-shirts, over 20
Ferguson Tractor Books
Wristbands
Drinking Glasses and Beer Festival printed items
Foilink Magazine
Beyond that, we will be considering, with great care, any other jobs which we intend to persue.
I know that is a huge difference from the policy which we have followed in the past, but we must be careful to ensure that we can continue to do those jobs which are profitable, without risking finacial loss by doing jobs which are not profitable.
Having said all of the above, we do not plan to abandon any charities or new businesses, which we have supported in the past, in line with our base principles. Indeed, it will be our pleasure to help where we can.
8th August 2011
Woops! That was the phone. sorry about that! Mark's work pattern has just been changed. He now works Monday lunch time and a split shift on Tuesday. He also did a shift yesterday to cover for a sick workmate. The pub was manic and the Lifeboat Fete was on in the field behind the pub, where there was an outside bar run by the pub.
Mark and I have done the picking and packing this morning, so I am now ready for callers till this afternoon's post time (3:30-4:30pm)
Here's a little thing!
In your house, where is the warmest place in the summer? The loft! It's roasting up there! Why? The sun beats down on the roof and heats the place. simples! There is still heat from the sun in the winter (up to 3/4kw per day per square meter (exposed to the sun and south facing) in winter, so if we actually encourage the loft space to get warm or even hot, then where better than the warmest place could we find for the outdoor air source heating units (sound transmission nearly nil, through the straw), the air around them is going to be several degress warmer than it would be in the outdoor brass monkeys. Now I have to ask the air-source heating guys. Watch this space! We are going to have some 60 square meters up there on the south side alone. that's an average of 1.8kw/hr (December only, it improves on that the rest of the winter, when, frankly, it is usually colder).
so the plan formes all the more.
It goes like this ... We have beams accross the building, sitting flat on the top of the walls, pressing firmly down. That will ensure we have little outward pressure trying to part the walls. Then there a floor and then straw on those with a huge insulating capacity. Rising up from that floor, and firmly anchored thereto are the rafters, meeting that the top, covered with our very black pitched felt roofing material, which has precious little insulating capacity, but doesn't need any. The outdoor heating units are up there, sucking the heat out of the air and moving it down into the house.
In the mean time, the walls are vented at their tops, to the loft. At the bottom of the walls, on the inside, are vents, which allow some air from floor level indoors to filter up through said walls, thus keeping them internally dryer; most damp and warm air being at ceiling level. The air source heatin/cooling units will keep the air dryer via the condensers; discharge being to the outside. Appropriate quantities of fresh air (cooling in summer) will enter the building through the vents at the tops of the window frames, as per building regs.
Foundations!
18" of crushed hardcore! On that will be railway sleepers, on edge and bolted through, from inside to outside, with a gap and with a sleepr on top. The void is filled with more consolidated hardcore, leaving a bale-width on which the bales can sit. between the bales and the hardcore is a damp proof membrane, which goes over the oouter edge-standing sleepers and under the top sleep, which in turn have a stainless steel wire running through at bale-length intervals. That wire will go between each of the bottom bales. The next layer of bales are pierced through their middles (with care to accuracy) by the wire, which extend on up in like fashion. Upon reaching the top of the wall, another row of sleepers form the wall-plate, on which the cross-beams will sit at about 45 degress to the walls. Thus speads the load of the roof, such as it is, onto all 4 walls. The wall-plate sleepers are drilled for the wires andthose wires a brought taught in order to pre-compress the bale walls. The cross beams extend beyond the building sufficient to offer some protection, for the walls, against rainwater. To the cross beams is fixed the loft floor, to which the roof rafters are anchored. The roof rafters run up from, nearly, the outside edge of that floor to the apex. It is important that the roof sits square on it's floor in order to spread it's load evenly over the 4 walls. An external soffit prevents ingress of vermin under the eaves. It may be wise to ventilate that soffit some. The underside of the cross beams become the ceiling and the insulating bales sit on top of the beams. The gables are straw too, but need not be. They could equally well be simple timber cladding on a suitable frame. I am keen to keep the roofing skin both light in weight and black in colour. I favour pitched felt panels. The long walls are braced by wires through vertical posts, driven well down, in two places along their length. At those places there be internal walls spreading against the pressure of compression from the wires.
There you have it. No frame!
I've read it rhough and seen the errors and repetitions. The thing is that I'm tired now, so they shall have to stay there; at least for now.
7th August 2011
The holiday season is well and truly upon us. The area is crawling with holiday makers. The effect that has on the roads of this area is curious. Normally everybody is courtious and patient. At this time of year, speeds are up and drivers are increasingly impatient and rude as well as being in a dreadful rush and intensly competative. It all seems to fly in the face of the whole "relaxing on holiday" thing. Never mind! They will all have gone home again in a few weeks. I am told they bring vital cash into the district. I can't help but think that those involved with the holiday trade may well do something else if there was not a mad rush once every year and things would soon balance out. As it is, there is a slump in late september and - - - - - more later
5th August 2011
I have spoken with John Robins from Garside sands this morning, again, about ground re-cycled glass for our new house. You will remember that our intention is to render the straw bales with ground glass bonded with a product called soil Bind. soilbind is a polymer which is used to bind agregate in the manufacture of road surfaces. It has been used to bind glass particles where a white or coloured line is required at the edge of a road. We are hoping to get a sample next week and a larger one a week later. There is an added advantage with glass, which is the exceptional insulative qualities thereof. Much better than agregate!
I have heard from a nice man in Wales who is getting shot of his printing kit as he approaches retirement. I phoned him having read of him on a blog by another printer. he really is such a lovely man with whom to chat and yarn. He used this machine to print Agricultural sale Posters until fairly recently. He also has a Thompson, which we may be able to have. It is gorgeous! This is his photo. I hope he doesn't mind. This type of press is what we call a "2 rev". That is, the cylinder revolves twice for every pull. One benefit over the single revolution design of the Wharfedale is that the stock takes a much flatter path as it is fed (by hand) into the top of the cylinder, revolves over the type as the bed passes under the cylinder and is delivered, as the bed returns, whilst the cylinder makes another revolution. The Wharfedale, on the other hand only make only revolution, starting with the stock fed to the bottom and delivering, whist the cylinder is stopped as the bed returns. These machines also have a much tighter circumference than the 2 revolution models like the Miehle flat bed. This Miehle was made under licence by Linotype & Machinery of Altringham from around the turn of the century. I do not know the date any more acurately than that, but I am guessing this was a slightly later model. The print size is Double Demy, which is about 35" x 21.5". We may have to build a temporary shed especially for it, I am thinking. That sounds to me like an excellent excuse to practice with the straw bales in advance of building our new house. There is a strong posibility that we may be taking a trip over to Wales to have a look at it in the near future.
4th August 2011
Here's a thought for people who are unemployed and really do want to work. The first thing is that no-one says you have to "be given a job" to work and make yourself a living. A lot of people think it's not that easy to be self-employed. Many find it the only way to be employed, for them. I am one of those. Remember! This is just my suggestion. There is no compulsion to do anything I say and there are pitfualls. Finding and experiencing those pitfalls is a valuable part of growing up. Fo my part, I did not feel even a little bit grown up till I was 40. Then I realised what a long way I had to go till I'd be any good at anything.
For those who want a job and to work for someone else, then go and give a little. Offer to do a little something here or there for an existing employer or another individual. Don't ask for money. If they offer, be grateful and surprised. From your perspective think of it as a free sample of what you can do and of your intitiative. The chances are that, if you do good, the employer will not only give you a little cash for the the help you have been, but, maybe in time, when he/she has a vacancy, might offer employment. There's no guaruntees and your efforts may fall on baren soil. But keep trying. Have more than one iron in the fire. Help several businesses. How? Just have a very general chat, whenever the chance appears, with the boss of a firm or a neighbour or a friend. Be nice to her/him. If something crops up whilst you are around, just say something like "can I do that for you?" or if the person just begins to get on with it, try to help. Do as you're asked. Don't make any presumptions and be quick to follow instructions. You DO NOT know best. It's that persons business how their little job is done. Do it THEIR way every time.
For those of you with no training in anything that is "work", offer to mow a lawn or clean a car perhaps. Offer to sweep the floor or a person's driveway or lawn. A bucket and sponge, with a decent squeegee and you are on our way to owning a multi-million pound window cleaning business maybe. Who knows.
If you have a trade, degree or profession and this means those of you who have come out of universtity fully qualified as one thing or another, ask around to see if you can help someone in a little project or some such. Try to be just generally hepful You'll soon find that you are ill-prepared to be a fully qualified anything much, but you will learn in time. You will not, of course, be charging full rate and you will only be charging for your successes, but the only way to get on is to "do something".
Finally, whilst I would hope that you will all succede 1st time, that, in my experience, is very unlikely indeed. But plug on at it. Try and try and try again.
3rd August 2011
Today we bought the 1st half of the bales with which we intend to build our new bungalow. We had a visit from Cubit, the farmer, late morning to say that the straw was ready to bale and the baler had it baled by mid afternoon. That's 250 bales in the bag, with another 250 to come from another farm. straw has been so short this year that one farmer was not able to supply it all. The bales will now be barn stored till early next summer and will dry out completely ready to be used.
Meansbetimes I have had a chat with a maker of windows. That's a very expensive game! Anyway! I am very keen on what I have seen and the company comes very highly recommended. I have also been studying used railway sleepers and their availability and prices. I am of the view, for now at least, that the older ones, which are soaked in proper coal-tar products and would be a shame to destroy before they are timed-out, would seem a good deal.
I don't think I every got round to telling you that we have decided to use a material called "soilbind" (to replace the cement in render) with ground re-cycled glass to render the straw bales. It's a bit like ordinary render, but no cement and no sand. The no sand thing is because we need particles so fine that we would be risking silicosis were we to use it and anyway the safety elves have banned sand that fine. Glass, however, even though made from sand is not a risk in the same way. The fact that it is re-cycled means - you know that one. Cement (or come to that lime) is terribly ungreen and we are keeping our usage of that to a bare minimum. The whole house is to be built on crushed, re-cycled, hardcore. Another massive carbon saving!
Chris's chickens!
Only sneezy was left from the original 3. so we went and got another 2 little ones to keep her company. no eggs yet, of course, but who cares? That's not what they are here for, except that they would be a bonus. Whether sneezy will ever lay aother egg is unknown. she really wasn't well in the spring, and whilst fully recovered now, has not yet come back to lay.
31st July 2011
I couldn't shut up!
Goodness knows I have tried!
I seem to be incorrigable.
What give certain people the idea that their services are so valuable that we cannot do without them so we must, by law and under pain of persecution, use those services whether we can afford them, want them or have any interest in them? Arrogant, self-opinionated, interferring no-goods; is what I say!
My preference would be to label them as incapacitated, since they obviously cannot cope with our full attention and financial subsistance, and give them incapacity benefit and tell them they must not work till they have learned to function as members of society who other people actually choose to employ.
That reminds me. I wanted to express my personal opinion that a publication like The News of The World is a bit like a listed building - a national monument, let's say. The owners may own it, but in another way they are but custodians, They have, in my opinion, an obligation to care for it and nurture it for future generations. It is NOT their place in my view to close it down at will. so there!
Nuf said for now!
GRAHAM's BACK!
I wonder how long it will be before the News of The World comes back?
The following is now OUT OF DATE
Like The News of The World, I have stopped producing a news page after many years.
Fear not, your telephones are perfectly safe!
I would like to thank readers for their interest over the prolonged period.
I have been regretting that I have not had much to say of late.
Nothing else much has changed.
We have sold our little Microcar. That should make a little more room here.Mark & Steve are delivering it to the south coast today. Steve is so good to us. We are very grateful
We have been experimenting with Soilbind by getting Robin to render a bale of dry straw using soilbind and a special sand mix. We are now waiting for it to dry over the next 3-5 days. I will try to remember to report when we have an answer. It is brand new technology and very exciting!
Orders for little boxes at a £1 or two a time are trickling in. It's quite relaxed and very pleasant work. If Mark and I do it together, we are done by lunch time most days.
Orders for Tyvek wristbands are also coming in, but i am dis-inclined to continue with the coloured ones when those I have run out. However, the ones we print in colour on white bands are much more interesting to print, so I am inclined to cary on with those. Mind you! There is no rush. This can continue as it is for now.
Other printing projects are slipping a bit. We have not had much in for a few days. The little boxes seem to be taking over for now.
I am reading "Small is Beautiful" by E. F. Schumacher. It really is stimulating thought for me. So much of what he expresses has been going through my mind for many years, but I have completely failed to organise it into any structure. I am not sure the author has structured it much better than have I. However, it is very good to read someone else thinking in the same ways, even so. Who am I to critisise someone for failing to write what I have failed to think. Tee hee! At least he is expressing it on paper, which I never have - even to not having written it here on these pages. I have never had the confidence that I could complete a sentance without more than a dozen commas, on this collection of subjects. I do compliment Shumacher in his ability to express a multitde of viewpoints in every thought. That seems to me to have been the main issue for me. I have seen the same subjects and problems from several diferent perspectives and, therefore, been unable to assemble a coherant opinion from any one of those perspectives. The conflicts of interest or perspective are a fascinating challenge. Shumacher almost seems to toy with the reader with a wry grin on what I imagine to be his face.
Here is a simple example of one of those little thought processes. I am going to try this on my own, without reference to the book. I have always been pationate about my personal freedoms not being affected by the state, or even, come to that, my neighbours feelings. I feel that the way in which I live, as long as it is peaceable, is my own business. I have always felt that if I desire to do something which is not to the detriment of anybody else, I should be free so to do. However, whatever I do must, by nature, have influence over a wider range of people and circumstamces. If I print a sign or poster, others should see it, others may choose to act on it, my customer, it is intended, should benefit from it, the wider economy must pay for the natural rescourses the manufacture of this/these sign/s will use and those who see it/them, may be either pleased or displeased with the sight of what they perceive. I find it difficult to take responsibility for the feelings of uninvolved observers or the actions of those who choose to act as a result of seeing the sign/s. Neither do I feel able to take responsibility for the financial benefit or loss experienced by the buyer of the sign/s, since the purchase, from me, must be a commercial descision on behalf of that buyer and is not for me to judge. Finally I do not think I should be held responsible for the fly-posting of that/those sign/s, if that happens. Second finally, it is even the case that the state may be of it's collective view that whatever is promoted on this printed ware is either desireable or undesirable. It is curious to me that I should be epxected to be cojent of the opinion of the state on any subject under the sun, and that I should actively support that view, in some cases at risk of persecution. However, I do feel affected by the thought of all these things happening as a result of my making said sign. Frankly, who would want to be a printer with all that lot going on? Indeed, who would want to do anything?
