09.13.09
Rolling off the presses
Early this afternoon, after a little over 12 hours of editing during the past two days, and after we completed the last “Final” edit – I think there were actually five of these – I printed and assembled the first 12 copies of Issue 2 of Touch: The Journal of Healing, September 2009. Have I told you I love my new paper cutter? On Thursday and Friday I was able to finish 35 copies of Issue 1.
Tomorrow we’re going for a short vacation to the Jersey Shore.
The production run of Issue 1 taught me a few lessons.
1. I now know that it takes about the same amount of time to fold and stack a copy of the journal before fastening and trimming as it does for the printer to complete the two-sided sheets for a single copy.
2. The printed sheets of cover stock and the page body require a minimum of one hour to relax and uncurl enough from the printing process before they can be assembled into a book.
3. I now know that when the printer is doing a run of cover sheets, I should not leave the printer unattended – or – have the paper shredder sitting in front of the output tray and turned on. The cover stock is thick and made of 67 lb paper, and once it finishes printing, it has a tendency to push the sheet that printed before it out of the output tray and down onto the auxiliary input paper tray to be pulled back in for a second printing causing a paper jam – or – right into the mouth of the paper shredder, which through its ingenious design of a paper sensor, automatically turns on and makes confetti out of the cover.
4. Once I get a rhythm going, I’m able to fold, stack, fasten, and trim 10 copies of a 36 page book in 90 minutes.
5. You can develop calluses on your fingers in places you never had calluses before.
6. Duplex, wireless, network printing is the coolest thing.
7. I love this business. It’s just so cool to see poet’s words and a photographer’s images lie on pages within a printed book.
O.P.W.