8 College – Teaching at Blackburn College

So to college I went, just for a look around but on arrival I was presented with a portfolio detailing the coursework that I would be covering on a Friday starting the following week. I was persuaded to give college a go or should I say (bullied maybe). That first week and the few that followed were perhaps the most terrifying and great apprehension, not really knowing what my class would be doing and more to the point what I would be doing.

As time went by I sort of realised what a great experience I was involved in. Some of the pupils were there because they had to be, others were there because they wanted to be there. All things come to an end sooner than later and I could see that my place of work was struggling and despite having a new Managing Director, the firm began losing business and even a blind man would be able to see what was going on.

New job, new prospects

I was fortunately put in contact with a printing firm in Blackburn,who were in need of a full time printer. The interview went great and I was asked when I would be able to start, the following week was the longest week ever and nervously moved to the job working my Friday at college. Unfortunately two years following my move the college tutoring came to an end, new staff came in for the permanent teacher positions and the then full time staff became the part time staff. At first I didn’t really enjoy the new job as I could only operate two of the four machines. With a little time I eventually made myself capable of running all the machines

The (windmill) Platen.

The Heidelberg Tok

The Rotaprint - 2 colour The Heidelberg Kord 64

The most difficult machine to learn was the Heidelberg Kord 64 because of its size, plus this would be the first real Lithographic Printing Press, with proper damper rollers to moisten the plate. Now, a lithographic plate is a very thin piece of aluminium (0.2 – 0.3) mm thick. A negative image, similar to an x-ray is placed over a (Plate) and then positioned in a machine with a glass front and then the image is burned on with Ultra-Violet light.The image on the plate following the burnt image is developed with a liquid, washed off with water and dried. The treatment of a plate makes the image receptive to oil – the ink used is oil based, and the non-image receptive to water with a ph value of 5.5. Ink and water are put in trough like ducts and fed into the machine and having the best balance of both the water and the ink to be able to print.