OK, so I have not completed a day's news for ages. Every time I start, something seems to crop up to distract me.
We have bought a another cutting forme for our little heart-topped boxes. This one has a little tab to close it without glueing. We have also had a bigger one made, of the same design to take muffin/cup cake boxes. It's 70mm.
I have been offerred a Miehle 2 rev horzontal cylinder by a nice man in Wales. I am not sure. He also has a Thompson, with which I could certainly do. I don't want to see the miehle scrapped, but I am unsure what I would use it for. I would like to use it if I had it. He is a retired poster printer. No doubt he is a man of skill. Posters have always been a speciality in themselves. I do know it will cost £750 to get a lorry to Wales and back and I also know the Miehle will need to be dismantled for shipping. The Thompson, on the other hand, is easy! We've done several.
The village mice had eaten some of our air conditioning units' internal wires. Mark found the fault, repaired it and the thing was still broken, as the broken wiring seems to have broken the PCB. We ordered a replacement part according to the damage witnessed. The new board arrived today and we have set about replacing it. Woopie! The new PCB is slightly different to the old one, so Mark is soldering away, making the new one fit the old system.
We have decided to buy an air-source heating unit for the motorhome. Last winter we used an electric fan heater and the bill was horrendous. We did not expect to be in the motorhome for another year. Erm! We will be! That should save us a couple of hundred quid! Then when we move into the new house, we just move the heating unit into the new house.
We have also decided to buy some insulation to fit in the loft space of the bungalow. There is currently 1" up there. That is no-where near a start, even. What we must decide now, is what type to get, so that we can use it elsewhere if and when it becomes redundant in connection with our new-build. I am in fvour of using Selotax and Mark seems to favour Rockwool. Ho Hum! Either way, we have been in the loft and seem the method of construction used. Wow! It's all tubular steel frames. Blinking wonderful really; if not terribly common as construction methods go. The steelwork is a little rusty too. Quite honestly it is a very good thing that it doesn't have long to go, before we replace it.
Today we have been working on preparing a number of new colours to add to our EBay listings for heart, dove and butterfly palce careds and little favour boxes. We have added brambling buff, bunting yellow, raven black, owl grey, lapwing brown and goldcrest yellow. It is most curious to me that the stronger colours are selling in much larger batches.
Today Mark and I have been putting lots of thought into the repair and extention of our little home. once again we have been overwhelmed by the complexity of the interferance by Gvt. and local gvt. agencies and given up. Never mind! We will come back to it another day, maybe. We usually do. I DO want to avoid the HUGE heating bills of another winter in the motorhome.
Then we went on to thinking about extending our range of products. The one which is doing best is the little favour boxes with heart detailed lid. We are often asked if they will accomodate a cup cake or a muffin. Obviously, at 45mm cubed, they will not. So! We have decided ... guess what ... to make bigger favour boxes with heart detailed lid and see if they sell as well as the small ones. Mark is making the cutting forme now. Woopie!
Meansbetimes I have had a fairly good weekend on EBay with favour boxes and wristbands, and I had an order for a couple of Manuals for Ferguson TE 20 series tractors. Woopie!
Whilst I am typing, another little wristband job has popped in from EBay. The copy is here, but I have had to reply asking which font the customer wants.
The Hill House Summer Solstic beer Festival is over. Mark has had a day off, followed by 1 normal shift and he's back at a full day today. I hope I shall see more of him tomorrow. That festival does bring in a lot of trade to the village and we met somebody who may be able to have mutual benefit in relation to our house build. That is really very exciting, buthas to remain under my hat till we have firmed things up a bit. I am aiting for Sam to pass on the email address that was left for me. I hope he will give it to Mark today and I can start things going.
Ebay has been plodding on at a fair old rate. Excellent stuff!
I am expecting to hear from The Star at Lessingham (a next village to Happisburgh) with regard to their First Ever beer festival (due in August) printing, on Friday morning.
Mark has printed soome shirts whcih were overdue before the Beerfest, and I hope to post them out today. He has some more to do tomorrow or Saturday. That is the sort of thing that I find very frustrating. But there is nothing I can do.
We have never heard from The museum for whom were were hoping to restore a Wharfedale press, despite leaving a number of telephone and personal messages. I have given that up. However, a regular visitor here, Chris Sawyer, who is a rep for Consensus Engineering has told me of one which he hears is looking for a good home. Consensus look after our guillotine blade for us. We have hopes of adding one to our collection.
The weather here has been very dry for most of the summer, till the Hill House Beer festival, when the heavens opened. In the week since I can see 2" of water in the bottom of a pot left in the garden.
We have our Microcar up for sale on EBay. Wish us luck!
When I started work as an apprentice in 1970, I just missed working with a Wharfedale as the company had just swapped it for a Hiedelberg Crown Cylinder. I had seen them whilst I was at school and "had a go" at that time. Of course, as part of my City & Guilds printing qualifications we studied the relative benefits and drawbacks of Stop Cylinders, 2 Revolution Cylinders and Single Revolution Cylinders. This, after studying Wooden Hand Presses, Iron Hand Presses, Moving Bed and Platen presses, either motorised or treadle, and a variety of proofing presses. All these for the letterpress process. We glossed over Litho and studied Photogravure in depth. The only litho I had a working knowlede of was performed with a stone and was learned at Secondary School, where I prepared stones, applied images using a number of processes and then printed them on an iron press. There too we had a Golding Jobber, a Victoria hand fed platen and a Columbian Iron Hand Press, designed by Clymer of America. By the time I set about apprenticing at Musgrove and Sons Ltd of Pinner Green as a compositor, I was well versed in hand fed letterpress platen work and hand press work.
Woops! I just went off on one!
Erm.. where was I? Oh yes, I remember! The point is that I have been reading the internet. I had never realised that the 2 rev press from wharfedale was well into production by the time our Albion iron hand Press was made, in 1863. Now I think of it, it is obvious to me, but it had never crossed my mind. It is said that the reason printers were still buying Albions, and in some cases, even wooden hand presses, when there were, much better, tradle platens and 2 rev cylinders on the market was "PRICE". I have seen lightweight, jobbing Wharfedales, which would run uip to 1000 per hour if powered by a new steam engine, advertised at that time between £65 and £220, whereas at a similar time, a printer could buy a familiar Hand Pess, which man and boy could use to print 250 per hour, for as little as £25 - £90. Sound familiar? Thing never change, do they?
I'd like to start the day by saying something nice about something.
Today it's about EBay. I have had my own web sites for ages. Pretty well as long as there has been a public Internet. The sites have done better for me than any newspaper of magazine advertising of any kind. However, I have not earned as much as my tax allowance for years. Some years I have made a small loss. To an extent that has suited me (except for the losses bit). Now that we are using EBay, I see that I have a living. Hurray for EBay, and thank you!
The next bit of good news is that The Hill House Inn Solstice Beer Festival is up and running from noon today with a full compliment of printing at it's disposal.
I have a new toy. I bought it on EBay. It is a meter which measures the amount of electricity I am using for this, that, or the other. The motorhome is drawing 0.57kw (£377.48/year)to run the fridge and charge the batteries. I am now going to turn the fridge over to gas to see how much the battery charing is costing ..... The meter now reads .323kw. That's 0.225kw/hr for the fridge. that menas the fridge costs us 1.701p per hour to run, or 44.81568p per day or £163.77 per year. Frankly, that sounds to me like a fortune for keeping food cold. I must now check the insulation on aforesaid fridge! Cripes that's a lot of money for keeping the beer cold!
Now! What's that other .323kw doing? It's charging batteries. That's £213.90 to have bnatteries charged all the year round. Oh No! Not on your Nellie! That's an end to that then! PV I say, PV!
OK, so I just changed the fridge over to "AU", which I think stands for battery. Now e have a reading of (go on - guess. No? I'll tell you. .57kw or £377.48 per year. Again I say, PV! Photovlotaic cells. That's what we need. When do we need them?
Then again! That seems to cost at least £3000 in cells (if we were to get 1/2 a day of charging a day, and I bet we wouldn't). That's 10 years to cover outlay! Blimey! That's a lot. What's ore I have not calculated into this the simple factthat we don't get sun 24/7. This is a non-starter.
OK, so we just need to reduce consumptiom ...
Well now! It seems I have 60 t-shirts to print, on bothe sides (10hrs) and 2000 sets of tasting notes to print both sides, fold and staple (5hrs) for The Hill House Beer Festival tomorrow, all I one day - on my own (except for Steve, who is coming late afternoon.
Then of course, there's the ordinary work, to which I shall give priority and a medical appointment at 10:30, which come first, in fornt of all of the above.
Anybody got a few hours to spare please? Usual high rate of pay!
09:00
Seb's coming between shift this afternoon. Thank goodness.
Meansbetimes, Mark is busy makin screens, other t-shirts, which are well delays due to his commitments at the fest ival and blocking up my desk, so I am waiting to do some post. No hassle there, I have just one little job to do at that station.
Have you heard all the hue & cry about fuel prices rocketing again; especially those relating to domestic use? I have an idea that it's soon likely to get to the point where it's cheaper to run your own engine than it will be to buy electricity and gas in form the grid. I would never before have thought that possible. I really must find the cost of running an engine to drive a generator.
They're all stark-staring raving mad!
It's no blasted wonder I am living with high blood pressure now!
These criminals have GOT to be stopped!
When I could, eventually, get past the ill-informed girlies who answer the telephones at these places, I get somewhere near to the bottom of it.
I buy a pack of card. I, guillotine it to A4 and cut box-shaped holes in it. I sell the boxes. There is the trim from around the edge. It's not printed, just plain, coloured card. I put that in a plain paper sack. I take it to a waste paper merchant to weigh it in. I expect a little bung. The stuff is worth some money. But no! They want to charge ME. What? Why? "It's the paperwork!" "What paperwork?" It's a controlled waste!" "No it's not! It's a valuable commodity, I just paid £1000 a tonne for it. Who the jolly heck is wanting to control paper?" Do they think I LOOK like an idiot? That is like going down a mine, digging up iron, copper, gold, silver or coal and being asked to pay to get rid of it!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
You don't think these fine people are paying to have their paper taken away or paying some numbskull to control it, do you?
Now I know what they are teaching in universities. Their teaching kids how to MAKE their victims pay for stupid and unwanted services. I'm back to villains clothed in good deads again.
Good gracious! Cash must be strapped out there. Time after time I am getting ebayers asking me if I will "combine postage". Of course I will, but then they order £2 worth of goods and I have spent 10 minutes answering their repeated exchanges about "combined postage". they're driving me silly! Their saving is 60p. I can answer 5 an hour. They are expecting me to do their saving of 60p for them at an hourly rate of £3 payable to THEM. Tee hee!
Anybody can spot a villain who twirls his mustache and wears a black hat, with a bag labeled "SWAG" over his shoulder. It is more difficlut to identify the one who wears clothes made of good deeds and a charming smile. Thus is the problem with safety elves, building controllers and planning control officers. They are not happy to satisfy themselves with dealing with rougues intent upon despoiling the environment and puting folk's lives at risk, they have to micro-manage the lives of private individuals and do all the risk-assement fo us, instead of letting us make our own decisions and mistakes, darn them! We have to put a stop to this before they overrun the place! Vote the beggers out; or at least send them home on full pay as long as they mind their own business!
We had a couple, from Duxford air museum, looking round our collection today. They seemed to enjoy themselves. We showed them round in person and demonstrated most of the kit in action. Fortunately, the safety elves didn't spot us, we'd have been for it; showing people round our home and sharing of our hobby.
I just had an email from a cutomer saying:-
just wanted to say thanks, the bands are brilliant and you defo went out of your way...
I like that. How kind!
I went to see a medic on Monday (and another on the Saturday before that) and have asked to be pain-free. They did it! Wow! It's now Wednesday and the Grumpy Old Man has slipped into the past, where he belongs. Happy is me! It seems the diabetis has caused some periferral neuropathy and hightened blood pressure, which has led to back pain and headaches - and such headaches! That despite the fact that I have kept the blood-sugar levels near perfect for ever since diagnosis, lost 4 1/2 stone (and only put one back on), given up smoking and now hardly ever consume caffine. Bah! it's not fair! Yeh yeh - so the doctor is forever saying "you must do more excersise", and I have been in too much pain to do any. She has been told that and has been saying "go buy yourself some painkillers from the chemist. that should help" and it never has. The darned things just make me squiffy and the pain was as bad as ever. Now, however, the pain is gone and the excersise can start again.
Meansbetimes, Wedding favour Boxes and Printed Tyvek Wristbands are flying out of the door from our EBay shop. Do visit it to see what we are selling there. If you look at each item, you can see how many we have sold over what period. I have to admit that EBay are doing a fine job for us. Better by far than our own web site has ever been. We have also been granted both PowerSeller and Top Rated Seller status. Woopie! We're fantastic!
We have also designed and prepared cutting formes for Table Place Cards, in the form of Butterflies, Hearts and Doves, to hang on the side of wine glasses. Yes, I know! Tacky! But hey! What is a man to do? If the customers want it, then who am I to deny my public their desires? We do make a lovely job of them.
I just had a call from a salesman who wanted to sell me something. I made him think about things a bit. I pointed out that I am not ready to use his products yet, because they are for our new house, for which we, as yet, have no planning consent. I doubt we ever will, personally! We need points to get consent. To get points we need stuff like air source heating, for example. We have that, but will be installing it ourselves. If we install it ourselves, we get no points, because we are not registered as official installers. So it goes on for all the things for which we need points. No points - no consent!
