Do you file your plates?

[wonderings]

Currently we file all our plates except those with dates that expire reasonably soon. Its a PIA with the large plates and just finding room for them as they build up quickly. I am curious what other shops do for storing plates or do you just chuck them and charge a minimal fee for repeat jobs?

[oxburger]

We file some of ours. There are some jobs we have been printing as reprints forever it seems, so those get hung up and saved (job applications, government data sheets, insurance company materials). I'd say we have a couple hundred jobs that have been filed. If something is specifically dated (say a magazine or newsletter) we don't save them.

[duct maestro]

We bin all of our plates.

[wonderings]

We bin all of our plates.

By bin do you mean throw out? If throw out, what do you do when a customer comes for a repeat job? Do you absorb the cost yourself of remaking the plates? Charge them a small amount extra for repeat jobs?

[Cory Smith]

We recycle all plates and build the cost of new plates in the estimate.

[mtnman]

We also recycle all our plates and re output if job is run again.

David

[jbbbarr]

We also recycle all plates because the labor to recondition CTP plates is cost prohibitive (Major PIA). I can re-image the job before one plate can be considered ready for archive, and even then it's hit and miss with digital plates. Nothing like the days of film.

[alan4color]

We also recycle plates and reimage when needed. Time/money spent cleaning in addition to the risk the plate might have issues (a kink or areas gum blind etc). Before direct to plate when you had to burn plates with multiple burns and screens it did pay now i do not see where it is worth it.

[longlimb]

Same here. We keep them around for a week or so in case we have to go back to press for some reason (short on count, bindery mess-up, washout or offset half a load). Then we recycle them.

[David@SabrePlate]

I agree with most. Jobs that are dated should be recycled. If the printer has space, they should save undated plates that can be used again.