Factory tour

June 7, 2013, Day 7

Still overcast this morning with the temperature at 56.

Curtis at Waldan

I have been looking forward to today for a long time, Curtis is going to come by and pick us up and take us on a plant tour of Waldan Paper Services, Inc.  Curtis started working at Waldan soon after he arrived in Oshkosh 18 years ago.  I had met Mark Dewy, Wandan's owner and a friend and client of Ben Schneider, at the Oshkosh Country Club shortly after we had arrived in 1991.  We got to talking about his business and he was saying that no one has the skills to come in and run the big presses that he has and that they need to be trained on the job and it was very difficult to find workers that were willing to work.  He said all I need is people willing to work and I will train them.  A few years later when Curtis relocated to Oshkosh I saw Mark and said, I have someone that you can train, and the rest is history.  With Curtis' long tenure with the company he has run and can run every press they have and these are monster presses, not you run of the mill Heidelberg.  Curtis took us to the plant, introduced us around to the people there and got his boss, Glen Becker, to come along and we had a very fascinating tour.  Seeing all the big presses, talking about the processes and seeing some of the final product.  It is still hard to describe, they take very large rolls of paper that weigh several thousands bounds, print, coat, emboss and cut them down into small rolls, to deliver to the end customers.

Curtis by his big press

Control console on Curtis' press

Printed product on Curtis' press

Another view of Curtis' press, big Mother

Another big press

Oldest press in the plant, all manual

One more big press

Finished product

Example of product Curtis has run

After the factory tour we lunched at Olive Garden, Curtis said it had only been open about six months and was on the site of the former Sonic that did not make it.

After lunch we stopped by and saw my old friend Big Ben Schneider, he and his son Ben II, run an investment services company in Oshkosh.  Sharon and I plan to play golf with Ben and his wife Nancy tomorrow afternoon.

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It turned out to be a very nice afternoon with temps in the low 70's.  When we got back to the RV park Curtis and I attempted to clean my fogged head light lenses on the truck.  It worked pretty good on three of the four lights.

Happy Hour this evening was sponsored by Ceile, she specified Mexican Martinis.  This was followed by a nice steak on the grill along with some Indian Wells, poor man's Jordan.  

The perfect Mexican Martini