Printing Machines

Hello, my name is Tina T. I am a mother of two adult children. My oldest is married and has one child. My youngest is currently on summer break from college. After over 14 years with my previous employer, he decided to retire and close his business. I had been searching and praying for God to put me into the job He wanted me to be in, and after many applications, resume submissions, and phone calls, I was called in to interview with My Father's World. It was a multi-step process and I felt really good about this position. I even worked one day to see if it was something I felt I could do and wanted to do. I prayed every step of the way.

I have been working here since December 2024. I love working at My Father's World. The environment is friendly and my coworkers are very easy to get along with. My position is primarily print shop worker, but I do help in shipping when needed, especially during peak months when parents and schools are placing orders for the upcoming school year. I enjoy both locations as it keeps me busy and moving. I am constantly learning about how books are taken from just a thought to a final product in the hands of the customer. I am glad to be part of a company that teaches God's word in a curriculum put together and maintained by a great crew of people.

I work with a variety of machines. I use three large printers to print the products that are needed. After the products are printed, they move to finishing. In our print shop, we finish books and other products in at least four ways. We coil bind teacher manuals and outside book requests, we have booklets that are stapled and trimmed, student sheets and some outside print requests are shrink-wrapped and some products are left loose but boxed to be picked up.

With all the machines I use, I seem to gravitate toward one machine more than the others and my favorite is the punch machine. We put stacks of books into one end of the machine and it pulls a set number of pages through at a time, punching a row of holes into one edge and depositing the punched pages onto an output tray. We then take the book off the tray to be jogged, which means we place it on a machine that vibrates, causing the book pages to line up and have a straight edge in preparation to be coiled together with a plastic coil. I think it is the rhythmic nature of the machine that I like. It is also fascinating to see the engineering behind just making a row of holes in paper.

Of course, no machine is without its issues and it is a pain when there is a paper jam, but that is not very often. Maintaining and keeping the machines in proper repair is very important to keep the jams to a minimum. The machines have several sensors that have to be kept clean of paper dust. For the punch machine in particular, the die is what has the pins that punch the holes and it has to be oiled on a regular basis. There are also several belts that need to remain free of debris to keep the paper moving. I look forward to sharing more about myself and other aspects of my work at My Father's World.