OK, so no doubt, if we worked hard and saved hard (and paid lots more tax on the larger income we would have to earn to pay the registered installers and surveyors and architects and planners and electricians and plumbers and all the rest), we could employ registered installers of all this stuff. But these buggers charge MUCH more for what they do than we do, for what we do. Therefore, what with paying 1/5th in imcome tax and another on our earnings another 5th of what's left in VAT and so on and so forth - on and on - we would have to work something like 90 times as long to pay someone else to do stuff for us, rather than do it for ourselves. They and their stupid points can just get knotted, as far as I am conserned! I'm happy as I am! Mark, on the other hand, is being very optimistic and pressing on. One of us will show our principles to be right. I do hope it's Mark!
For my part, I think it's a way of shortening my life through stress-related heart-failure in order to save money on my pension.
Look back to the for the 16th March to see what we are comepeting with. Do you think these folk are paying 90% tax? I doubt it! Why not? Because they are not demanding all these services from their Governments, the way we are! The poem below is one I learned at school from Tony Slaney, our art teacher and Printmaster. It is far more than a treatise on nuclear war. It is designed to make us all think about our responsibility as elector of Government on a broad range of subjects. What is more, if we CHOOSE to become civil servants or armed services personel, think on about that too:-
The Responsibility by Peter Appleton
I am the man who gives the word,
If it should come, to use the Bomb.
I am the man who spreads the word
From him to them if it should come.
I am the man who gets the word
From him who spreads the word from him.
I am the man who drops the Bomb
If ordered by the one who's heard
From him who merely spreads the word
The first one gives if it should come.
I am the man who loads the Bomb
That he must drop should orders come
From him who gets the word passed on
By one who waits to hear from him.
I am the man who makes the Bomb
That he must load for him to drop
If told by one who gets the word
From one who passes it from him.
I am the man who fills the till,
Who pays the tax, who foots the bill
That guarantees the Bomb he makes
For him to load for him to drop
If orders come from one who gets
The word passed on to him by one
Who waits to hear it from the man
Who gives the word to use the Bomb.
I am the man behind it all;
I am the one responsible.
Mark and I went to see a printing press at Strumpshaw Steam Museum yesterday. We have seen it there for some years, whenever we have been there. It is now getting a bit rusty, which is sad, so we have offerred to clean it up and get it running as volunteers. We now await a reply. The odd thing is that the folk there think it is a Miehle vertical, but it is a Reliance Wharfedale by Fieldhouse Crossfield &Co. Ltd. Itis design is late 18th cntury and it would, originally have been driven by a small steam engine. The example in the video below is a smaller version (the one at Strumpshaw is double crown).
This, second, example is more like the one we have seen:-
I am afraid one of our chickens die yesterday. We had kept her indoors overnioght for warmth and hed been feeding her water by hand for a couple of days. She had not been well for a while and had seen the vet, but all the treatment failed. Such is life! That just leaves Sneezy, who has had a sneeze/cough, since she arrived with us as a rescue chicken ages ago, but has pressed on and is still with us.
This, third clip shows a much bigger 2-rev. press, which IS driven by steam to this day. Brilliant!
Isn't it amazing how the weeks fly!
We have printed most of the glasses for The Hill House inn's Solstice Beer festival. The colour of course is a closely guarded secret, known only to Mark and I and our little helpers.
We have sent off for cutting formes for Place Name tags, to clip on wines glasses at tables for weddings. These are to form part of the set of Favour Boxes, Serviette Rings and other items in the pipe line. We are of a mind to move, next, into cake boxes. As long as people keep buying these table embelishments, we can see no reason to stop making them.
From my perspective, as long as there is a need felt to decorate wedding feast tables in this way, and as long as I can do so, the best I can do is to keep the price as low as possible, so that the "happy" couple can have as much money, left over to organise a home and do other useful things, as possible.
There's something very odd going on with our latest Miehle!
To begin with, the cylinder rotated whether or not there was a sheet in the grippers. We freed off the actuating lever conserned and tried to adjust the cut-off sensitivity, but the thing still lacked suction, with the result that it is still really very unreliable. If we do as the previous owners had done and stick tape over the paper sensor holes, so that it always impresses, that's fine; but i don't like to do that. We must persevere!
In the mean time, matters press! We have a new plate arriving (tomorrow I hope) ferom metallic Elephant, with which it is our intent to emboss card with a fabric and hearts pattern. This is surely a job for a Miehle! Since we use the American one for printing and the new one has no means of inking (missing rollers and carriages), it woud make sense to enboss on that machine. Ho Hum! Perhaps we shall be resorting to the old sticky-tape-over-the-sensor-holes routine! On the other hand, the feed suction is desperatley low too, so it ahas to be set iin such a way that there is an awful risk of feeding doubles or misses (or both), and with embossing I am fain to risk that, as it may lead to a jam! The cost of buying embossed paper is more or less 4 time that of buying it plain. Buying rollers alone for embossing, to fit into a machine of our own making, is in excess of £5000. That is why I want to do it myself on a printing press. After all, it is no different to foil-embossing, which I perform as a matter of course. the only issue is that I will be limited to the area I can emboss, as it is all about pressure on the material. I don't want to break my press. i will not, for instance, emboss a slid over it's entire area. On the other hand, I am not wanting a deep emboss, - just a suggestion really - so I think I may get away with SRA4. That's all I need to get 2 boxes out, anyway. Happy me!
The instruction by a very helpful operater are on you tube here:-
This is the 1st of 5 videos that describe the instruction I followed to fix the trip mechanism.
I did a bit of news yesterday, but messed up the upload and then I came to fix it just now and lost the lot. Oh well!
Many thanks to our friend john for moving our hump of sand into the hedgerow for us. It is much appreciated!
Boxes have been flying out of the door, despite the holidays. That's a good thing.
We are hoping to visit The Butchers Arms this evening, briefly, to see how their ERRRR went on Royal Wedding Day. We did some printing for them so it should have gone well;-)
Then we may have to go to The Hill House to take them a proof of their latest Table Talkers. It's a hard life when one of us can't have a drink on these occassions. Never mind!
We had a lovely evening with Steve yesterday. He showed us a film of someone building a house, using straw for part of the construction. It has us thinking again though, so the palns all change yet again, so it seems. Now we are thinking of going up onto stilts withour straw house.
I can't remember! Did you see this:-
or this ?
I posted these because I had complaints that assembling our boxes was too complicated. I hope I don't copme over as patronising in them.
Things are beginning to get back to normal now. Woopie!
Sadly, some royalty wallas iare threatening to mess things up again this weekend Bah! Despite my dis-aproval of all the fuss, we have given a few wristbands to the event being held in support of The Royal Wedding, in East Ruston - some sort of party on The Village Green. They are to be used to organise the Bouncy Castle being run for the village kids, in some way.
In the mean time we have been working away, printing lots of lovely TyvekTM wristbands and cuttind/creasing loads of very pretty little favour boxes. What fun we have been having!
Mark is helping out at the pub more again. We have wormed the chickens, which had been losing weight, but improving now. I wonder why the vet is so keen to "register" us? No doubt it is something deeply intrusive connected with DEFRA. I fully expect them to come and kill our chucks now, when next they have an outbreak of some chicken illness. Just because I am paranoid does not mean they are not out to get me.
In the mean time, the rabbits in the garden are dying for Mixi. and a Sparrow Hawk has killed of (and I suppose eaten) our flock of Green Finches.
Bored now!
Holidays!
Huh!
In the mean time I have preepared some stock.
How on earth this country manages financially through all these "Thieves holidays", I really don't know. What must they do for the old balance of payments escapes me. yes, no doubt there is the odd tourist or two, but who's actually making, mending or growing anything? They're all on flipping holiday!
Well we're not! We had our 3 nights away a couple of weeks ago, so that's us for the year. Resting done - what's next? I will be here all day and all evenings, except if I slip out for a pint or a meal. If I don't answer, leave a message please. I will call back any landline.
We had a chap yesterday desperate for 1000 wristbands for some kind of a gig. We even agreed to deliver them to London yesterday for him AND I phone a mobile for him - never again. Then he just didn't get back to us. We cannot go to London today. People are odd! Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow! Grrr! I expect him to call this afternoon and expect us to rush off to London for him. Grrmph.
I was just yarning with Steve about The Marathon. I asked how far it is and how long it takes.
When I was in my 20's I used to work with narrowboats on the canal. My job, for the 1st 10 years, was to run or cycle (when I had a bike which worked) up the towpath and prepare the locks for the boats' arrival. We had a pair carrying 50 tons of lime juice, in drums, for Roses Lime. I would run or cycle an average of 65 miles a day all through the winter months, up to 33 locks (the boats travelled 33 miles in 11 hrs 40 minutes, as far as I remember. I was on the boats for 9 miles of that (2 1/2 hrs) Therefore I was running each of my marathons in 4 hours. It's no record, but I was running 2.4 marathons a day (a round 14 marathons each week - we had Sundays off). No wonder I ache if I stand for more than a few minutes these days!
Here's a spot of video about our latest little wedding favour boxes.:-
The earlier one was not quite so light hearted. You can tell the difference in mood by the tone of voice.
Mark's car is back, not fixed, because there seems to be no way to read it's "fault diagnosis" system; but it is working. All it is is that if it fails to start, you have to treat it as though it's flooded and floor it till it fires. Funny old world!
Things have been a bit manic making little wedding favour boxes, for a few days now. Ebay seems to do quite a good job of selling those and we are competing with people who seem to be doing the job using virtually toy, hand operated machines. Woopie! Mind you, the competition may not be as good as our work, but, by thunder, they are working for a bowl of rice a week! It's very difficult to profit from this.
Talking of profit, I was intending to register self employed again, but keeping records, as I am, I have not yet been able to find a way of making money from it if I am to compete. Thank goodness I don't need to, any more! The records still show a loss this far into the new financial year. It's a crazy country we are living in! I know it must be because I am not buying enough stock to attract the discounts needed to put on a mark-up, but I cannot see how I ever will unless I either employ someone, which I will not, or work 15hr days, which I will not.
The Royal Wedding!
I'm not sure that mixed gender marriages ever work, but that's just my opinion. Do I want a day off for it? Not on your Nellie! Sorry! No thanks!
I see there are a bunch of nutters having a pop at little businesses which work under bridges and arches and places like that - M1 yard, which caught fire the other day. Get real! Where would you like to see them? Oh? Don't you want to see them? Then under the arches might be a good place for them to get quietly on with their jobs. They've been there for decades without anybody ever giving them a thought, unless they wanted some help from them. I have, let me say! Nope! If this thing get's away, as it might, we will be driving them out of business and onto the dole. Just be darned clear that you will be paying for their umeployment benefit and putting up with their kid robbing you in your old age, if this is the way you want it. Alternatively, you COULD put up with 1 small motorway closure every 50 years. Thank now, which way is to be??
There! You know you can always rely on me to stick my foot in it!
You know how it is when everthing goes slower than you'd like? That's how it's been for me for a couple of days. I am desperately keen to get on with foiling and printing the little boxes for printer catridges for Broadland Ink, but I have to wait till the cutting forme arrives here (now threatened for friday). I have to wait till he has made a cutting forme for a model of Westminster Abbey, for the Roayal Wedding. Hrmph!
In the mean time, I have had the digital press serviced and printed a couple of books about Feetguson tractors on that, ready for posting today to customers and have dealt with the usual wedding favour box orders and orders for printed Tyvek wristbands. They have already gone out.
Mark's car, which used to be my Mums, went wrong the other day and the local garage can't find out why, because the computor systems don't communicate with each other. Not to worry! It's just a matter of flooring it till the thing starts as though it's floodied. Ho Hum! Modern cars - all rubbish! Gimme my Morris McMinor any time.
I must now make a few more wedding favour boxes for stock. That'll take me about an hour, I guess.
When the cutting forme comes for the printer cartridge boxes, it will (or I hope it will) have an interchangeable top, which I can use to make larger wedding favour boxes with a hoile in the lid from which customers can dangle a helium-filled ballon by a ribbon, on tables and such. They really should look gorgeous! Again! I have to wait for that, till The Royal Wedding has had it's model of Westminster Abbey made. Grrr! Not that I'm in any kind of hurry! I'm just excited to get these things going.
Foiling Dies arrived today for Broadland Ink's new ink cartridge boxes. Having spent the day cutting packaging and addressing the little wedding favour boxes, some Safe 'T' Bands and various wristbands (orders from the weekend), we proofed the ink cartridge boxes in holographic and rainbow foils (2 workings).
It's a proof and it's got paw prints all over it (I have grubby paws)
We have also added another colour to our range of little boxes (Fantail Orange)
These and others are available in our ebay shop
We had an interesting time and learned some. Our little laptop had a total keyboard failure and we couldn't get a connection for love nor money. To be honest I wasn't feeling little love for the thing, with not knowing what was going on. Back now, nose to the grind stone and all is well!
I hope orders which have come in over the past 4 days will be out in the morning post.
We went to see the Bronze Age Site at Flag Fen on Saturday afternoon, whilst BPS were holding their AGM. That was fascinating. I have a number of questions for an archeaologist, when I see one.
We had a ride on the Nene Valley Railway in a couple of hours we had off on Sunday, which was also good. I am unsure why they are using coke to fire the loco! Not efficient!
Mark drove the camper like an old pro. Brilliant!
Our straw house has been planted in the field, just the other side of Cart Gap Road, opposite our existing house. The seed has spouted and the field is showing green. Woopie! The most wonderf ul thing about it is that there is no ditance at all for it to travel. Absolutely zero carbon emissions for delivery!
Wedding favour boxes are selling like hot cakes, as are Tyvek Wristbands for gigs, events, kidie Safe 'T' Bands and others.
We have an order for little boxes for ink cartridges, which we will be foiling as well. I like a challenge!
Mark & I have just returned from Fakenham, where we have collected a Miehle British V50 and another Thompson British Autoplaten. Had we not done so they were to go for scrap. I couldn't bear that! More space taken up! No doubt that will, in due time, when Mark has wired them in for me, reduce the amount of make-readies I have to do. I can have one machine for each job the way things are a-going!
