What Does a Press Operator Do All Day?

Working at a vinyl plant, one of the questions I hear most is what the people running the presses actually do all day. Fair warning, I'm not a press operator myself, and I don't pretend to know every little detail of the machine, but I get to watch them work every day, so here's the best explanation I can give.

The short version is that a press operator runs the machine that turns hot vinyl into records. Sounds like they push a button and walk away, right? Not quite.

Their day starts with getting the press ready. They make sure the right stampers are in (those are the metal plates with the grooves on them) and that everything is warmed up. Then the routine kicks in. Labels go on, a hot puck of vinyl goes in the middle, the press closes, and about 30-40 seconds later it opens and the operator trims the edges and pulls the record off. Then they do it again. And again, for the whole run. Typically, our press operator here is on his feet for 10 hours a day.

Most of the job is really just watching the process happen. Every record that comes off gets a once-over for things like crooked labels, warps, rough patches where the vinyl didn't fill the grooves, and tiny specks. If something's off, the operator tweaks the settings or stops the press, because one little problem can turn into a stack of bad records really fast, and we don't have time for that as a small plant.

Even though I don't press the records, I take all the photos and videos you might see on our Instagram of the process. It really just is cool. It truly boggles my mind that someone discovered that you can put something you hear onto something physical, and that magic happens every day here at the plant. Nuts.