John I dont have 27 years but only a mere 15 but I have seen a few shops in my time and I seen both extremes. I am sure you been in Liquid Blue when you were here in RI I did and that place is awesome as hell, I never been in mirror image but I heard its pretty messy there. I seen shops in upper PA that were fire hazards waiting to happen and close to me there is a shop that is spotless but they also have very little work being a union only shop. Cleanliness is probably my biggest pet peeve in our shop, I have ruined enough clothes over the years because of carelessness and complete laziness. One thing I stress here to any one that works on the printing side is if you see one speck of ink any where it does not belong then clean it immediately not later!
Yeah blue was nice and clean and yeah image was a mess. During my interview there, prod mgr grabbed a white squeege out of the press, dropped it on an ink covered table behind him and put a new blade in w/out batting an eye as he turned and went and did something else.
I personally started the ink dept clean up there and over a few months made it somewhat manageable but it was still a mess overall. Nothing against Rick, his employess didn't give a shart.
I built another ink dept here in cali and still to this day its super clean and very organized. I used to have newbies mix a cup of ink in less than 3 minute to prove how efficient it really was to the owner. Spotless ink cups lined all the shelves, no need for gloves to grab any of the 3000 colors on the shelves.
Plastisol is a pia to clean off anything after its set for a period of time so wiping it up immedietley has always been a good habit to have.