If anybody has an old hand rotary or hand lever gillotine, which is more or less valueless now because of the safelty elves, do give a ring, I could do with one about 720-1000mm wide please. 01692 582 292
Time for a little snooze now!
Then I must cut out some more little wedding favour boxes for our ebay shop. We only charge £1 a pack, which is about cost price, but I do enjoy doing them.
A friend of ours is opening a new business in a nearby village. Mark and I have been helping with shop signage. I left a couple of hours ago, leaving Mark to complete the job.
We have printed a number of TyvekTM wristbands for children to wear. They enable parents and guardians to write a contact number and othre medical stuff on a band, so that, if the kid gets lost, the proper person can be contacted. Seems a bit odd to me, but there also seems to be a demand, so let's do it. For me the point is that I have enjoyed printing on the difficult material, using our vintage equipment. I always like a challenge.
I have used the Miehle Vertical V45 and both our Thompson British Autoplatens to print, cut and crease some little boxes for wedding favours. Agai, it's only that I enjoy the printing, but they have to be sold to cover costs, so we have flown them on our ebay shop at prices lower than those of other, commercial people.
Our hobby cost us several thousands last year, but now seems to be making a few bob. There is no fear of that out-weighing the costs of last year and the year before, but may make a small profit this year. AS a result, I am having to declare myself self-employed this year, for tax purposes. I have no reluctance to avoid tax, by not smoking or drinking, for instance, but I would never risk evading tax. Since my income for my rented house more or less covers my tax allowance, any little profit I do earn will attract tax at 20%. I don't much like the idea of having to maintain a complete tax accounting system for my few bob profit, but have to face reality and bite the bullet. I feel that if I undercut prices too far I may be unfairly doing down other people who need to earn a living doing things similar to what I do - albeit they use modern methods and I use the traditional ones.
Welcome to British Summer Time!
I really cannot believe that there are people protesting AGAINST Government cuts. It just goes to show why and how we got into this potless, debt-ridden, virtually bankrupt condition! Thar be madness out in that there land of ours! I do hope it ain't catchin'!
Mark & I went to visit a man who has been making cutting formes for us. His grandfather made cutting formes before him. He has a very nice electric fret saw and four bench-mounted hand-tools, which bend, cut, punch and kink the cutting and creasing rule. I extend my deepest respect to his honest hard work and skill! He ownes Premier Formes of Ipswich. He can be reached on the phone at 01473 684 441. Of course, the thing about it is that he has not had to borrow squillions from bankers to buy this kit (or if he has, it's a very small sum), so he only has himself and his family to keep and no bankers or their families, like companies who have invested a fortune in the modern kit, which can be driven by people who have earned no more than how to drive a PC or a MAC. I ooze respect! Did I mention that? Sorry.
Archers now!
12:21
Mark and I have just added single-use serviette (napkin) rings to our ebay shop at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/catseye-press-printing
I have ordered a new batch of wristband material with pre-coloured backgrounds on which I can print in black only. My intention is to pre-print a number of products to go on our Ebay shop. It'll give me something to do over the next week or three and prices can be a bit lower than other Ebay people, since I don't need to proifit from it.
I am looking forward to the clocks going forward again on Sunday morning. Lighter evenings will be a real Joy! I wish they wouldn't mess with the clocks though. If we could just get settled into one system or the other, I feel sure we don't need to have our inner clocks moved twice a year by Government interference! The principle of it irritates me. I'm perfectly capable of making my own descision about what time to get up and start my day thank you! Roll on summer, earlier starts and later finishes! I love it!
7.2% on beer and 20% on that in VAT! Hmm! For my part I'm glad I've virtually stopped that lark anyway, some weeks ago. I haven't been out for a drink more than twice in a month. Once again, they had threatened to raise the cost of the particular beer that I most preferred, on some kind of mis-guided principle, so I quit it. They seemed to recon that high alcohol beer is more dangerous than wine, with less alcohol and that poor people will drink less if it's dearer. Since that is clearly nonsense and that all the rise would do to poor alcoholics would be to tax them more and leave them with less food and shelter, I can now also disclose that I stopped smoking about the same time by way of standing up to be counted, as an objector. That's a load more tax I am avoiding. I wonder what Government are going to do about me avoiding tax on beer and fags? Do you think they will persue me for the tax despite me not buying the stuff (their clearly stated, but doubtfully their real, intent)? They did say they intend to clamp down on tax avoidance! How much do I want to avoid paying for bullets to kill people? Now you know!
Let me be clear!
I have retired from work to avoid income tax.
I have quit smoking to avoid tobacco tax
I have quit drinking to avoid booze tax.
I always thought all those things was perfectly legal, provided I don't scrounge from anybody else. So what do they mean when they say they are going to clamp down on tax avoidance? I have to admit to lving in constant fear of persecution on all this. I fully expect an investigation any minute. I am being so careful to do everything exactly within the rules and not to push any boundary even a teeny bit. Even in my hobby, I am being very careful indeed to do everyting at not one penny over cost. I have my savings (all inherited and tax on the inheritance paid) and my incoming rent and that's it!
If they sort things out and reduce Government spending on things I don't want them to spend on, I may start all these things again. I do like them!
So the budget was fairly neutral! Petrol duty down, which looks like it will put oil up - and so on and on.
The reduction in legislative nonsense promised would be welcome, but will the civil servants do as they are told? I doubt it! Will they be laid off? I do hope so, but have no faith in it till I see it happen.
Planning applications to pass as default! Great, but will the planners actually find squillions of perferctly reasonable excuses NOT to pass (the "default pass position does not apply to your particular type or kind of application" and so on)? I think they will. I hope not. The problem that the public still want to see applications denied, out of envy and NIMBYism, remains. We need a core change in attitudes!
Some temporary reliefs, which we all thought were more or less permanent, have been extended. No news there then; just heart felt relief and dry mouths! It's these sorts of areas (I didn't say deciepts because I know full well they have spoken the truth to the letter, knowing full well the impression conveyed) that lead us to distrust our polititians. Come on chaps! Play it straight, will you? Enough spin; more real action please! You SEEMS to be going the right way, but we need to see the reality of it for ordinary people.
Will someone please tell me what all this stuff about growth is about? How can we keep growing and growing for lifetime after lifetime? Isn't this "growth" what has dug us into so much trouble with some issues? How good do you want it? Then WORK for it. It is not ours as of right!
17:45hrs
Mark is home, having passed his HGV Class II driving test at the 1st attempt. Now he can drive our motorhome (RV) and we can, at last, get out and about to shows and such. I am so proud of him! Well done mate!
Setting aside Afganistan and Libya for a moment, things still look terrible in Japan and I would like to be more sure that our Government are doing all that we can do there. The thought of hundreds of thousands of people thirsty, hungry and lacking shelter tears at my heart-strings.
It's Budget Day
I have high hopes for this budget. I am even considering returning to work if the ideas which are being muted do actually come to pass. It should be borne in mind that my reluctance to work for free, when I don't have to, means that I am not supporting what I consider to have been a faulty system. OK, so we are right on the edge here, with the sea 1 home away from our boundary. That means that we have 1/2 the local catchment area considered normal for anybody. 50% less turnover is a huge figure! If I do decide to go back into work, I shall have to find a way of doubling that. I would probably have another go at using the Internet. We have been experimenting with Ebay and have found that is fine for bringing us in a few little jobs for our hobby, but there is no way it could represent a living by any means. Thank goodness we simply have enough money that we don't need to be earning a living, thanks to Irene. To complete this paragraph, let me say that if Government really can get shot of the red tape and those who operate it (who I am perfectly happy to support on the dole till they can learn to do something useful), then entrepreneurs and ordinary working people can become self-employed and build a real, solid and secure economy, making, mending and growing things, by the tens of thousands.
One thing I must say though! I believe the NHS is the single most important Government funded item in our budget. We MUST support and build on that, if nothing else.
People may need to be reminded that if they want to see our vintage and antique printing equipment, they are welcome to visit for a cup aof tea and a wander round. No kids or dogs please, because of safety Government elves, no win-no fee solicitors and our chickens. It really is not safe here for children and dogs really cannot be trusted with chickens.
Have a look at this little beauty!
I have just bought a load at wholesale and am offerring them for sale to people who have little boxes from us. £2.64 plus P&P. You'll find it on our new ebay store at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Catseye-Press-Printing
I just heard the result of a price that I submitted a few days ago. I quoted £1/1000 per working (4 workings) to print 20,000 wristbands. That's £80 for printing 20,000 bands printed in 3 colours on one side and 1 colour on the reverse. I didn' get the job! I have no idea why not. I admit to being really very dissapointed. The cost of a 4 pots of ink for the job is more than that. What on earth am I up against, I wonder?
Crusie missiles about ... £1,000,000.00 each
Qty fired by day 2 ... 110
Total cost of missiles only £110,000,000.00
Then there's the planes, the people, the technology and the planning. I heard (rightly or wrongly) that a bunch of aircraft went from Norfolk to Libya and back again yesterday.
How many folk have our weapons killed or maimed? I dread to think at £1,000,000 per shot.
I doubt that much effort has been put into helping the victims of events in Japan. I would so much rather the money was spent there, if it has to be spent anywhere.
Better still I would rather the money were spent on events wristbands or little boxes like the ones I like making.
BRITAIN AT WAR.
On yet another front! Or, at least, with another enemy. I canot afford this either financially or emotionally. I feel, so strongly, resonsible for every soul killed by British weapons, towards the cost of which I have contibuted. Please don't mis-undertand me. In this case I do have sympthy with the people of that blighted nation, but why is it our responsibility to sort it out?
Japanese nucleoids!
Now this is an area into which I would want to invest some help. Humanitarian help! Radiation reduction help, if that is possible. That sort of thing. Most importantly, I would want to help the world by trying to persuade the ordinary Joe to reject power produced by neclear fired generators. I would also want to bring everybody's attention to something which occurred here only the other day. Mark had to buy a new motherboard for his PC. He fitted it and the blinking thing kept crashing - even when it was not being asked to work much. It turned out that he had a 350 watt power supply and that it will not run on less than 500 watts. He fitted a 1kw supply, so that it is never under stress. But if there is only one in every household in the country, that's £25 a month in trickery, just on the pooter! I have no idea how many households there are in the UK, but I feel sure that if I were to do the sums, that would account for an awful lot of nukes. No! I'm not really suggesting that we do without our PC's, but maybe they are designed to do rather more than we need them to do, thus burning more power than we need to burn? I don't know, but intend to find out and try to find some way to reduce our demand in this respect!
Talking of reducing demand, we are intending that, when we replace our bungalow, and providing that we are granted planning consent, we intend to build using structural straw bales. That should keep our heating bills down a bit! Add that to our air source heating and we may be able to make a very big difference in our demands on the system. We have been quite litterally watching our new bungalow being planted in the local fields today. Wow!
We have been running our new Thompson out in the sun today. What a lovely day! We have cut 4 or 5 hundred pillow boxes, just for the sheer joy of doing it. Hopefully we will be able to get it indoors some time in the next few days.
Then I went into the machine room and proofed a serviette (napkin) in gold foil on the Heidelberg. That too was a success. I love it when a plan comes out properly!
It's 7:30ish now and I am watching the moon out of my window. It's beautiful.
Earlier on we completed a proof of a business card for a local lady who's daughter runs a beauty therapy business. It's rather smart, with a delicate orchid in full colour. I love it! I am now waiting for her to get back to us with approval.
A friend leant us a trailer, with which to bring our new Thompson home. We have printed him some letter headings for his welding business. They are a simple little thing, but look very smart. It's not a case of one favour for another, it's just that he needed them as indeed we needed to borrow his trailer. We would have done them for him without the loan of his trailer as he had leant us the trailer with no idea that we were going to print his headings. Anyway, I have to print something for my hobby. It's boring doing stuff just to go in a folder of examples of work.
Ah! I didn't tell you about the upshot of the story about the third Thompson and second Miehle Vertical (this one is an English-built V50)! We have agreed to have them here in their retirement. I have no idea why we want them really. It's just that I cannot bear to see them scrapped, which had been the fete to which they were to be subjected, had we not agreed to take them. All we have to do it to get them here now. That will have to happen some time in the next few days.
We now have a spare Thompson British Autoplaten here, for a trained Thompson operator who will make good use of it. We will only charge what it has cost us to bring it here and to deliver it if needs be. If a Heidelberg operator needs to be taught how to use it, we will be happy to give the necessary training. I estimate that will take no more than a day or two. The machines are very similar!
We have been offered a second Miehle Vertical and another Thompson for two or three hundred quid each (scrap value). We really don't want to hold that many machines in stock (no way are we dealers in printing machines), so we have declined, but, again, if there is someone who would make good use of them, they can have either one or other of them at cost (provided that we can get there before the scrap man).
It is very misty here this morning.
I have printed a little box of books for a private Ferguson tractor enthusiast and they are out for post today.
I have printed 17 sheets of Tyvek age-verification wristbands for a holiday park event.
I am hoping for delivery of some card from which to make little pillow boxes for wedding favours, today. The cutting forme for that is due about Thursday.
I am also hoping to be in receipt of some little sticky lables for a caterer to do a job. I have to make sure they arrive with her no later than Thursday. There was a little trauma about getting those here on time.
Paper merchants are getting me down at the moment. More and more mills are closing and merchants seem increasingly reluctant to hold stock. A little chap like me simply cannot buy paper by the tonne every time I order, so merchants are really needed, as mills cannot make paper in less than 1 tonne makings. If they are not going to hold stock, that means I have to wait whilst they buy in and that can take days sometimes. That's the whole pupose of a merchant! Thats the very way they justify their profit. I am sure I have not missed anything there.
Mark and I need to decide whether to buy a batch of coloured Tyvek wristbands that are on offer, as a stock clearance. We are tempted, but they may remain in stock for quite a time, as we have not built a market for coloured bands. We are more inclined to print in photo-quality colour on white bands. The problem is that the offer is quite a good one.
