Holy Crap! What a visit!

[TCT]

I think if it was not a hands on deal, a live web stream/meeting would be best. It would be nice to somehow record the whole thing and have it available online or YouTube or whatever for those of us that don't have the best memory- effects of too much time around the shoot out gun I imagine...

[RichardGreaves]

I've known Richard for something like 25 ys.

Tony, thanks for the kind words. Are you still making some of your own ink?

[RichardGreaves]

I took a class or two, but there is never any SOLID technical details. So if there was stuff he could do with in depth technical details that would be killer.

Alex,

I certainly promise easy to understand solid technical details. Post or mail me a question.

[RichardGreaves]

Pierre let me say THANK YOU so much for allowing me the opportunity to meet Richard!  I am still on a high from all the little bits he offered me, it will take me some time to change things but change is coming! His knowledge not only about the entire process but the business side is surreal to me there is so much depth to what he knows.

Of course, Roger did bring me a 20 oz Mountain dew when he came back to Blue Moon with a flash drive to copy articles .

[RichardGreaves]

Well........a common additive for WB inks used to be Urea which is derived from cow pee so you're not far off Alan.
(A little something even RG probably didn't know)

Ahh. A challenge from Tony.

I grew up in the house my father build, in the middle of his father's landscape nursery. My father was a Landscape Architect and the most common fertilizer we used was urea.

In water based inks it supplied anti-bacteria, fire retardant characteristics and promotes hydrogen bonds.

When I was young with long hair, I always had to go through a book signing process when I'd pick up a pallet of urea because of it's popularity as an amateur bomb making component.

[RichardGreaves]

I once was sitting at an SGIA event and around the table sat Richard Greaves, Don Newman, Joe Clark, Fred Clark, Mark Coudray, Tames Frescka and about a dozen groupies like myself who wanted to soak up sage advice. 

I went to the Screen Print '81 or '82 (as it used to be called) specifically to meet Mark Coudray. He hosted an SGIA discussion at a big round table, on Four Color Process and I sat directly across from him. In the finest Master & challenging student style, I was able to add to points he made as I showed off, vying for attention. When he was finished and the table cleared he asked me "Who  ... are ... you?". A great, great moment for me that lead to many discussions especially at shows for years to come. 

At TechSymps'84 in Chicago he introduced me to Don Newman and Michel Caza. The high point of the weekend was sitting with several people in the coffee shop at Caza's feet after his talk, late into the night, talking about printing.

Sitting in the hotel lobby I distinctly remember I saw Mr. Newman enter with 10 boxes of stuff and an automobile tire. A year later it was me pushing all those boxes around the country when I started to work for Mr. Newman. I quickly photographed many props like the tire and started using slides for demonstrations.

Thank you Mark.

[RichardGreaves]

Wow, Fred Clark. What a nice gentleman. I had a half dozen conversations with him back then, he was totally free with info, and made sure you understood what he said.

If I remember correctly, his seps were done with filters on a process camera, and they were spectacular.   

Fred would have loved to have had a drum scanner (up to a million dollars) or any sort of computer when he died in early 1992.

He used a traditional with filters to photograph your art that you sent to him by FedEx. He made positive by projecting them. I watch in awe as he buzzed around in his rooms, checking his films with his eye or his antique Macbeth densitometer - then throwing a piece of 20 x 24 inch photo film in the trash and start over. 7 calendar was his shortest turnaround time.

Jeff Campos was my separator after Fred died and worked with me and Terry Kaiserman on the Tru-Tone process inks that revolutionized process printing on textiles.

[RichardGreaves]

I think if it was not a hands on deal, a live web stream/meeting would be best.

It would be nice to somehow record the whole thing and have it available online or YouTube or whatever for those of us that don't have the best memory- effects of too much time around the shoot out gun I imagine...

As Frog would say, "by teaching, we learn".  I love answering questions because I can show off AND help the person at the same time. If a few people ask you the same question, you know it's a hot topic and there was something missing in your training materials. I loved being the webmaster at Lawson & Ulano because when I'd hear a question a third time I knew I needed an answer on the website so I didn't have to explain it again.

All the columns I wrote for magazines were based on troubleshooting I'd done recently. I was greatly influenced when Autotype Marketing manager quit and told me, "Richard, I will never explain optimum exposure ever again".

When I worked at Ulano I fielded questions on UStream from the Applications Lab on inkjet film or screenmaking on Fridays. It started when I started advising a printer on re-designing their Screen Room & a High School class I took through screenmaking step-by-step.  In all these forums I post my SKYPE account and the only person to use it is a man in South Africa with the same name as my father. (This always creeps me out when he goes online and my dead father's name pops up like a ghost).

The Sage on the Stage
Lecturing isn't enough anymore. Modern schooling is undergoing a subtle change because it's so easy to video an instructor once, then put it on the Web and fire the faculty.  I read a story last month about a school that's flipped their idea of homework. Students watch videos at home and come to school to work on their learning with a teacher as guide, not lecturer.

