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Your Physical Health

Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
gnubler said:
Pretty sure it's due to the nature of the job. When I worked in commercial printing it was rare to work with a press operator who wasn't on the 'rough' side. Most of them were obvious substance abusers. I can only think of three that weren't crackheads, and all three were super-Christians who either read the Bible during long press runs or had headphones on listening to Christian talk radio. I usually tried to avoid interacting with ALL press operators if at all possible. :p
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That is every trade. TBH, this industry seems tame compared to some of the other businesses we work with. Some of the stories are almost unbelievable.
 
M

MNT_Printhead

Working among the Corporate Lizard People
gnubler said:
Pretty sure it's due to the nature of the job. When I worked in commercial printing it was rare to work with a press operator who wasn't on the 'rough' side. Most of them were obvious substance abusers. I can only think of three that weren't crackheads, and all three were super-Christians who either read the Bible during long press runs or had headphones on listening to Christian talk radio. I usually tried to avoid interacting with ALL press operators if at all possible. :p
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I come from litho and found this to be most true in the larger commercial shops. If they weren't pissed off working at a small shop, they were pissed and angry working for a commercial shop while missing fingers or living and working with a work related disability (In Denver - Pepperdines and Frederick). I teach all of my new to the trade employees the importance of looking at hands before you offer a hand shake - I don't think a guy with only a thumb and his right index finger really wants to shake hands. This is also why I am signs and not litho - along with the horrors or pagination.
 
M

MNT_Printhead

Working among the Corporate Lizard People
Stacey K said:
I have Amazon Music (free version) and I pay for Spotify and my son shares it so I have some great play lists, metal, rap, 80's. I started listening to fictional or Dateline podcasts while at home and I very rarely even turn the TV on or look at my phone. I will get immersed in the Podcast and find things to clean or do, sewing, painting, some kind of creative outlet. I also bought some earbuds for summer so I can garden and listen to whatever I want without bothering the neighbors. I think you will really like Amazon Music, the unlimited or getting Spotify is worth it, IMO.

I have heard about the young people having stress fractures, it's a real thing like you are saying. Glad my kids spent summers baling hay LOL
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I am sure telling the owner that I had drivin miles of t posts and strung the barbed wire as well as herded cattle landed me my job from an old now 93 cowboy, it was the seal the deal on the actual work experience and let him know I don't mind doing work.

I imagine your kids are great workers. My Dad was a farm boy who went National Guard and helped Ollie out and wound up in DC, he shipped me off for Summer to his dad to help on the ranch at the age of 5. At least 4 years were spent rebuilding a moved barn with my brother and I being the 5th to move and rebuild it; We had no power tools and felt lucky to get a speed handle for the day, the barn got destroyed by a tornado around 10 years ago and I want to make some art from the left over metal.
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
MntPrintHead said:
I teach all of my new to the trade employees the importance of looking at hands before you offer a hand shake
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Ah, that's wild, like the litho industry is that full of finger thieving machinery? We prefer to look at hands before firing up a saw, so keeping them digits intact is pretty simple, but I know the industrial cardboard manufacturers across the tracks get to keep a few fingers every year.
Reminds me of a guy I met while hanging his sign, he was going on about his machine gun manufacturing side gig, said something like 'its all fun and games until a front grip comes loose and you shoot yourself in the hand', at which point he showed his missing index finger. He seemed pretty proud of it, and I told him how impressed I was, it looked like it had never been there, he said he didn't give a sh*t how it looked, he just wished it'd stop hurting.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
I knew a pressman who told me the story about the time his arm got pulled into the rollers up to his elbow. He was there alone after hours or on a Saturday and just sat there yelling until someone finally heard him, I think he said he was stuck for a few hours. No fingers were lost, but major tissue and nerve damage. After that he said he never ran a press again without someone else in the building.
 
