Quote from: DigiCorn on December 12, 2017, 02:17:59 PM

Quote from: Ear on December 12, 2017, 01:47:09 PMCorn is right...

I think I found my new signature. Respect muh authoreteh!

Yes, mark it.... doesn't happen often (me saying it, that is)

I can't take the cold, wish I could tho.
Cold places are really beautiful, I have entertained the idea
of someday retiring somewhere else, but then I think of the cold

I take the 18 degrees just fine... with my n-38 flight jacket, 4 shirts, long johns & carharts, gloves, hat and some striped knee socks I stole from possum... then it's nice and cozy. Yeah, love the cold. It also takes 5 times longer to go anywhere or do anything, for having to bundle up and unfreeze everything. Can't be in a hurry in the winter.

That's the issue we are running into. It's located in a huge open room that is also barely isolated from the rest of the shop. There are 4 HVAC units in the building. One is for the front office. One for prepress/platemaking/digital. There is one for the press and one (non functioning presently) for bindery.

The pressroom and bindery is one big room with a bay door that's our main shipping/receiving. Prepress/platemaking/digital is another large room that has a wall that has a 25 foot opening. We are separated from the pressrom with a plastic curtain that bindery loves to prop open making it mostly useless. Our main door is also there. When we open the bay door I can feel a gust of cold air. Opening the bay door also screws with the press. Bindery always likes to keep the bay door cracked no matter the temp, humidity or if the AC is on. That battle is slowly being won but I doubt we will ever win.

Today I wasn't able to safely make plates until about 1 PM. I tried to make one in the morning when the air temp was 70 but every metal surface was cold to the touch. It was so underexposed there was barley anything on the plate. I was able to make hopefully good plates after 1 but I won't know until tomorrow. If the plates aren't good, it won't matter because everything will be too cold to make any more. The first set I made yesterday was noticeably different color wise to the plates made later in the day. It's maddening.

I tried to pump the power in order to get it to image without lines in it. I calibrate the lasers after every plate to make sure they are warm as can be. I even went as far as pulling a thousandth out of the plate thickness to change the focus. That worked enough that I can image but it's a crapshoot with the exposure. I fully believe either the temp is causing everything to move just enough to throw the focus off or everything, including the plates is just too damn cold for the plate to expose correctly. When it gets hot, the opposite happens but not to the extent that I have to change the focus. I've been stuck many a night here because there is a late release that needs to be plated but since we are "saving energy" by not really controlling the temp I have to pump the AC for sometimes hours in order to drop the temp in order to make correct plates.

I've tried to explain that having such peaks and valleys in the temp swing that we may not be saving energy at all. Since we have to run it higher and longer to recover from the temp swing it's likely worse than keeping the swings less. I have friends that work for the power company and other brainy people that have told me that yes, it's more efficient to keep the swings less. To me, it makes sense. For example take a 10 mile bike ride through the flats with little elevation change. Then take one that has more severe elevation changes. I have a feeling you will expend less power along the same distance on the flats run than the hills. Yes you can coast down the backsides of the hills but you still have to work much harder to climb the next hill expending more energy and causing more strain on the equipment.

I'm somewhat smart (I think, the jury is still out since I'm still in printing) but not smart enough to know if there are other factors involved I'm not aware of. I do know that all the shops I've been in isolate the platemaker and normally control the temp separate from the rest of the shop.

Santa, when you make plates at 58 do you have issues? You might have a newer machine that compensates for the temp differences. Mine is old and dumb so it doesn't adjust focus and fluence on the fly. I have a feeling the newer ones might.

Possum, sounds like you're kinda in the same boat. What's the temp when you come in in the AM? Are all the metal surfaces cold? Seems you can't just walk in and make plates like me, just to a lesser extent.

I told everyone to wear their snow suits tomorrow. I don't think making plates tomorrow will be possible, not just because I won't be here.

Dry cold is better than wet cold. I can take fluffy snow and single digits much better than 38 degrees and rain.

Indeed, Possum. It was 18 but only maybe 18% humidity too. Everyone gets chapped hands and lips in the west winter.

But yeah, the gear runs better in the dry. My plate processor requires more replenish in winter, which seems backwards... must be the dry air or extra use of the internal heater...

Quote from: Tracy on December 12, 2017, 02:21:48 PMI can't take the cold, wish I could tho.
Cold places are really beautiful, I have entertained the idea
of someday retiring somewhere else, but then I think of the cold

I disagree.

[attachimg=1 width=200][attachimg=2 width=200]

Lately it's around 55-60 when I come in. I have to heat it up to at least 65 to make plates. In the summer we usually turn the temp up to 80 at night, but when it's really hot, the AC never gets it down below that in the daytime. We sometimes run the AC at night to keep it down somewhat so it has a fighting chance when the sun comes out.

I haven't heard anything about bad plates due to bad exposure, but we're a tiny place with each pressman hired learning less than the previous. I certainly don't know much about plates, but since we don't run anything over two colors, we do okay. I sure don't run the high end stuff like you guys.

Quote from: Joe on December 12, 2017, 02:29:41 PM

Quote from: Tracy on December 12, 2017, 02:21:48 PMI can't take the cold, wish I could tho.
Cold places are really beautiful, I have entertained the idea
of someday retiring somewhere else, but then I think of the cold

I disagree.

[attachimg=1 width=200][attachimg=2 width=200]

Who looks happier?

Not a fair comparison, the mountain dog just got a pile of snow plopped on his head from the tree.

Bernese Mountain Dog!!!
<3

I'm sitting here with a NF vapor wick shirt, t shirt and a sweatshirt and I'm borderline to where I can take the sweatshirt off. Some days I'm in here with a base layer top and bottom, wick shirt, long sleeve, t shirt, sweatshirt, shemagh, fleece lined jeans, good socks and snow boots. I may bring a change of shoes but that can be the gear I wear inside. The. Goddamn. Shop. The pressman would wear sweaters but they don't want to get sucked into the press. The boss walks around saying it's warm in here dressed for a 15 mile winter hike. Funny, he's the same guy that would walk into mom's and crank the heat whenever he came over. Mom's house was on the cool side but far, far from cold.

We had a GSD / Berner mix years ago, he was the bestest dog ever.

FALCOR!!!

Adorable.

All dogs are the bestest ever, even the PITA ones.

And yes, temp and humidity can affect focus. Cold air is denser... it might not be much but I've had focus off by just a little on an install and it made for a slightly soft dot. Looked good, measured good would gradually etch the dots back on press. Scary stuff because the run would gradually get lighter. This was on a high volume web, so it was easy to see happening but on a sheetfed, you might just have a frustrated pressman trying to chase color on a fading plate. I'm just sayin'...