[Paul Coleman]

Yer, KBA 156A four colour perfectors, KBA five,six and eight units. All large format. Rolands before that. Heidelbergs before them going right back to letterpress days.

Wow.  You must have been in the trade a long time.  I was one of those horrible machine assistants at the other end     .  Worked mostly on Rolands.

[Davew]

Started at fifteen and a half.............so thats um thirty three years!
No such things as assistants these days - all one union too. They just have number one and number two minders and very low staffing levels. Two men on an eight unit four colour perfecting machine and they wanted to reduce that.

[Simonhammer]

A backpack is not adequate enough for fulltime WFP,here come the comments but i have vanmount and backpack and no matter how handy the backpack can be for some it`s not suitable for fulltime WFP.

I know...but as I'm only part time at present it won't be an issue.

[Simonhammer]

Sorry Simon I forgot your a N Walsham chap  : do you goto Worstead ?

I go through worstead, but don't have any cleans there.

[Simonhammer]

My advice is do what you can to leave that place Simon, I left RM just over 3 months ago. Luckily we had some savings and spent them all on buying a van, water system and a w/c round, and I can honestly it was the best decision I ever made. I had never done w/c before but just took the plunge when things got so bad, I just had to get out. There is alot of good advice from w/c's on this site (god knows I hammered it leading up to leaving RM, and dont know what I would have done without it), so keep asking questions and hopefully you'll find an escape route

Good Luck

Lee

Cheers mate. I've been a postie for 6 years now and the job has lost all it's appeal. I'm going to enquire about voluntary redundancy as I've been told I should get about 6 months wages as a pay off...around £7500. Hopefully that will enable me to buy a round in my area...if I can find one.

[darren73]

get your backpack as soon as you can simon,i bought mine in stages about 4 months ago,backpack and pole one week,r/o+di the next,i fill 6 barrels the night before and bring the di with me for top ups. it makes windowcleaning far easier/quicker but it does take time to get the hang of so id advise sooner rather than later,i too was confused as to how the whole water fed pole thing worked and found the best way to understand is to get a supplier to show you the lot,once shown it looks simple,consider second hand to keep costs down-i got my 300gpd r/o for £100 and ive heard you can get backpacks off ebay us for around £120,make sure you get a long enough pole and get a tds meter,dont worry about learning trad-its easy

[Simonhammer]

get your backpack as soon as you can simon,i bought mine in stages about 4 months ago,backpack and pole one week,r/o+di the next,i fill 6 barrels the night before and bring the di with me for top ups. it makes windowcleaning far easier/quicker but it does take time to get the hang of so id advise sooner rather than later,i too was confused as to how the whole water fed pole thing worked and found the best way to understand is to get a supplier to show you the lot,once shown it looks simple,consider second hand to keep costs down-i got my 300gpd r/o for £100 and ive heard you can get backpacks off ebay us for around £120,make sure you get a long enough pole and get a tds meter,dont worry about learning trad-its easy

Cheers mate. Like I said, I have been trad for 6 months now and I really do enjoy it. It's just I want to get more work booked in in the afternoons so I can leave Royal Mail quicker.

Btw...how much does your water bill increase when you go wfp? Being trad I turn up at my customers houses and use their water.

[darren73]

dont know about that mate there is no water charges in northern ireland(yet)

[windowwashers]

get your backpack as soon as you can simon,i bought mine in stages about 4 months ago,backpack and pole one week,r/o+di the next,i fill 6 barrels the night before and bring the di with me for top ups. it makes windowcleaning far easier/quicker but it does take time to get the hang of so id advise sooner rather than later,i too was confused as to how the whole water fed pole thing worked and found the best way to understand is to get a supplier to show you the lot,once shown it looks simple,consider second hand to keep costs down-i got my 300gpd r/o for £100 and ive heard you can get backpacks off ebay us for around £120,make sure you get a long enough pole and get a tds meter,dont worry about learning trad-its easy

Cheers mate. Like I said, I have been trad for 6 months now and I really do enjoy it. It's just I want to get more work booked in in the afternoons so I can leave Royal Mail quicker.

Btw...how much does your water bill increase when you go wfp? Being trad I turn up at my customers houses and use their water.

I dont know either about wfp water bill I am on a meter  but what ever it is IMO is worth every penny as I dont have to go up ladders hardly anymore.