Mark and I have decided to start an Ebay shop as we need to make sure we have things to do, if we are to enjoy our hobby as we want to. There has just not been enough coming in from local people to keep us entertained and occupied. It can be found at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Catseye-Press-Printing
Well now!
It's been a deathly quiet week here. Not one request for anything to be printed! At least! I do have a couple of requests, but no complete copy yet. No doubt it will come in due course.
I note that The Prime minister appears to have been reading my news page and has acted accordingly. Yes! That's presumtuous and arrogant. Another way to say the same thing is that he seems to be trying to implement some of the suggestions I would like to make. That pleases me no end. If he continues the way he is, I may even consider starting work again. Let's wait to see what's in the budget.
It has been great having Mark home more. I so enjoy his company. We pottered up to our friends John and Belinda yesterday and fitted a guillotine blade to their guillotine. Mark has been using it to trim sign boards, so we had it sharpened for them as a small thank you.
I had a phone call yesterday, which resulted in our being given another Thompson British Autoplaten. Mark is going to fetch it next Wednesday with Steve. Steve is such a brick! Thank you Steve! Anyway; if anybody has been thinking of buying a Heidelberg 10 x 15 platen, but finds them too expensive, we look as if we are going to have a Thompson platen (just a trifle larger than 10 x 15) available. I know Heidelberg operators are fearful of the Thompson, but there really is no need. I am more than happy to teach the differences and explain over 2 or 3 days (it really could only take a couple of hours, but practice makes perfect!) if needs be, how to operate it; provided that the person is a platen operator and not some printmaker thinking he/she knows how to print, but has never done the practical training on a machine. No doubt Mark will deliver it to you if he can, as well. We will just charge to costs we have incurred. This is not for profit, in the same the way as everything else we do.
Once again, here is a brief video of me operating ours.
There are others on You tube too. Give them a jolly good studying and familiarise yourself with the things. They really are at least as good as a Heidelberg! Some say they are better - as do I.
I'm going to pose a question. "Why are we so hard pressed to make a living and why is there so little manufacturing in the UK?"
Is this the answer?
These wonderful people don't have the benefit of the amazing technology even I have in my garage. My machines were built in the 1930's and 40's. They are vintage, antique, out of date by any modern standards, but they run at 2000 per hour at their slowest. They feed automatically (or most of them do). These folk are feeding by hand. There are 4 of them (doing what I could do here on my own) working at 500 sheets per hour. That's one sixteenth of the rate at which I can work with my old presses. And yet! They make what they see as a living. I cannot even get close to buying the paper or card at the price these folk are producing a completed product.
No doubt most British workers today would call this a sweat-shop. Is it? Or are they just plodding along, doing, albeit boring, work and drinking, eating in good shelter and being clothed. These are the people with whom we are competing for our living! Somehow they export this stuff on ships and planes all round the planet and our people sit here in England, with university degrees, moaning that they can't get a job.
Please; hear this! I said I cannot even buy the stock at the price they sell their finished product. NOTE! That's not just because they are working for low rates. It's also because they are not demanding and paying for government services they cannot afford. Please think about that!
Corporation (business) tax
VAT
Fuel duty
Import duty
The list goes on and on!
But it's not just because our Government is greedy, controlling or wasteful (although I have no doubt that could well be argued), it's because we all demand so much from Government that we just cannot afford.
We have the technology to do what that video clip shows 16 (or even 50) times faster than those folk are doing it. We should be able to do the job for, at least, 1/16th of the cost. But can we? NO way! Every element of what we are doing costs a fortune more, because we are paying for services we don't need (at least, the people in that clip don't seem to need them).
The lad in this video can hardly be said to be behind the times or working his fingers to the bone. But he is hand feeding a machine at about 750 sheets per hour on his own. What's that about? Is he earning a living? I rather guess so. I honestly wonder how he does that? I wonder WHERE he does that? I bet it's not in England. For one thing, the safety elves would chop his fingers off for doing what he is doing there. Blinkin' dangerous, those elves! Again! We all bemoan their interference, but do we tell them to go get a job training people to be careful instead of threatenting to persecute them? Do we blazes! Can we actually afford to pay people to MAKE us do things under threat of persection instead of learning good working practice and forming safe habits in our youth? Answer:- No we jolly well can't! Them elves should be making, mending or growing something, instead of stopping honest workers doing an honest job at competative rates.
When it's fully automated, you can run at up to 5000 per hour. I paid £75 for a machine just like this old darling. So why can we not buy the blinking paper or card as cheaply as those people in the first clip can sell the whole job? Look! Just try to translate this into ANY manufacturing process you can think of. See what I mean? We're NUTS!
UK paper mills are still closing every month and their machinery being broken up or send to India. UK paper is £1000's a ton. I was quoted £4000/ton only a few days ago for some. It's jolly heavy stuff too! You don't get much to the ton, I can tell you (about 2 pallets to the ton). And that was made from 100% recycled waste. Yet! If you go try to sell some waste paper, as we did when I was apprenticed, they'll laugh at the idea of having to pay for it. That is another entire industry that has been STOLEN from small business and the hard-working entrepreneur by government, in the name of recycling and compulsion (sorry encouragement to re-cycle). Rest assured! No more useable waste paper is getting through to the paper mills than ever was, and your council tax payers are not making a bean out of it - indeed, I have been told that council re-cycling runs at a loss in our area. When I was in my 20's, there was an industry involving thousdands upon thousands of people (many of whom were self-employed) running paper re-cycling. All you needed to do was to save up and buy an old truck (how dare they buy an old one! It might blow a bit of a fume, or take a few more feet to stop), go round and collect it from shops/offices/boy scouts huts and the like, pay an honest orice for it and deliver it to one of the hundreds of mills using it throughout the country. What mills? They've all be demolished! It would have cost millions to make the safety elves happy. It cost millions in business rates - far beyond the value of the paper they were making could pay for, wages had got so high (so that folks could afford their taxes) that the mill-owners just went broke.
Nuff for now! I can see I'm digging myself a hole here! Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean their not watching me. Rest assured that whilst I don't LIKE the elves, I do as they tell me for fear of retribution. Just like everybody else, I am a slave to the beggers; out of cowardice! This is just a privately held series of opinions! At least I'm still entitled to that much! For now......
Yes yesd!
I know it's been a week!
The ftp file uploading package on the PC in my sitting room has gone wrong, so I downloaded a trial of another and I didn't like it much. Now the trial has run out and I don't feel inclined to buy it as I wasn't too keen on it.. I know I aught to buy another copy of the one I like, which is Cute ftp, but somehow I don't seem to have got round to it yet. Anyway, here I am sitting in another room writing the news.
What have we been doing? Oh! A few wristbands for various night clubs and gigs and stuff and, much more interestingly, designing and making different kinds of boxes on the Vertical Miehle. You know I like box-making! I have been developing some new ones for wedding favours and the like. They are very pretty!
Mark's PC needs a new mother board and processor. That is ordered and arriving Monday, we expect.
Mark is doing less hours at The Hill House Inn at the moment and that is great! I am really enjoying having him around more. We have been doing things together again, which bring me great joy.
Workshop manuals for Ferguson TE 20 series tractors have been selling in small numbers, as usual and I love printing those. It's no living (I don't need one these days), but it's fun. It's not too demanding, as I have been doing them for years and know them intimately. I still enjoy a huge number of incoming telephone calls from enthusiasts who have my manuals and just love to help out where I can.
I am keeping a very big secret fropm you all, as well. I will tell all if I succede in my efforts. When you know what it is, you will see anotehr reason why I have not been writing so much this week. The clue is that it is a very difficult project that I have been wanting to try for years and always thought impossible. No guessing, under any circumstances, please!
I have, this morning, added the tools section to the hard bound Ferguson Workshop Manual. Sadly, I have never been able to get hold of a decent original from which to reproduce these pages. Further to a third enquiry in the years I have been producing it, I have reluctantly made do with the best of the poor quality originals that I have been able to find. If any customer want this part to add to their ring-bound version, I will produce these few pages for them on request for a nominal fee. It is not possible to add these pages to earlier hard-bound editions.
I have spent the week developing new boxes of one kind or another. It has been hours at the imposing stone. The results are great!
Q. Why is inflation now itro 4%?
A. Didn't Gvt. just raise the price of most things by 2.5% V.A.T?
Q. Why is youth unepmloyment so high?
A. Didn't the last Gvt. just spend a decade making it near impossible for small business or s/e employed people to employ young people?
or
Where's the fun in working? Why shoodI? I live for me, not to fill the pockets of some employer!
or
I can't afford to work. Time I've paid tax'n stuff I get more on benefit! I've got 3 kids! Snot my fault!
Nuf said!
It seems there are some events going off, even at this time of year. We have printed wristbands for several.
My Golf Ball Boxes are looking great. I have gained a much reduced price for the material from which they are made, but am finding it near-impossible to find an actual supply. That has resulted in a good number of phone calls, searching for some and I seem to have found it with a new supplier. Woopie! I have also ordered some more creasing rule, designed to accomodate the unusually heavy grade of card I am using. That should be here early next week.
The Fight Club shirts are nearly ready to leave. It should only be a day or three now! Nearly all are printed, then it is just a matter of 3 minutes each under the heat press.
The screens for the t-shirts for The Regal Fight Club are ready to print. You can see a mock-up of the design by clicking here. We are hoping that Steve will be popping in later to help us with that little job. We work in a horribly inefficient way when screen printing clothing. Mark and I handle the screens and the squeegee, which means that we get covereed in ink and Steve keeps clean, so he handles to clothing. Thank goodness we don't need to be efficient as we work 'not for profit'!
Having completed the preparation for the lid of 12 and 36 pack golf ball boxes. I have already mocked-up the base and must, next, prepare the cutting and creasing forme for that. I have established that (assuming a decent quantity in an order [e.g. 1000], as the setup is quite big) I think I can produce the 36 pack boxes for 86p each, plain and 93p printed, with the lids printed only. The cost of printing the bottoms in black only should be around a couple of pence each. The 12 pack boxes will, of course, come out cheaper. I hope they wioll be itro 76p printed and 70p plain. I have to wait a few more days to hear from our paper merchant to see that these prices are right. We have been having discussions with them, based on the nature of what we do here and how we do it and charge for it. This is my contribution to The Big Society (I though of it first by the way), so we are trying to do better, price wise and inviting our suppliers to join in with that. Alll of the above are about 9p cheaper without the clear window.
9am now! Time for breakfast!
I know! It's been a week. Sorry!
What have we done this week?
I have been planning the manufacture of 12 and 36 pack golf ball boxes, and made the 1st of these a few minutes ago on the Miehle Vertical V45. I'm delighted with it. Mark and I have been in the composing room for a couple of hours and made up a cutting and creasing forme for ourselves, based on measurements we have calculated during the course of the week. We have samples of a very heavy, corrugated, card for extending the depth of the box from 12 balls to 36 balls. I feel it is rather expensive and would rather use our standard folding box board, which is much cheaper and I think will be more than adequate. It's certainly better looking than the white corrugated. A company which sells lake balls has approached us with this project and they would like a window, through which to see the balls. We have a cutting forme of exactly the right sized oval, and intend to drop that into the form we have made up from straight rules and furniture, to form the window. All we need to do is to cut the plywood, from which the oval forme is made, to fit the forme of straight rules which we have assembled.
We have also prepared the art work for the Fight Club t-shirts. We are hoping that the person who runs that will pop in this evening to see it. If all is well, we intend to print those tomorrow, all being well.
Our first job this morning is to coat some screens with photosensitive emulsion and ensure they are absolutely dry. Dryness is the key to successful screen coating. Then we can get on with the business of exposure, washout, re-drying and printing.
My first phone call was asking about the Ferguson Cordwood saw. The "threepenny bit" model was the 1st (mkI) and has a sliding belt-tensioning arrangement, but the later, round guarded, L-UE-20 model has a bottle screw belt tensioner.
On the subject of screen printing, we need to ask the question "why use screen, rather than another process?" The answers are broad-based. Initially, if a job requires a thick ink film (as on fabrics like t-shirts), then screen printing can achieve that for you with ease. In our case we have a machine which is very good at dealing with cylindrical objects, so when we are printing on drinking glasses (we do a fair few for our local pubs), or postal tubes, this machine is good for short runs. We are hoping to upload a short film to youtube on the subject later in the day. Thirdly, pressure is always an important issue with any kind of printing. Where we use a flat platen, we spread the effort over a large area, so we prefer to use a cylinder press, which is only pressing in a narrow band at any given moment. This eases the demand on the press for great pressures, so the machine can be made lighter. With screen printing, we use a blade through which we squeeze the ink, using very little pressure in an expremely narrow band. Almost no presure at all is needed. Indeed, very often we can employ a squeegee of vast width, by hand pressure alone. A couple of feet of squeegee length is quite common. Also, with screen printing, we can vary the screen frequency. We can obtain great detail, with a thinnish film of ink with 120 threads per inch and fine spaces between the threads or much thinker films of ink with 45 threaads per inch and bigger gaps between the threads. We can further adjust ink density by adjusting the angle of the blade in relation to the job. We can push more ink through, by healing the blade over at a steep angle with greater presure, or we can reduce the ink transfer by holding the blade more vertical as we draw it across the job. With hand-screening there is a good deal of skill and experience which can be applied to improve the finished product, from one pull to the next. However, a good result can be achieved by the most inexperienced operator, with a little care and practice. Mpre exciting still, it is not beyond the wit of most people to make their own printing frame for basic work at very low cost.
We've got ahuge quantity ofTyvekwristbands leftover from when we were (tryin to) print for profit.As a result, we have floated and advert on ebay offerring to print them in full colour at a price, equal (or less) than some people are selling single colour bands on ebay. It's lovely being able to be nice to people!
Mark has the bit between his teeth with all this tidying thing. He has been playing music in the room in which I keep my PC's and the Digital Press. That is certain to keep me at bay. I only hope I will not loose anything I want to keep or, better still that I don't notice or miss anything, which will only prove me to be in error and the loss of whatever it is to be justified. I frightened!
