Newbie to the vinyl signs!

[Paul Humble]

Ive never heard of the Bobcat, but Signlab 8 is very good.

I think you will be surprised just how much materials and maintenance costs can come to. And when it comes to fitting the graphics you will no doubt see why having it done by professionals costs a bit more.

[Robert Lambie]

quick reply…
signlab, your not going to get much better, if better at all in sign making software. ive been using it for many years now on all our computers…

bobcat cutter, i do not run them but from reading posts from others that do they are good reliable cutters and i am sure with backup from the likes of grafityp on top you wont go wrong.

now if you had said you had bought one of those donkey cutters from ebay… then that would be a dofferent thing altogether. 😉

[Nigel Pugh]

The Bobcat is from GCC, and so is a SignPal Bobcat, it is / was the entry level machine which has now been replaced by the Bengal…………..anyone notice a theme here 😀

So not a bad starting machine and a high end software package, seems you are good to go, if you need help on the Bobcat then feel free to give me a call.

I ought to mention that we are GCC’s UK partner.

Regards
Nigel

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Glad to hear that another lowballing racer has got a plotter.
Now you can make stickers for all your mates and you can see what a pain racers can be to deal with.
(hot)
They will spend thousands on car parts but whine about the cost of lettering.
(?)
Enjoy!

[Peter Normington]

Welcome to the boards Mark.

I would think making stickers for your own use will take a long time to recoup the cost of the equipment and software,

How much is signlab 8 nowadays? I have 2 copies but have upgraded over the years, My original copy many years ago 4.95 cost over a grand!Peter

[Jeremy Howes]

Hmmmmmm,
Personally I think it’s a very sad day when we teach our customers how to do our jobs, leave that to the suppliers as they will be the only ones who will benefit.

Jeremy

[John Wilson]

I’ve had a few car clubs do this to me only for them to come back at a later date and me charge them more and not give them respect that i once gave them 👿

[David Rogers]

Trying not to be disrespectful, but you seem to just want free advice to set up a side line business you have no clue about (by your own admission) that you were once a customer of…for all I know, somebody on here!

quote Mark Arnold:

Hello I’m Mark…I jumped straight in with no advice and brought a 2ft bobcat cutter and Signlab8.. What do you think of these cutters and software?

Any comments or advice for introducing me to the trade tricks and supplies very welcome.

I hesitate to ask – and not being cheeky (just curious) that you are only just now asking for advice on this plotter & software…after you spent so much on them. The plotter RRP is about £700 / $1000 and the software must be well in excess of a grand from the dealer…mine certainly was a few years ago.

Anyway – best of luck with the venture.

[Peter Dee]

quote David Rogers:

I hesitate to ask – and not being cheeky (just curious) that you are only just now asking for advice on this plotter & software…after you spent so much on them. The plotter RRP is about £700 / $1000 and the software must be well in excess of a grand from the dealer…mine certainly was a few years ago.

Anyway – best of luck with the venture.

Isn’t that the trend nowadays, no job training whatsoever but a job lot of high technology piled up in the back bedroom.
Someone obviously saw the light when 13 amp plugs became fitted as standard! 🙄

Anyway Mark, you must have done some swatting to realise that Signlab 8 was a top program – even though it might be overkill in your case.

Have fun – but you’ll never get rich doing work for racers but boy oh boy will you have a lot of "mates". 😉

[Paul Hughes]

I am with Jeremy and Jill on this 🙄

It does upset me that the sign industry is held in such low esteem that people think they can just jump straight in with the cheque book, and they are sign makers.

I and I am sure many others on here have spent big parts of our working life learning this trade and continue to learn and improve.

I think the big problem in this trade is many have turned our product into a commodity and not the customized skilled craft it really is.

Paul

[David-Foster-]

Wow, I’ve not been on here for a bit, nothing changes though. Same old newbies asking how to start in this ‘professional’ business for free. 3 separate threads on front page. All have got £200 plotters and a £1000 of software, right 😮

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Now that these:
http://www.cricut.com/
are for sale at WalMart for under $200 Santa will be giving the gift of signmaking to everyone this Christmas.
:lol1:

[Michael Potter]

now Jill don’t tell me you do scrapbooking as well.
cheers Mike

[Jason Xuereb]

I wouldn’t knock a Chinese machine 😛 That’s how we got started now 2 years on we’ve got a printer, print/cut machine, graphtec plotter, fotoba digital cutter, javelin cutter and all sorts of other things.

Anyone can buy equipment but it takes hard work and dedication to make it succeed.

[Peter Mindham]

Just think, with all those redundancy checks out there, we will have loads of signmakers to chat to in the future.

Peter

[Mike Grant]

How many sign companies are making money nowadays. There are so many cowboys joining the trade they are watering down our profits so much that not only do the cowboys eventually go and find real jobs but they take down the established business with them because they set the price benchmark for the customer who eventually goes to the established company only to say "why are you so expensive" (chat.) 🙄

Don’t get me started on this one! (:)

[Ian Muir]

Cor strewth, you lot……….. :lol1:

reminds me of that old Aussie joke………….

Q. "How can you tell that a plane load of Poms has just landed"?

A. "When they turn off the jet engines, you can still hear the whining"

Iann :lol1:

[Paul Hughes]

you not wrong there peter, there could well be more people to talk to over the coming months 🙁

Paul 😕