Max Label Machine – anyone used one?

[Peter Normington]

Hi martin, looked at the web site , but I coudnt find any print sizes, or ribbon costs, you need to know the base cost before anything else, the printer seems cheap, so there must be a downside. Like material costs?

Peter

[Nick Minall]

Peter, look at the order form page.

[Peter Normington]

Thanks Nick.
Just looked,

seems quite expensive fpr consumables.

Peter

[Martin Forsyth]

I have a bloke bringing one to me for a demo on Friday – I’ll let you know how I get on. Just seems it might be ok, cos it’s fairly small.
But I’ll have to check out running costs.

[Peter Normington]

Martin what is really important, is what the competition charge for whatever you want to produce, can this machine compete? and if so in what quantities? Most labels are ordered in large quantities, I run a gerber, which is fine for small runs, but for high quantities, works out expensive, Just make sure you can justify the cost, before parting with your hard earned. (Apparently cadets are now knocking out labels very cheap)

Peter

[Martin Forsyth]

Hi Peter

yeah – I’ll have to weigh it all up.

But believe it or not, i get asked to do very small quantites.

I would like a Gerber, but don’t have that sort of money yet…..

[Peter Normington]

Being asked to do small quantities is fine, but when you tell them the cost, will they pay it, not being negative, if it works for you thats fine,
Always evaluate your market, if posssible, and find out what your potential customers are currently or willing to pay per 100/10000 etc.
then see if the machine can make you a profit…

Peter

[George Zerbino]

I remember seeing it at SignUK earlier this year, picked up a price list and when I worked the costs out, was about twice as much as running the Edge.

One good thing about it is that it prints and cuts all in one if I remember correctly.

Later…

[Martin Forsyth]

Thanks for the input guys – much appreciated.

Just out of interest, how much does an Edge cost – new or used?

Thanks

[George Zerbino]

I think the Edge FX, Envision 375 plotter & Omega CP software is about £12K

[Martin Forsyth]

thanks – 🙁 probably a bit out of my price range at the mo then…

[Martin Forsyth]

Hi All

saw the machine in action this morning.

It really is a neat little bit of kit.

Spot colours only, but does print and cut.

Might be ok for small runs.

Can do barcodes etc and sequence them.

Car window stickers etc.

It doesn’t take up much space, and uses thermal technology.

How much would it cost to make a car window sticker on a Gerber approximately?

I guess I need to work this out, as this machine is £1995 plus Vat, but consumables quite high – I think a car sticker works out around 40p on this one.

hmmmmm (?) (?)

[Lynn Normington]

original gerber foils work out around £1 £1.20 per metre and are 300 mm wide
Print one europoint and cherwell all do pattern and re fillable carts
at around 70p per metre multiply my 3 or 4 for cmy cmyk Plus cost of vinyl and you have your running costs for consumables
Hope this helps

Lynn

[Martin Forsyth]

thanks Lynn

well this seems to be more expensive – which I guess is to be expected.

I make the vinyl – £2 per metre, and £1.20 per metre per colour – for the standard stuff.

Also this is only 110mm wide too 😕

I think it will depend upon whether I can make money on a small run.

Thing is I can’t outlay £12,000 when most people ask me for a handful of car stickers, or 50 small stickers at a time…

[Nick Minall]

Spandex are doing a deal on the FX a the mo only £9999.00 With 30 foils 😕

[Kevin.Beck]

small thermal printers can be bought on ebay for 200gbp print area around the 4″ wide. larger 8″ machines can be bought for 1500ish gbp

do a search

you just need to sorce a suitable ribbon, wax, wax reson or reson, for the material to be printed on.

the last long of ribbons i bought were 17gbp per 300m roll.

[David Rowland]

hi, well we sold our gerber for about £4-5K as we can do most things with digital printer. We found the gerber quite expensive to use.

Yes, looks like a mini-gerber that, never seen that one before.

However if you are going to take on the Label making industry, then you will not compete with paper labels and silk screen/dig print. I know you contributed to this threadbut have a look again as paper label are cheap as chips.

I think the market for this machine is very limited to maybe internal corporate labels etc.

[Martin Forsyth]

Hi

the thing is, my clients ask for things as ‘add ons’ to the more money making items I make for them.

For example, one client, asks for a4 sheets of avery stickers with his logo on, – printed via inkjet – as he sticks it to his envelopes when he posts to his customers. Now I am not particularly interested in paper printing at all,
as I know I can’t be competetive with the big boys, but my customer is happy to buy them off me, as part of a bigger order for other items.

It’s the same with stickers, I constantly get asked if I can do stickers for car windows, stickers for equipment etc, but they only want to order, say 5 car stickers, and a couple of sheets of other stickers.

To sum it up, it would be more of a case of ‘helping them out’ – to encourage customer loyalty with my main products, rather than making a living!

Hmmm, have to have a good think on it. 😕

Thanks for all the advice and comments so far though – really appreciate it.