Other than that it has been another quiet day. Tomorrow, howver, Mark and I will be working together to do some screen printing. We have a small box of glasses to print for Julie at The Butchers Arms, a small number of Postal Tubes for The Gift of Words, which is a new local business we are trying to help to get up and running and a jacket, which we are to print a joke onto for a dear friend. This, last, job is a new challenge, again as the jacket is made from a polymer which cannot be raised above 50 degrees C, lest it melt or distort. We have some special 2-pack screen ink on it's way; just for this one jacket.
We spent part of the day clearing up the untidyness in the machine room. Mark snuck up on it, when I wasn't looking. He knows I hate tidying. I fear loosing good things. I always like it when it's done but behave like a nervous wreck wilst it's going on.
Other than that, precious little has happened barring the printing of Ferguson tractor manuals and instruction booklets.
Oh! I did have a little ebay accident! I bought a machine, which is designed to slit hot foiling foil. It comes in reals about 30" wide and we use it in widths of between 1" and 6". To buy it in narrow rolls costs between 2 and 4 times as much per given area as it does in a full width roll. Savings there then! Mark didn't tell me off too much, because it's been a while since I spent money on equipment.
We hope to be delivering Black Tie and Tiara Evening tickets some time today. They are all ready and look Grrrreat!
I popped out for lunch between 12 and 1 today. When I returned, there were two messages. I would have rung back straight away, but one from Northern Ireland didn't leave a phone number and the other (who said he was about to go abroad for a few days) left a mobile number. BT charge so much for those that I don't call them. The last time I had a phone bill with mobile calls on it, it was for nearly £200. That's why i had to make the "no mobiles" policy.
We have printed some leaflets for our local window cleaning chapie. He's a good person to know and deserves some help. We have also done a job for another local business; some bussiness cards. I enjoyed that because we had to follow a Pantone number (which turned out to be the wrong one, I hope) and we had to work out which of the Pantone lists to use to get the right colour. All part of the job! Technology has it's difficulties. I'd rather have reached for a can of ink off the shelf with the right Pantone number on the label. Then I would have known it was right. Ho Hum!
In the end we decided to print the tie and tiara logo and the logo for the band (Dominic Halpen & the Honey B's) on the digital press and thermograph the type, with a hint of glitter, in cyan on the Thompson. Yet another example of craft and technology in harmony! We are hoping to see Julie this evening at about 4pm to do this with us. If she is not here by 4:45 we will get on and do it ourselves as her husband expressed doubt that she would make it, when we took the proof in last night. Either way, she should have them tonight.
We priced up special books for weddings yesterday. We have come in at about 1/2 the commercial rate. There's the luxury of being retired!
Not that I'm a twitcher, but there is a pair of green finches in the bushes in front of me, outside my window, this morning. They are so incredibly active, quick and colourful! Add these to the robins, the blackbirds and sparrows and there is a miriad of goings on every moment out there in the cold. Then there are the early morning and evening rabbit visits. Three or four of the little bunnies, flolloping around the garden in the earliest minutes of the morning and the last light of the eveneing. I love this country!
I only regret having to keep the chickens in their pen, for fear of innevitable attack by people's dogs. I am not too keen on dogs - or cats. I certainly cannot see the attraction of keeping killers in your house and taking (or worse, just loosing) them out to share their constant threat of violence with your neighbourstwo or three times a day, as does my next door neighbour.
Today Mark and I are planning to do some more work on my Morris Minor Traveller. It has been languishing in the garage unworked-on for a while, with something just over one day of work to do to get the bodywork safe and ready for an MOT. Unfortunately, while it has been off the road, the engine has been idle and they don't like that much. A major service shall have to follow the the work on the body. Then there are the brakes to re-line and re-cable, in the case of the handbrake. Still it really should only take a month of Sundays, if we can dedicate Sundays to doing it.
During gthe week we have printed a few Ferguson tractor manuals, for various people including some, which have gone abroad. I have printed another proof of a book called Waves of Nostalgia, for an ex-serviceman who now lives Australia.
We also delivered 40 invitations to a Black Tie and Tiara Evening, to The Butchers Arms, as another little freebie. The landlady seemed delighted with them. She is planning to come here tomorrow to set some of the type and print, for herself, the tickets for the event. A box of glasses are also here for The Butchers Arms. We shall have to print those next week too. The problem is, finding a very small number of suitable presentation boxes for them. Julie intends to sell them to customers for use at home, as a keepsake. Ebay maybe! It would seem silly to have a cutting form made for the occassional run of 2 dozen glasses. On the other hand, buying them by the dozen is so very expensive!
Mark printed a t-shirt for TGC Cleaning Services, who may want some more (and maybe some sweat shirts), if they like them. This is all to promote local businesses who could benefit from a small amount of promotion and expansion in these difficult times. If you need cleaning services in this area you can contact them on 01692 652 257. We really like the person who runs the business, and sorted out the business letterheading design for them, to professionalise it. They will print their own on their own PC printer, no doubt, but it is nice that they now have a top class design.
A job of Mark's, of which I do not really approve, is a few t-shirts for a local boxing club. Apparently it is character-building. Far from my cup of tea! They are called Regal Fight Club and can be contacted on 07876 198 898 if you feel like going along and learning to box (be warned, you are bound to get hit, often around the head, and may suffer brain damage, as did Mark's contact, who has been warned never to get hit again). Mark is planning to print these shirts using a combination of spot and half-tone colour screen printing, in red, white and gold.
There's a strong possibility that we may have the pleasure of Steve's company for a while, later today.
13:05hrs
Mark is doing miracles with my Morris. I have got cold and have come in for a warm. I have been setting the type for Julies Black Tie & Tiara Evening tickets. I have 3 lines to go, and a block to make of a black tie and a tiara. I shall have to draw them. Alternatively, if I can find the gouges, I may cut a linocut. We'll see!
By the way, the correct plate samples arrived in Fridays post, so we can test those soon. Maybe for this tie and tiara image, if I can get one drawn.
Today we had some new plate material arrive, which is not quite the right thing. Never mind! I bought some more spines for. my Ferguson TE 20 series tractor manuals. They arrived today. Our guillotine blade came back sharp this morning and Mark has fitted it, taken off the worn one and prepared that to go for grinding in North Shields Grinding.
Mark has gone to fetch a friend's sheet-metal guillotine blade, with a view to sending theirs with ours. When he gets back I hope he will be able to trim the invitations to The Butchers Arms' Black Tie and Tiara Evening. Then we can deliver those this evening, all being well.
It may only be 5pm, but I am quite depressed that it is so dark. I have hardly seen Mark all day and it's dark already. Oh well! It'll be nice if we can go out together this evening for a little while.
sorry, I see I have deleted Sunday, by mistake.
I'll put the day's videos back here.
Mark and I have been experimenting with doing a 4 colour process job on the Thompson British Automatic Platen. We have made a set of photopolymer plates, which we made from film that we have made using our PC and Epson D88 inkjet printer. I have not printed a 4 colour process job since I was 21, as I trained as a jobbing printer, not a process printer. Non-the-less I enjoyed printing one whilst studying for my City & Guilds Finals exams in 1975, which I passed with credit. So I guess I managed quite a good job. I printed that on a Miehle Vertical V50 at Watford Technical College. Today we have printed the cyan on our Thompson, as I have a forme set up on the Miehle V45, which I may want to use again shortly.
So! The cyan is printed and the plate is mounted in the machine for the magenta, as soon as Mark has repaired the Thompson, which I managed to break last thing this evening. Hmmm! I have no idea how I did it, I just flipped the suction on and the operating lever moved much further than I had expected and a spring and a ball bearing dissapeared under the wall insulation. Bah!
Why would we be doing 4 colour work, do I hear you ask? Well! Full colour work on the digital press costs something like 18p per copy. Each sheet on the letterpress kit costs absolutely nothing in click rate. That means I can charge 18p per copy less if I print letterpress than if I print on the digital press. On the other hand, the cost of plates alone for letterpress are at least £20. So for 4, that's £80. The point is that if a person needs more than about 500 copies, it's probably cheaper to print the job letterpress. A thousand might, it seems, cost £80 less. That seems like a huge saving to me! I will need to check my arithmetic though!
18:04hrs
Update!
Mark has been seen removing ball bearings from a broken (now very broken) bicycle, for use in my Thompson. Wow! That will save me a few day's wait for a replacement ball from my Thompson engineer. Mark is my hero!
18:09
Another update
Mark has just presented me with the broken/repaired part, with the bicycle ball beairing already fitted. He has now gone to fit the part back into the Thompson. Another 3 minutes and I shall be printing the second colour on our 4 colour process job. Oh! The job is a full colour photo of an Albion Press. We have printed a thousand of the cyan, which I am sure is a complete waste, as we have no use for them that we can think of, but it's all good practice and wonderful fun!
18:46hrs
I should say that we are filming the whole process, so you will be able to see al my mistakes, as we go along, if or when I make them. I hope there is a chance we may get the film published in the next day or two.If there is an issue it will be that the film may be too long for Youube. If it is, we will put it up in two parts. Yes! I am typing again in the middle of the job because I broke the machine again, after about half an hour. There is a screw, which is very small and it has a torn thread, so it is not holding. I now know I will have to be very gentle with it till I can get a new one. In the mean time, Mark is fitting another ball from the bike. No doubt I will be running the job again in a few minutes.
20:59hrs
Mark has replaced my stripped screw. Where he found the replacement, I have no idea.
That's 2 colours printed then. We're doing over 1000 of them, so they take 1/2hr to run after make-ready. The yellow plate is post-exposing and Mark is washing up for yellow. After magenta, that's a tough job, bless him!
24:00hrs or thereabouts
All 4 colours are printed and it's bed time.
I am delighted with the results!
Mark was at work this morning and I was here. I have set the type for some business cards for a local mother, who runs a little beauty business. Anything to help local people to earn a living! The proof should be ready for her tomorrow.
Mark printed a hoodie, over the weekend, for a local fishing entusiast, who wants to keep warm whilst drowning worms. I believe he is intending to print a couple more for friends.
Over the weekend we sent off a few free samples of golf ball boxes, to a chap who wants to set up producing unusual golf balls for a specialist market. Whether he will do well with it, who knows, but we wish him well, and have done our best to help him to promote his product. No charge!
We have a load of sealing wax left over, from an earlier project, which we have been selling on ebay at cost. We have sold over 50 sticks in the past week.
We produced a proof for The Butchers Arms, pub, for a Black Tie & Tiara Evening that they intend to host later in the year. We will be producing some 5 sheets of invitation cards for them, some time soon. Once that is done, the next step is to print them some very traditional tickets for the same do, with round corners and gold, bevelled edges with alabaster enveloopes.
Mark and I have spent the day making a new video, for Youtube, of our Miehle Vertical V45. Here are the resluts.
The video shows us making desk tidies, from start to finish and includes a short section on the digital press. Miehle enthusiasts, be patient through that bit!
We have a nice man in this morning from Seckers (phone number 01603 616419) gasing our new air conditioning unit in the bungalow. These guyz are amazing! I phoned on Sunday (got the real-person, out of hours service) and the man is here by 10:00 this morning all the way from Norwich. Brilliant!
12:08
Air conditioning all up and running! Wow! That's warmer!
I was expecting the lifeboat cox. to arrive with another crew member this morning. No doubt they will be along in due course. That meeting is about printing some invitations for their First Annual Dinner Dance and Awards Ceremony, to be held in February.
I heard from someone today telling me about the YouTube video below. It is all about the D H Mosquito.About 15 seconds into the film, my maternal Grandfather, Harry Povey is seen on the right, demonstrating the material of which the plane is made. He is the man to whom I owe my ability to think about how things are made and done and my fascinated curiosity for all things.
I posted a Ferguson TE20 series tractor Workshop Manual this morning, to Germany. I sent off a number of other books on Thursday and Friday.
W
The first phone call today led me to use the large friendly words of Douglas Adams, "Don't Panick". A caller had bought a Ferguson TE F 20, which just would not fire on all 4 cylinders. He opened it up and found that it has 4 pistons, but only 3 con rods. Woops! I led him to Dave Garner. 01553 828 330.
I've removed the weather station, because it has a silly fault, which displays the occassional wildly mad reading. I don't know why it does it. I just ignore it, but it may confuse some people. It continues to be up there, so if you want to use it despite it's little issues, go to http://www.catseyepress.co.uk/weather/ and save it as a favourite.
I sent off a proof of a book called "Waves of Nostalgia" by Brian Mutton, to the author, in Australia, yesterday.
We delivered a few folded business cards to The Butchers Arms, at East Ruston, last evening, after Mark finished work. They described the cards as "Wow! These are so posh!" I like it when customers say things like that.
We extend our condolances to the owner of the jet ski, which founderred off Cart Gap last night, for the damage to, if not the loss of, his vessel. It is a relief that nobody was hurt.
Mark is at work again this morning cooking Sunday lunch for the good people of Happisburgh and surrounding areas. I went up there for one, myself. It hardly seemed worth cooking just for one. Sam's baby is not well, so Mark is covering for him. Mark doesn't usually work Sunday.
The Archers
I shall not be answering the telephone during tonight's extended (60th anniversary) episode of The Archers, this evening from 7pm. We are expecting a very significant plot to this episode, which we are assured will affect the village of Ambridge for the next decade.
Happy New Year everybody.
Just a thought!
The fact that England is no longer making anything is a subject, which regular readers will know I lament. However, the cause is in little doubt. Our skilled workers would like to earn a living wage, like anybody else. A living wage is a minimum of "The Legal Minimum wage". Yes! I know, too many minimums! Anyway! That would make the cost of buying a given product, which is 'made in England' a very great deal more than for an identical product made in a country which has no "Legal Minimum Wage"; even accounting for the huge cost of transporting the aforesaid product 1/2 way round the planet.