Some faculty are threatened by this because their ego as information keeper and dispenser doesn't realize their role has changed with the Internet, YouTube, Vimeo or Wikipedia. Of course, much of the screen printing information I see on YouTube makes my stomach turn.

I hope that the many people that wrote kindly about me in this thread think of me as a person willing to point you to an existing source and help explain why it's important to screen printers. If not, call me and let me try again.

Many employees don't like to read, but what they actually lack is a desire to learn. I've got access to articles or pictures that are about any subject in our industry. My employees never had a chance. they got regular clippings to read and I followed up - mostly by reminding them I wanted to see or discuss these ideas in action.

This is more than Checklists, Job Descriptions and Standard Operating Procedures, but lessons that make clear the basic cooking, physics or chemistry we use every day.

rgreaves@gmail.com
646-807-8580

[alan802]

Good to see you here Richard, truly a pleasure and class is officially in session.

[tonypep]

I remember to this day when Richard came by my shop in rural CT unannounced with something called a Roller Frame. Back then it was rare when anyone would get a visit from a rep at all. And here was the Greaves on Garments guy who we would hang on every word right in our own shop extolling on all things SP. Even scolded the owners for not having hot water in the production floor. That spilled into a great dinner conversation. I learned so much in those few hours. (BTW we never even bought anything and he still tried to pay the bill!)
Years later who would know I would pen the Printers Perspective column for PW. It was loosely modeled after the
G on G although a little less tech saavy and more suggestive. We covered all the usual but also dived into "How to Survive a Compliance Audit" and "Understanding a Routing Guide". Sure enough several installments on discharge but back then everyone thought I was off my noodle on that subject. In any case I dipped into Richards well from time to time, borrowing some of his elements of style. Many here do not realize the scope and depth to his contribution to the industry. His accomplishments are too numerous to name.
And yes Richard I used Campos as well for more than a decade before he sadly walked away from the industry.
That was a loss to be certain.
As far as inks go the answer is yes, well sort of. We make our own dual flake glitters, discharge process and spot colors, a series of proprietary watermark products, and others. We have a homogenizer but prefer to buy waterbase raw materials. Not enough time plus making discharge binder needs to be performed in a stable environment rather than a production facility.
BTW is just ribbing about Urea. I knew you knew.
Hope all is well RG good to see you here. Just don't give it all away for free!
best tp

[GKitson]

And yes Richard I used Campos as well for more than a decade before he sadly walked away from the industry.
That was a loss to be certain.

A quick update on Mr. Campos, while he has not left the industry, he has switched sides.

Jeff is now a successful business owner and provides decorated apparel youth marketing & fund raising programs to Scouts and similar organizations across the US.

Jeff separated amazing projects for Mind's Eye many times and recognized the change that desk top separation programs and the concept of "Good Enough" meant he would choose to move to other projects.  I am sitting in my office with a Korbel Champagne bottle image that Jeff separated for us many years ago on a shelf, still one of the best things every to run on my presses.  Sadly, the market does not seem to have room for that level of craftsmanship any more.

~Kitson

[tonypep]

Agreed although there is the occaisional need. I use one of the old Oats and Winterland guys now and get similar quality. Among other projects Jeff separated our Indian Motorcycle graphics. The first sim process discharge prints ever produced
Glad to know Jeff is still doing work for the Boy Scouts. Looks like he developed a nice niche market.

[GKitson]

My Favorite Richardism:

The concept of "Gold Plated Tools" - Back in the day when a 9/16" wrench was required to do anything to a screen printing press, Richard swore that the average shop owner could buy gold plated tools for the lost revenue associated with staff members looking for that damn wrench when it walked away in somebody's else pocket.

His very practical solution, go to the hardware store and buy 3 wrenches for each workstation and make sure the boss/owner/supervisor has a handful in his desk.  That way whenever you saw somebody wondering around with the 'lost wrench' look on their face you could quickly get them back to work.

Some methodology applies to many things and I have shameless repeated this great idea to many of my clients over the past 15 years, hopefully I remembered to credit RG.

Your favorite Richardism's please 

[tonypep]

The "Broken Window" concept. Not wanting to spend $50 to fix a broken window while all the heat and AC spews out the window causing at least three times that over a year. Problem is you just keep payng the bill. Unseen loss of revenue.

[mk162]

my mom had a saying for stuff like that.  we would always be looking for scissors, so she bought so many that you couldn't walk 3 feet without seeing one.  heck if i can remember what that saying was.

when we had our gauntlet, i put a hook on the side of the control panel and had a nice chrome plated 7/16" box end wrench hanging from it.  The only craftsman chrome plated tool in the whole shop, and by gosh it stayed there because it had a home.  if it wasn't there I would always ask why and where it went.