Hot in Prepress

gordo

Well-known member
483 Hot in Prepress.jpg
 
You haven't lived until the air conditioning breaks down in 95 degree weather, and you're working in a little room with a fire-breathing Mac and an imagesetter blowing hot air at each other.
 
Ah, you live in the "heartland of rivers and streams", where it gets so humid.

Out here in the desert, we have to get to about 110 for that luscious feeling. Back in the old days, though, you could curl up and pickle and die in the darkroom with all the open trays.
 
i thought this was going to be about the "hot" jobs in prepress and the different levels of "hot"

hot
HOT
HOT HOT
SUPER URGENT HOT HOT!!!
 
Ah, you live in the "heartland of rivers and streams", where it gets so humid.

Out here in the desert, we have to get to about 110 for that luscious feeling. Back in the old days, though, you could curl up and pickle and die in the darkroom with all the open trays.

Ah, yes, the scent of fixer on a hot day. That memory never leaves.
 
I recall tray developing in a small darkroom. Pretty awful, especially if/when the fixer mixed with the activator.
Then we put a film processor in there. That thing gave off heat!! I'm sure Worker's Comp would have shut it down had they witnessed it.
This was the same place that bought a 45 gallon drum of MEK (methyl Ethel ketone) to use in place of blanket wash on the notion that it was cheaper. It wasn't. We ended up using it only as blanket fix . . .until Worker's Comp showed up & sealed it. Oh yeah. At first we didn't even have a pump. Had to siphon it out of the drum using the mouth method. I wonder how I'm alive. Blanket wash itself was bad enough in those days.
 
I recall tray developing in a small darkroom. Pretty awful, especially if/when the fixer mixed with the activator.
Then we put a film processor in there. That thing gave off heat!! I'm sure Worker's Comp would have shut it down had they witnessed it.
This was the same place that bought a 45 gallon drum of MEK (methyl Ethel ketone) to use in place of blanket wash on the notion that it was cheaper. It wasn't. We ended up using it only as blanket fix . . .until Worker's Comp showed up & sealed it. Oh yeah. At first we didn't even have a pump. Had to siphon it out of the drum using the mouth method. I wonder how I'm alive. Blanket wash itself was bad enough in those days.

I too had a small, ventless darkroom, and later a processor. Between phototypesetters, film chemicals and poly plate chemicals I've had my hands in more stuff than I care to remember. I'm sure my liver isn't too grateful. These days we only have to worry about breathing glue from another process. No ventilation in the building, and that stuff gets all over everything.
 
These days we only have to worry about breathing glue from another process. No ventilation in the building, and that stuff gets all over everything.

No kidding! Spray glue is the worst of the worst for dispersing nasty chemicals. And yes, it does get all over everything. You think you're only spraying the project at hand? Check the walls and everything surrounding after using it.
Knowing what I know now, I'd refuse any of these processes. No job is worth it.
 
I remember the odd time someone would overflow the fixer tank and flood the shop. The smell of fixer would linger for weeks. Just before film went the way of the Dodo bird our company bought a really cool machine for doing chokes and spreads! It was a mechanical table with a knob adjustment and you would dial in the amount of choke or spread you needed. We had it for about a year and a half.
 

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