Confession time

[Frog]

I've heard that Mr. Murphy loves screen printers.

[prozyan]

I've been lucky and never printed an empty board, but I'm sure I've pulled more than my share of shirts early.

[Frog]

You have missed out on something truly special.  The sound will live with you forever!

[Evo]

I've done all the above.



I have seen the ultimate though:


Years ago I worked at a shop that had a 6/10 American Centurian press. We used Polyken double sided tape on the pallets instead of smooth pallet mask. (very sticky stuff)

On the Centurian, the index table is fixed (does not lift) and the heads drop to the pallets to print. The index drive (chain and gear setup) is very, very strong.

The pres op, who I think was hung over, was cycling the press dry with both flash units on to warm up the pallets. (cold morning) He loaded up the pallets with shirts and started firing up the heads. (head 1 was white, then flash, the another white on 3, then flash, etc.) This press had no start up sequence, it was all manual.

He was turned away talking to someone on the other side of the dryer when an empty pallet went by him. An empty, hot, freshly covered with very sticky tape, pallet.

First head prints. Two strokes. The head does NOT lift up. The screen is pretty much permanently glued to the pallet.

BUT - the machine DID index. The owner heard it from outside in the parking lot.


Ever seen an aluminum static frame ripped apart at the welds?
 


Needles to say the press need some "minor" adjustments after that.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

I posted a pic of my fried board at the other place. Ugly. Don't have the pic anymore but it demonstrates a "teachable moment".

[Northland]

--Printed several empty pallets on the auto over the last 6 months... haven't wrecked a screen yet, but WOW.. do they make a POP if the pallet adhesive is fresh.

Never ruined a pallet... sunk a few up though.

[tpitman]

Pulled a multicolor print too soon a couple of weeks ago. The last plate was not a tight registration one, so I loaded the shirt at the end of the run, pushed, pulled it until it looked pretty good, and pulled the squeegie. One small area was off enough to kind of bug me. I probably could have let it slide, but I had to run out the next day and pick up shirts for another job, so I left the job set up, bought an extra shirt and printed a good one. There were a few expletives uttered after I pulled the shirt off the press with a plate missing. I was enjoying tunes on my iPhone, and perhaps a cold homebrew at the moment, so that might have contributed to the screwup.

[Prōdigium]

Back in my "early days" I ran a 10-color precision oval press (all heads print at the same time) and one early morning after a LOOOONGG night of drinking I fired up the press , applied pallet adhesive and fired up the flash dryer to get the pallets warmed up...the machine is like a living person in that you have to "warm it up" before cranking out production.

Needless to say, I was not paying attention and pressed the wrong button....all 8 screens printed blank pallets..

Now that is not so bad and anyone who has operated an old precision oval will have most likely done the same....but my confession is that after I cleaned all the pallets and was about ready to actually begin printing...I did it again. Twice in less than an hour..

I often tell my customers the best way to gauge the ability and trustworthiness of a new printer you are considering hiring is to ask them how many pallets they have burned....because there is not a single person who has printed for more than a year who has NOT burned a pallet.

The skill set lists as follows.

0 Burned Pallets = Do NOT hire...cannot be trusted , or has NO experience.
1-2 Burned Pallets  = Nube, most likely does not have much experience.
3-4 Burned Pallets = Is honest, even when it makes him look bad..has enough years of printing to have skills.
5+ Burned Pallets = DO NOT HIRE...this guy is a FIRE hazard and will most likely make you regret dropping your insurance to save a few bucks!!

This is of course a joke, but in all honesty has some validity.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

0 Burned Pallets = Do NOT hire...cannot be trusted , or has NO experience.
1-2 Burned Pallets  = Nube, most likely does not have much experience.
3-4 Burned Pallets = Is honest, even when it makes him look bad..has enough years of printing to have skills.
5+ Burned Pallets = DO NOT HIRE...this guy is a FIRE hazard and will most likely make you regret dropping your insurance to save a few bucks!!

Yep, I'm shooting for that sweet spot of 3-4 burned pallets. I'll try harder 

[DouglasGrigar]

How about printing 4CP on infant garments and ripping all the screens on the snaps not controlling the squeegee path. 

[tonypep]

I (with utmost respect) have you all beat. Ever try to print a freshly tacked belt printer with no shirts loaded? Well lets just say that when the main head frame lifts with the belt still stuck to it and the index kicks in the sound of the entire frame literally shifting about 30 degrees will stick with me forever.
Oh and it was a brand new press with zero impressions on the ticker.

[Homer]

you guys all got me beat. . I once printed a few dozen polos breaking all the top buttons with the screen frame. . . I set a pallet on fire after scolding someone about doing it a few hours before. . .once with a shirt on it soaked in lacquer thinner, set the damn flash on fire - we used to clean platens with lacquer and mineral spirits, (the owner of the shop I worked at was an idiot). . .I shot a fresh can of spray adhesive with my pellet gun. . .on accident of coarse   . . .that was pretty awesome. . .I opened the oil valve on the auto to add more oil without realizing the air was on. . .that was a nice mess. . . I washed my face with stencil remover thinking it was simple green -I'm a bald guy so any oil remover/soap works just fine. . .stencil not so much. . .

[blue moon]

you guys all got me beat. . I once printed a few dozen polos breaking all the top buttons with the screen frame. . . I set a pallet on fire after scolding someone about doing it a few hours before. . .once with a shirt on it soaked in lacquer thinner, set the damn flash on fire - we used to clean platens with lacquer and mineral spirits, (the owner of the shop I worked at was an idiot). . .I shot a fresh can of spray adhesive with my pellet gun. . .on accident of coarse   . . .that was pretty awesome. . .I opened the oil valve on the auto to add more oil without realizing the air was on. . .that was a nice mess. . . I washed my face with stencil remover thinking it was simple green -I'm a bald guy so any oil remover/soap works just fine. . .stencil not so much. . .

Damn Homer, thanx for sharing. You just brightened up my day! It's mon morning and the customers are already calling with demands.

[Mr Tees!!]

Its funny how we all have very similar stories going here, mine is in that group...in '94, I worked at a place that did a lot of oversize contract printing on a 12/14 Challenger, and we had on the big oversize pallets. The print was a 4-color process with two spots and a white. Fresh glued EMPTY pallets+printstart=seven printed pallets. When the cycle finished, and the tables dropped, the screens stayed entirely stuck to the pallets,,,stretched downward about threee inches. We all tried to gingerly finesse the screen mesh to release, but it wasnt happening. We had to cut out the mesh from the frames while still on the press, make all new screens and recover all the printed pallets.

At the same place, we would usually take a five of white ink, add a bit of reducer, and let it stir on the ink mixer for awhile before going to press with it. One day I put on a fiver and forgot about it, leaving it running and spinning ALL NIGHT. The stirring action built up enough heat in the ink to gel it and clump it, which pushed the mixing blade hard to the outside of the bucket and wore right thru it. THAT was a mess that i dont think ever got fully cleaned up.

[Frog]

A note on the object of Homer's pellet attack.
If we hadn't all, almost universally, changed to mostly water based adhesives, there would have been a fourth goof-up listed.

Have you ever dropped a spray can on the belt to have it explode inside the dryer?