What I fail to grasp is this. It's the 'matter of exchange rates' and the effects they have on the subject at hand. Of course, there is another matter to consider in tandem. That is the matter of 'standard of living'. So! Starting with the element I do understand, if our workers want a new fridge most years, TV's, PC's, central heating and so on and our competitors workers don't (or, at least don't get them), then our goods will be more expensive. Then there's the matter of 'Exchange Rates'. If our competitors keep their exchange rates unrealistic, then we are at an even greater dis-advantage. Now I begin to understand why it is that so many of our people have elected to work for The Public Services (which pay unrealistic rates backed up by unrealistic taxation rates) and what, in my day were called the "invisible earnings" sectors, such as banking, insurance and other non-productive black arts. Of course, there is nothing on earth to prevent the peoples of 'developing nations' from learning and subsequently developing such black arts of extracting monies by stealth, for themselves. Where does that leave us then?
It is my belief that there is a strong possibility that the competing nations to which I refer will, very soon, have completed their education with regard to 'invisible earnings' and will begin to expand in these sectors; to the detriment of England, America and Europe. Of course, we will all crie "woppie", at first, as we buy from our own competitors, instead of from each other. It will be a brief while before it all comes crashing down around us. The result of that must certainly mean that the only way that we can hope to compete is to match the exchange rates and lower our expectations (or demands) in terms of 'standard of living'. Of course, we could extend the latter without employing the former, with much effort and self-denial; not to mention loss of life akin to that currently being experienced in the 'third world nations' of today.
For now, the best for which we can hope is that the people of the 'developing nations' demand more and more for their labour and that our goods and services, therefore, become relatively more competitive. Whatever happens, I do believe that England and other so called 'advanced nations' can expect relative deprevation in the foreseeable future. We can only hope it will not lead to too many deaths.
It seems to me that the New Year is only a few days away. I am hoping that, having developed a wonderful method of printing on Tyvek wristbands in full glorious photoquality colour, there may be some customers out there, who have designed something truly worthy of the process. Go on! Phone! Email me your artwork! I'll have your bands back to you in no time!
Whilst we are on the subject of what I can do for yon peoples out there who want stationery of all sorts. They really aught to be on to me to get it organised. Don't bother with the so-called free (and by the way, what they call free is usually more than I would charge you, when push comes to shove) low-class stationery. Get me to do the job letterpress, on decent quality paper or card. You do know that can we even gild bevelled edged cards, with real top quality gold leaf, don't you? They don't come off the peg any more. No-one's sold them, the way they used to, for decades.
If you think you might like to have some cards plate-embossed, do give me a ring! Tha's a thing I'd like to do and have not seen done for years.
I have a collection of monograms available for very special customers. They were designed some 200 years ago and have never been made available to the public. Copyright has long exprired. Talking of copyright, Eric Gill's work, at last, comes out of copyright on New Years Day this year. I have a fine collection of his work. If anybody would like to make use of it, give me a ring!
Mark and I have had a well deserved day off, except that we have made a new video. You can see it appearing randomly at the head of the page. click once to make it play or click twice to see it on You Tube. The Heidelberg video is still there, and that appears randomly at the head of this page when the Thompson video doesn't. You may have to refresh a number of times to change video.
10:15hrs
My first job is to wish you all a very happy Christmas. Whatever you are doing, try to keep sober and positive and smile at everybody. It's best for everybody, including you.
I have just deleted a paragraph of nonsense, before uploading it. It's hard to know what to say today. There's too much rubbish going round and round in my mind.
We have had a weird year. We have wanted for nothing, thank God. That'll be the first year I could have said that and I have to say that there have been many joys. Overall I would rather have had Irene's company on the phone every day and wish my Mum were not so old and tired and I wish, more than I could say, that I was still in touch with my Dad. It's days like this that make me wish I could have been a better son to him; but I could never have been all he hoped of me.
12:06hrs
I've been to The Hill House, seem some of the locals and exchanged Christmas greetings over a couple of cups of tea. That was all very pleasant! Sadly I missed a call from Susan, who left greetings on the phone. Thaks Susan, I appreciate the call and I hope you enjoy your day.
I must say, it is touching to see so may readers of this page today, of all days. ***SMILE***
14:45hrs
I just had a visit from a friend, which I enjoyed more than I have enjoyed anything for a long time. We just talked a while and I ended feeling there was a chance I might have done some good. Purpose! That's all it takes to make me happy! Thanks for coming.
I forgot to mention yesterday that we delivered a shop sign to our friend Huggy for his Cafe in Stalham High Street. Great!
I'm feeling better today, although still a bit constricted. Cold air is a crippler!
It just occurred to me that we need for one or both of us to go shopping for food some time today. It's 4 days off they're having, isn't it? No food shops till next Wednesday. Oh well! Hang on! Then I have no idea what is planned for the New Year celebrations. Are the shops open on Saturday 1st or Monday 3rd? I suppose not! Hmmm!
I have a design in my head for some cards, that has grown over the past few days and fancy seeing how it looks. Must try that! It involves foil and letterpress printing in combination. Talking of which Mark trimmed some cards I printed last week and I am fairly pleased with them. I just love the foiled fronts. They are business card sized and folded.
The days are getting longer every day now! Brilliant! It'll soon be spring.
I printed some booklets and a book, for Ferguson Tractor enthusiasts today. Then I printed some little labels for Steve. All orders now despatched!
Mark has printed some T-shirts for Steve.
We're both feeling a little better, but still a bit rough. Breathing a bit heavy. That's why sentences are a but brief!
We had to go to my annual check-up for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea this morning. I very much like the doctor there. He's fun and takes the trouble to remember me. All clear for the next year!
Our Civil Partnership anniversary. 5 years today. Mark says that's wood. Hmmm!
I've got the software adjustment for NORTH on the weather station right now. At last! It's a little warmer today aswell. That's good.
I have not been out though! I have a chest infection and feel a bit grotty. 3rd day! Better tomorrow I hope. I keep saying that every day! Hmmm!
Nothing else much going on because I'm not doing anything. Sorry!
Safety elves Grrr! What's the need for all those compulsory electronic componants without which we managed for most of my life, if at the drop of hat the blithering things fail and leave a chap with no heat, water or any other thing in the middle of a cold winter's night? You may have gathered that we had an earth leakage circuit breaker flip in the night. Our mains water supply is frozen, and who would care, we are independant in our motor home, except that the batteries have been playing up and really needed changing, but the pub needed Mark, so it got put off for a while. We just ran on transformers. ERROR, because the backup systems all failed too!
The worst of it was that I didn't get much sleep for want of my C.P.A.P., which treats Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. How I ever slept without it, I seriously wonder now! I feel dreadful after one night. I must have been near dead after heaven knows how long without much sleep. No wonder I felt bad before I presented at the doctor's surgery. I am seeing the specialist for my annual checkup on the 23rd. He's in for a big thank you!
Of course! The big intellectual question is "what will we do, as a nation, if the electricity system fails?" Mark and I could have moved into our bungalow and lit a coal (yes we do have a small stock for emergencies) fire in the grate and slept on the sofa in front of it. But how many people have that ability or facility? No pooters, no motors, no telephones, no heaters (all types now need trickery to function), no lights (although Mark and I do have oil lamps for emergencies), no motor cars (how would we get petrol into the cars without electric pumps? These modern ones just don't have a handle to turn in an emergency). The list is hopelessly endless! And what's the first thing attacking armies hit when the attack? They call it "infrastructure", but it's water and electricity supplies. Now do you see why I would prefer it if we could withdraw armed services from everywhere else on the planet and put them in a ring around our coasts. "Defense", not interference abroad! That would be my policy! It's my opinion and I'm entitled to express it, thanks to British law!
Air Source Heating
I have to say that our air source heating in the garage is absolutely brilliant! It seems to provide heat, even with the outside temperature as low as it was last night, at minus 9.6C Today, with outside temperatures at -3C the heat coming from it is brilliant! The room is as warm as toast! I cannot recommend these things highly enough. To think the fact that we are getting 300% efficiency out of it is a real bonus. That is to say that out of every Kwhr we put into the machine, we get 3Kwhrs out. The balance comes from the, seemingly, cold outside air. Miraculous! Not really a miracle, but seemingly like a miracle. In fact the outside air temperature is currently at about 270.15 degrees ABOVE absolute zero and no doubt after it has passed through our machine it is still more than 250 degrees above absolute zero, so no real miracle, but by goodness it feels like one inside that garage. These things work down to minus 25C! We will be installing one in the house any day now, I hope! Oh how much, you ask? 12000btu is about £450. Now that IS a miracle. Oh, by the way, in Summer it works in reverse and cools us down in the heat waves, AND , if you have a damp problem it DRIES air just as efficiently. There is a unit outside, about the size of a large suit case and a unit high on the wall, inside, for each room. Brilliant! If you would find one of these helpful, but want to see ours in action, you are more than welcome to see it and feel it. Come on down! as the saying goes. It's always on here in the garage in winter.
Did someone ask how complex it is to install? Erm! A mains power supply, from a 13 amp plug, a hole in the wall to the outside of about 3" diameter. Screw the inside unit to the wall, fit the outside unit nearby, outside, 1 wire to plug in and two copper pipes to connect, open the valves to get the refrigerant flowing and it's done! Mark may be able do it for you if you cannot manage it yourself, provided that you are near us. Delivery is from stock by carrier! Next day is a little extra.
It's not really Friday yet, being only Thursday at 21:21hrs; but it will save me doing a separate entry.
Today I have printed the fronts of some double-sized visiting cards for myself, in glorious gold. I am so delighted with this new foiling kit on the hiedelberg, I can hardly express myself. There is one catch, and that is that every plate costs about £20 miniium, which is something I hate with a passion; but it's worth every penny! It's because the photopolymer (plastic) plates, that I can make, just will not cope with the necessary pressures!
It is my intention to print the insides of these folding cards in black with our details, having printed a detailed picture of an Albion press on the ouside cover, in gold.
More tomorrow.
06:58am Friday
So we had a light dusting of snow last night and it was 7.1 degrees below as I got up this morning. The only tracks in the snow apart from the rabbits are mine from my late night walk of last night, and mine of this morning 1st thing. The good thing about a bit of snow is that it gives a bit of light by which to walk, whilst the dog packs are tucked up in bed. The reason I am doing all this walking is numb toes, not brought on by cold (we're nice and warm indoors), but circulatory issues. I would go to my doctor, but she usually says there is nothing she can do and that I should excersise more. So I am!
My first job for the day will be to print some resteurant pads for The Butchers Arms. It's just half a dozen pads and I feel sure they will be pleased of them being at cost. I haven't actually told them that, but they have been surprised at the price which I quoted. When I have done that, I hope to set the type for my own visiting cards, on which I printed the gold yesterday. I look forward to further enquires during the day, all being well.
07:09 and the dawn is just cracking the horizon. Woopie! It's not due till 19 minutes past, but there is the glow, plain to see! I've had to wake Mark from his sleep to have a look at the electrics in the motorhome. The radio is switching itself on and off at will, there is no lighting (which is why I am so pleased to see the dawn) abd I have had to turn off the heating as it is sucking the low voltage power supply, dry. Hmm! We'll have to see what happens next.
All is electricallly wierd. Mark clicked
Today has seen 3 little orders pop in, entirely to my surprise. They are all Ferguson tractor related. 2 for books and 1 for a t-shirt. Brilliant! I love doing tractor-related work. I have printed the books, which are ready for the postma, and Mark will print the hoodie (not t-shirt) as soon as he can. He's due back about three this afternoon.
That's a fairly normal start to the day then! Mark's gone to work. My UV exposure unit is n the blink and my air source heating unit in my toy room is giving me an "E6" reading (which I guess is an error code, it is supposed to read "16", which is the temperature to which I have it set) and not working. Brrr!
It's a loose connecion of the exposure unit, fixed now! The heating people have threatened to ring me back. We'll see!
09:15
All is now mended!
Fairly predictably I have spend most of the day playing with the Heidelberg platen and it's new foiling kit. I have made a couple of photopolymer plates of the letter "P" in a highly decorative type face (one which I feel sure nobody will recognise, as it's virutally unique). It has taken me a time to get my head round the fact that I need a huge amount of pressure with the foiling to get a top quality image, but I have it now. Just the way I like it! Mark has taken some photos of my work, but I don't know where to find them to put one up. He is asleep!
I have been working on a new project connected with stationery. I have an idea that these new (nearly 200 year old) type fonts will prove a real killer, as monograms on the front of folded visiting cards and at the top of letterheads. They as absolutely stunning! As far as we know they have only once been published, as a limited edition, and never been cast in lead for general use. That's why I am making photopolymer plates of them from a set of matrix prints. Some of our selected visitors will have seen them, but very few and only once. You can see special low resolution samples at MonogramsForWeb.pdf. This is one occassion when I can use the word "rare" and be absolutely truthfull. These are very nearly as rare as a Ferguson TE60.
Well now! We ordered our heater cartridges on Monday evening. We confirmed by telephone Tuesday 1st thing. TC Direct failed to despatch. As a result, they failed to arrive on Tuesday, we phoned and they were despatched (next day a.m. delivery) - from snowy Sheffield, not sunny Uxbridge, as expected.
10:50
The recalcitrant package has ARRIVED! We're off!
Well now! first we inserted the two 800 watt cartridge heater elements into the alluminium hot plate, along with the temperature sensor we fitted a few days ago and then all we had to do was to plug them into the Bunnomatic. The hot plate soon came up to temperature and printing began. We have produced a number of A5 letter headings for ourselves in gold and in hollographic silver. We used a photopolymer plate we made last week, so the image quality is terrific! 11 days since the man who was coming to sell us the kit didn't come because the weather was bad somewhere between here and Ipswich. In fairness, nealt 10 days of that has been waiting for delieveries of the various bits needed to do the job. Hm! Perhaps that was his reason for not coming. Lacking bits! Whatever! He has done a favour really. The "bits" have cost us about £100, whereas his ready-to-roll machinery would most likely have cost us nearer £2 or 3 thousand.
Mark has recorded a few minute for us on video and, after suitable editing of the boring bits, he will upload the thing to YouTube. I will then find the new video somehow and change the existing film of someone elses Heidelberg foiling to our own video of our 1939 Heidelberg foiling.
We also have some footage in the archive somewhere of me printing on the Albion iron hand press. That can be uploaded to YouTube too and linked in the same way. Progress is being made! Apologies to Chris for taking so long to get our own footage up there. I was not expecting the request, so had made little preparation.