Boudica

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
Well, we started with physical health, moved on to mental health... And by page six, we have saturated the thread with drug use. I went through my mind opening phase of life once I was on my own, starting with 18 but truly taking off in my 20's. I experimented a lot, have tried pretty much anything at least once.
They can all be fun, if not beneficial used in moderation. Now days, you can't know if it's pure, or laced with something deadly. Kinda takes the fun, and benefit away if it could kill you.
You can grow your own weed, not as strong as the pot shop weed. Alcohol is pretty safe because it's legal and regulated. Can't make your own coke, so that's a risky crapshoot. Same with heroin. Meth is just gross on many levels.
I've never been into pharmaceuticals for recreation, they just make me fall asleep anyway. Which is why I took them (prescribed)... To sleep because I'm in pain from an injury, resting, so it can heal.

ETA, shrooms & acid... Each can lead to a bad trip. Experienced good and bad with LSD, never bad with shrooms. "Don't panic when it's organic." :rock-n-roll:
 
B

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
I was a bit more interested about people losing their fingers doing certain jobs than anything to do with drugs. I'm not going to complain about pot, only because I've designed a hell of a lot of dispensary signs, window wraps, etc. I don't do the product though.

A couple years ago I had a bad yard work mishap. I nearly cut off my left index finger with an electric hedge trimmer. I was holding the trimmer one handed, trying to pull a bush branch out of the way while cutting another branch. And then: bam. Couldn't pull my left hand away fast enough. Lesson learned. I was in the ER with the tip of my finger scissor cut and the top bone broken in 3 places. They had to do orthopedic surgery on my finger and put two pins in it. Worse yet, I had to spend 24 hours in the hospital hooked up to IV antibiotics before they would let me go home. Thank God I have health insurance. It cost me about $5000 out of pocket but the total bill was over $30,000.

I thought the hospital's treatment of my finger was overkill. But then a friend of mine in Stillwater, OK died a few weeks later of a severe strep infection from a cut on his hand. They amputated his arm at the elbow and he still died anyway. I told my doctor about that on a follow up visit. He said, "that's why we kept you overnight after the surgery and gave you all those antibiotics; no one sterilizes their yard tools."
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Texas_Signmaker said:
To be an installer, you either need to have a felony under your belt, be an alcoholic or a manageable drug addict.... if you have all three you can be lead installer.
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LOL. I think you're right. Most of the installers I've hired either look & smell like homeless people, or actually are homeless.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
gnubler said:
LOL. I think you're right. Most of the installers I've hired either look & smell like homeless people, or actually are homeless.
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That's how you know you've got the right guys for the job.

Installers spend the weekend in the clink working off their last DWI conviction.

Receptionist answer the phones trying to sound like hot airheads

Designers like to dress up like anime characters on the weekend and s&#$ each other off.

Owners are trying to manage the clown show and are wishing the receptionist would go out and have drinks with them tonight

Fabricators spend the day building something the installer has to figure out how to fix in the field...leading them to drink at night and the cycle starts over.
 
G

Goatshaver

New Member
I think keeping moving physically is a good thing. You don't have to be a super athlete or do anything crazy. Some good strength work and mobility work, which is why yoga is really good. Never had any serious printing injuries other than some sliced finger tips form using a light table to cut down press checks or proofs.
I'm 44 now and starting to feel the age catching up, but I regularly use kettlebells for strength work it's also a great way to mitigate some stress and take your mind off things.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Working alone, I'm always paranoid about cutting my hand off with the saw and bleeding out and dying LOL Other than that, I've burned myself on the heat press a few times but nothing bad. I'm definitely much stronger than most women my age since I'm changing rolls and moving around sign boards, lifting stuff all the time. The biggest thing is the ladders and kneeling for lower areas of vehicles. One large or a couple small vehicles a week is my limit. It's probably good for me to be doing all this. If I was working in an office I'd be sitting on my rear all day - which is worse.

One injury for some of us could put us out of business. Safety or good luck is pretty important LOL
 
Boudica

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
Notarealsignguy said:
and always disappoint in person. Are you SURE that you are the same girl that I have been talking to on the phone? There must be some sort of mixup here.
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