What do you do with your left over media???

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I’m not a printer person,
but could you not make yourself up a few decals with your biz name on them to stick on signs, or hand out to customers?
Print ’em in the wasted areas I mean.
Or a mini of the sign you just printed to "stick" into your portfolio.
Or make a long slender "Just Married" sticker for on magnetic material.
Or your country’s flag, or those pink breast cancer ribbons or something?
Anything but Calvin peeing.
love….Jill

[Lorraine Clinch]

I keep the larger bits, often come in useful for smaller jobs, as it usually has been paid for on the larger job it is all profit.
When I get too much I sort out the least useful pieces & give them to the local schools. (Which I must get around to doing SOON!)

[Shane Drew]

Vinyl Printing material is a bit hard. I wear cotton gloves when I print, but to do a 4m x 600mm in vinyl is a heart wrencher. I will usually advise the client it will be a cheaper job if they allow a join at 2m, but if they insist, I’ll charge for the waste.

Saving it is difficult because you have to keep it dust free, and it never really works for me unfortunately, with having to run a knife and ruler down the length, it always gets marked at some point..

The other thing I do, is make sure I have other jobs that I can print at the same time, not hard for me as I do a lot of tourism stuff, and I always have something on the go.

I do a contract for a company that has 4100mm x 500mm banners. I have to trim that down and store it, but dust is not such a problem on banner material as it is on vinyl. 😕

I save all my computer cut, use it for repairs or freebies for good clients.

[Checkers]

On a job like that , I probably would have tried to sell the client on 2 copies. If they went for it, great! If not, I would have printed 2 copies any way, just in case one goes south duing the finishing process.
Other than that. I’ve printed many samples, ID labels/bugs, personal stuff or even "art" just to make the showroom/production area look better.

Checkers
a.k.a. Brian Born
Harrisburg, PA USA

[George Elsmore]

i keep all the bits and cut them into squares and make tartan vinyl to sell to all the Jockanese people to make banners etc for there world cup trips unfortunatley i now have a massive stock pile of the stuff and have had for a good few years!!!

god knows why

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Dennis Van Der Lingen]

i would say, just charge everything and trow away any waste vinyl.

at first i held on to every bit of scrap vinyl for (profit purposus) but soon realized that with all the scrap i collected i could fill a dumptruck.

and besides: scrap vinyl can be (iff you’re not carefull) old to very old when you get the job to do something with it.

[Peter Shaw]

I keep standard white vinyl and some other media in both 1370mm and 760mm. I can then select the best width to minimise waste.

I never reuse cut off vinyl as the slightest finger mark etc will ruin the print. Large pieces are kept to be used as regular cut vinyl.

I also print out company stickers on the waste bits together with customers jobs.

If there is significant waste on a job, I incorporate the cost of the waste vinyl into the price.

Peter

[Mike Grant]

I don’t have a wide jobbie machine so may be talking out of my:o but could you not just put in a roll of 750mm vinyl. I’m sure you can adjust the pinch rollers! (?) (?) (?)

[Gaston]

Just listen to Dennis and Peter. They know what they’re talking about.

I’ve been there myself and I can tell keeping waste and trying to print it is a waste of time.
Usually your new print becomes ruined, find a finger mark or anything.

If you are careful enough (for keeping it clean and remember you have it), you could use it for color test of a current job, before loading the roll for the actual print.

The other use for vinyl waste is cutting.