Tea now!
In response to a request from a regular reader, I have included a video from Youtube in the header of one of the types of machine we have here. I don't have video of my own, so these show similar equipment. There are 6 videos up there. They are rotated randomly.
I have just been having a look at price comparisons between Viking's, printing prices and mine. You all know that I advertise this as not for profit, and this shows just how much profit there probably could be for a business doing it - Not much! We live in a madly competitive world! I suppose it may be more if they are more efficient than me, but on the other hand I don't have their overheads, but I don't buy very much paper or other supplies, so no doubt I pay a high price for supplies.
Here are prices comparing single colour digital from Viking with letterpress from me.
1000 letterheadings on A4 120gsm Conquerer Laid, ...... Viking £129.99 .... Me £102 ...... Saving £27.99
1000 Compliments Slips 1/3rd A4 as above, .................. Viking £ 84.99 ..... Me £ 57 ...... Saving £ 27.99
250 Business Cards, ...................................................... Viking £ 22.99 ..... Me £ 18 ...... Saving £ 4.99
If you buy the set, the saving, buying from me, is even more, being £78.00. The extra saving is not having to set the type twice, for the heading and the compliments slips. Just add the words "With Compliments".
If you need a special printing block making for a logo and/or for foiling, they cost me £10.00 on average.
18:30hrs
Mark is soldering the terminals in the box, which arrived today from Maplin, along with plugs, sockets, controller and stuff for wiring the hot foil conversion on the Heidelberg Platen. Woohooo! Once done, all we have to do is to wait for the arrival of the heater elements, which are due tomorrow from TC Direct, along with the conductive paste, in which the heaters and sensor are to be mounted. Cripes! That will have been a full 8 days since we began doing it ourselves instead of buying in the kit from S. F. Services, when their chap didn't turn up.
Meansbetimes, I have carefully studied the "Christmas Greetings" that I Hot Foil Printed yesterday with our spare heater plate. They look Grrrreat! There is no doubt that converting the Heidelberg has been the right way to go on this. No more treadling the Empress for me; that's for sure!
Mark has just pointed out that we must retain the Empress for foiling THE ridged book covers for our Ferguson tractor Workshop Manuals, as the doodlebug might not be too keen on feeding those. Hand feeding has to be the way to go for tricky jobs like that! Quite right Mark!
Anyway! I can now advise that from tomorrow, we can declare that foiling is the same price as printing plus the cost of the foil, which we can call 1/2p per pull (which will cover all eventualities and sizes, I think). So that totals 1 1/2p per pull! So! For 1000 run, add £5 to the prices for printing (above); unless you want foil AND ink, in which case add £15.00/1000. Not bad eh?
18:14hrs
That's all done then! The heater block (minus heaters) is mounted in the chase, ready to slip into the machine. The controller is connected and tested and all ready to go. All that we need to do now is to put a plug on the cartridge heaters when they arrive and plug them in. We know from last night's efforts that the foil advance mechanism works a treat and can be adjusted for length of pull over the range we need. We are nearly ready to go! Mark is a genius! Hooraaaah!
Mark reminds me that it's worth pointing out that it takes less than 10 minutes to convert it back to ink. You don't even have to wash up! There's a heater to unplug, a sensor to unplug and a chase to remove. The inking rollers drop back on. Job done!
The upgraded 1939 Doodlebug with 2010 (Cripes! That's 71 years old!) Bunomatic Hot Metallic Foil Printing attatchment
With fully automatic foil feed mechanism
And highly technical Bunomatic temperature controller
Look! pretty lights..... and pooterised readouts! Fully digitalised for the 21st century!
Mark spent the morning (that's till it got dark) at his job at The Hill House. I waited in for a delivery from Maplins, of the platic box, a jackplug and socket and a mains power plug & socket, for the temperature control equipment for the foiling attachment for the Heidelberg. It did not arrive. Perhaps tomorrow!
When he got home we had another look at the foiling gear and Mark did some welding, I did some cutting of steel with the oxy-torch and together we routed the bicycle brake cable, which drives the foil-advance mechanism. The job's a good'n, as they say here in sunny Norfolk! Mark has now slipped out to get a hole bored a little deeper into the hot-plate, for the temperature sensor. When he returns, no doubt we will be able to mount the heater plate in the chase, bearing the printing plate and foil-feed shaft, which we made over the weekend. Then all we need to do is to mount the control gear in the little pastic box, which we hope will arrive tomorrow and then we can try the thing out; a week to the day from when the man from the proper foil conversion people was due to come. Actually, I have little doubt that we will be cobbling it together and trying it out this evening, without it's little platic box or plugs and sockets for the wires, which no doubt we can twist together to make the necessary connections. Just to see it work you understand! I do like to see things working! Now! Where's that MEK? I need to get the glaze off the foil-advance roller!
We've not had a water supply from the mains today, which is not surprising given the outside temperature. Bear in mind that it's much colder in the shade of the motorhome, where the supply hose runs.I really must try again to get Mark to bury that hose!
There's a 5m tide here this evening. I'm please the wind is not strong and from the NE! Even so, I can hear the waves breaking on the sea defences from indoors. When it is bad, you can feel the ground shake easily, under foot.
1 hour later
Mark's not back yet, but I did find the MEK and cleaned to foil-advance roller. However, that didn't do the trick. Then I lubricated the bearings and lo and behold, it began to revolve reliably. Hmmm! I feel silly now! Now I'm listening to "Just a Minute" on BBC Radio 4. What a wonderful way to spend an evening! Of course, the long wait rather leads me to the belief that Mark will have drilled the hole deeper as required, so that when he gets back we will be able to advance to the next step as soon as he gets back. On the other hand, he may be back at the pub. Do I sound like a married woman? Hmmm again! Sorry! Never mind that! "The Archers" is about to start. Hold tight! Clary's about to get up to something; as soon as "The News" is over.
Part way through "The Archers"
Woops! Clary's broken her wrist! Oh dear!
Mark's back! Great! We can get on with the foiling conversion.
I so want to get this thing running within a week of being let down.
Bah! Pooey! Alll the smoke has fallen out of our elements! They're blown! We've had to order a new pair. So! We are all ready to go, but nothing doing for want of elements! They are due to arrive on Wednesday. It's not the ocst which frustrates me, it's the wait!
22:59hrs
We used another heater plate and, by thunder, we have a doodlebug (Heidelberg) which prints with foil, delightfully! Don't tell them safety elfs, we could die if we moved our fingers a couple of squinches. I am a happy printer
Well John!
There's the dusting of snow you were compalining we were lacking. Is that enough?
I know it's only a light dusting, but think of the chickens.
One of us will pop along later for a bit of Vermiculite for our fireplace in the house. Thanks mate!
09:42hrs
Thanks to John for Vermiculite which we can use to fix our solid fuel fire in the house.
We got our next door neighbour's Jeep running this morning. We think the heater plugs have failed.
10:11hrs
The company who are working on the toilet block in the car park have been over for water with which to mix their cement for pointing the walls.
I had a customer (Graham, a workshop manual owner) on the phone, a few times, yesterday about his TE D 20, which has hydraulic lift problems. With the PTO running and the quadrant up, it fails to lift completely. We had a look (over the phone) at the control valve, but that seems OK. I have left him trying to loosen the knuckle on the control spring in case it is too tight. If it is, that might prevent the control valve from going to the correct position. I hope to hear from him later today. He will have to get it hot and run some wax into it, to free it off. He bought it recently and has no idea what may have been done in the past.
Mark has gone shopping for food for the weekend.
I am hoping for a delivery from Maplin today, of plugs and sockets (and a box on/in which to mount them and the heat controller), which is all we need to get the Heidelberg foiling later today. I say that, but we will also need to do a bit of light engineering, to get the foil realler fixed to the top of the press and a bar, which will advance the thing at each revolution of the press..
11:32
Mark has gone shopping again, this time for metal and a drill for the mounting of the foil pulling thingy.
DHL turned up in 2 separate vehicles yesterday and delivered all they needed to deliver. I had type arrive first, set headings and, as mentioned in yesterday's news, printed them. The heat controller for the hot foil project also arrived. Mark has now ordered a couple of plugs, sockets and a big box to mount it all in. Well done Mark!
Off the fags again this morning; being armed with new patches, which we hope may stick this time.
I am just having a bite of breakfast and then I'm off to print some books, if all goes according to plan.
John is coming up later and I am hoping he may have some vermiculite, with which we can effect a repair on our back-boiler in the house. That is not to say that I expect to repair the rusted-through boiler, but rather that I hope to separate it from the fire with a sheet of fire-proofing. I am well aware that we will need to drain the system down first. It's only really a temporary bodge until I can persuade Mark to move the air-source heating from his garage into the house, as this is the only way I can see to get us started with a warm building. I am well aware that it will mean doing everything twice, but it seems to me to be the only practical means of keeping the house warm this winter.
Mark is yet a little unsure about the air source heating machines. We have only just got this one working well, for the 1st time, after a good year, or more. I can well undestand and empathise with that and agree, really.
I have an eye test this afternoon, connected with diabetis. They put drops in my eyes which stops me seeing properly for a few hours.That will cause a slight delay as I cannot see afterwards. Any books not despatched, should leave tomorrow, all being well. All are printed and ready to trim and post.
I expect there will be some amongst you who will already have worked this out. I had a really rotten day yesterday and ended up smoking again, which helped a lot. Hmmmm! By about 3pm, I thought I'd better take the nicotine patch off if I'm smoking as I don't want twice as much of the stuff in me and to end up even more addicted. When I eventually found the patch, it was stuck, wrong way up, to the inside of my smock. I had not been getting any drug at all!
I tried to stick a new one on this morning, but it wouldn't stick. It's un-sticky-sticky-stuff! Back to the nag-nurse then! Sorry about the mood yesterday!
Weather
Boy It's windy! And it's sunny and it's quite chilly.
I await delivery of the heater controller for the heidelberg hot-foiling conversion we are doing. The hot plate is in place in the chase and has already been well tested. All I need to do to that is to add the temperature sensor and the control box, which goes with it. That's mainly just a little wiring job and mounting a couple of suitable sockets, so that I can unplug the chase and lift it out when I want to use the machine for printing ink instead of foiling.
Mark has welded the foil-feed bar to the bottom of the chase and the foil-feed mechanism is ready to afix somewhere above the ink duct. The whole assembly will lift on and off in a trice! I hope it will all be working by tomorrow evening.
DHL failed to deliver some type which I had ordered for delivery yesterday on the grounds of bad weather. I don't know where they took it, but it wasn't snowy where it came from and it's not snowy here; to any extent - as in green fields as far as the eye can see - which is miles!
Our air-source heating in the room in which I keep the presses is not working again, so I have asked a local company to come and fit the thing properly and to re-gas it. They were amazing on the phone and say they will be here within the hour. I waited 6 months ish for the original suppliers of the equipment to come and look at it and got very little benefit from their visit. These new, local, people are SECKERS, a family run business established in 1946. For all your air conditioning -design, supply and installation of complete fitted systems. Heat pump air conditioning - for heating and cooling. Portable air conditioning for hire and sale.
7 St. John's Close
Hall Road
Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 2PR
Tel: 01603 616419
Fax: 01603 765519
I aught to write this tomorrow, but I am too keen. I have just printed 100 letterheadings for a London customer and Mark has thermographed them. My next task is to crease the envelopes, ready for folding. I get such joy from printing good quality notepaper. I have completed the job at 8 o'clock in the evening and feel refreshed and happy.
With regards to the air source heating, following the good efforts of the staff from SECKERS, it is giving us huge amounts of heat for a third of the cost of electricity. For every 1kw we put it, we get 3kw out (over 10,000 BTU's)! Isn't that a miracle? The rst of the heat is drawn for the cold air passing us from Siberia. Even though it is below the freezing point of water, it is 273 degrees above absolute zero. The difference is available to us in heat. That means that we are getting heat at only 2.52pence per unit (kw/hr), which in this day and age is nothing short of brilliant!
To be honest, this has not been my favourite day so far this year! I had an appointment with Alan Hutchins, manager of SF Services about converting our Hiedelberg Platen to foiling at 10:00am. Just after that, when he seemed to have got lost, I phoned to confirm that all was well and he said he isn't coming because of the weather. THEN WHY THE HECK DID HE NOT PHONE? Crikey, I'm angry! Mark and I worked late into yesterday evening to prepare for his visit. We ensured that we were, in every way, informed on the subject. We were very much looking forward to buying our new equipment and he just didn't turn up. WHAT?
Of course, I have nothing else planned for this morning, which is regrettable, so I will try to think of something. It's more likely that I will order the component parts eleswhere and that we will do it ourselves, as usual! That'll be it then! That's what I will do!
I'm gasping for a fag! Not coughing as much! Really really trying to "cut down". DON'T YOU DARE contact me on the subject! It would, likely, to be the last straw that has me smoking again. I don't need reminding about it! Distraction, distraction, distraction! Nuf!
Now! What I need is a chromium plated steel bar about 15" long on which to put my foil, with threaqds at each end. Then I need another chromium plated steel bar over which to run my foil, to hold it off the hot plate. Then another the same at the top of the chase, to keep it parallel. OK! Now the foil is passing the plate at a suitable distance from the heat, ready to be pressed by the platen onto the image. Great!
I have a organised a suitably sized alluminium plate, drilled with holes for heaters and temperature sensor. I have the heaters and it is now all locked into a chase on the press. Now what I need is the sensor and the box of tricks which controls the temperature. I can get those from http://www.n-i-e.co.uk/searchpart.php all being well.
10:35
Waited long enough for them! Who next?
I have an old pneumatic press, with which I was unhappy with the pressure available (I could only do small jobs on it and it was hand-fed). I have removed the foil feed and am preparing to mount that above the Hiedelberg's ink duct, with a view to using that to pull the foil through to the top. It already has a re-wind mechanism on it, to keep the used foil tidy. How I wish Mark was here! He's so much better at gas welding than I will ever be. I do MIG and stick, but we don't have a MIG o