Andy Picton
Forum Replies Created
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Rob,
Connected via Wi-Fi on my laptop. Singapore Airlines were giving away free half hour access vouchers and a lot of their fleet are now equipped with the Wi-fi/broadband technology. I was Mr popular on the flight from UK to Singapore. Surrounded by chaps wanting up to the minute results of the football!!
BTW. I wish this was a holiday. I am visiting manufacturing facilities in Jakarta, Indonesia. Whilst my hosts are very pleasant company I’m only spending 40 hours here before turning round and heading home. Just enough time to buy Mrs Andy a present and begin to rebuild the brownie point account.
Looking forward to returning to below 35 deg temperatures.
Regards
Andy Picton
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quote Peter Normington:Hope you make time to mix in a bit off pleasure. Beautiful place to do biz.
Peter
Believe it or not, I went for the day! I’m back now (friday 2:30pm) having flown out of Heathrow on Tue evening. Had a nice evening meal though, Weds night I think it was.
Shane:- I know where you are coming from but saw lots of evidence3 of attempts to make everyone safe. Can’t into any where without rigorous security on people and vehicles.
Glad to be home
Andy Picton
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Was that the grammar or the punctuation in the light tower text?
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Hi,
We embroider quite a lot and have established the following charges. For embroidery adding value to a product we are selling then we charge £0.15/1000 stitches. However this is based on our average embroidery size of 5000 stitches i.e. we take into account loading and unloading and cost per 1000 stitches tends to reduce as the stitch count rises. Also, don’t forget to charge for your substrate. If we are doing the embroidery as a sub job then we would charge £0.20-£0.25/1000 stitches depending on machine utilisation.
So, Certificate £6.30 – £10.50 plus substrate, plus VAT, Invitation £3.00 – £5.00
You might want to find someone with more heads to sub it to though as I calculate you’ll be doing nothing else but these for the next 27 days on you machines 😕
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Hugh,
I use Corel 12 but had never tried what you describe. However, I have just played and found that if you set you path and attach the text and then access the ‘text orientation’ drop down menu you will see an option that allows the letters to remain upright regardless of the path shape. I did this and then formatted text to set the spacing etc. Not sure if this is the right way around your problem but it seems to work.
Andy Picton
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I’ve not used the Magic Touch software but saw a demo once and was impressed with the trace facility. I use Corel 12 and love it. There are lots of discussions around here about which graphics pack to use. My choice would favour one of the industry standards rather than a supplier’s own package but, again, your choice.
quote]The same problem happens when printing numbers on stripes Magic told me to use flock to prevent this.[[/quote]
Not everyone wants flock logos or numbers!
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We had Liz’s boy Charlie visit down here a few years ago. Many people were puzzled by his choice of headgear during his walkabout as he was wearing reddish brown fur hat with a tail (Davy Crockett style). It was a while before one of the hosts found the courage to enquire about this unusual item. Charlie explained that not having been to Penryn before, he had asked Madge what protocol he should observe and apparently she replied "Penryn? Where the Fox Hat"
:lol1:
Andy Picton
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Hi Nigel,
I have experience of both the Xpres (Ultragraphics) system and the Magic Touch. They work in similar ways, as you described. One gripe is that it is a little complicated to produce logos with multiple, unconnected, parts. Another is that when pressing on to sublimation printed football shirts, the logo substrate will sometimes allow the shirt colour to bleed through (the red on Prostar striped shirts is the worst).
You should make your own choices but I find an A4 printer for your selected method and a 24" cutter with registration facility does most of what I want.
Good luck
Andy Picton
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Nothing to do with signs but my favourite plates are CLA 551 C seen on very nice vintage car in Berkshire and FAT 91T (Fat Git) which I suppose would suit me!
Andy
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Hi from Penryn. Seems to be a lot of Cornish & SW activity on this site. Pop in if you get down our way.
Andy Picton
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I was in China 2 weeks ago for the first time. Looking at weaving mills, dye houses and garment mills. Visited Shangai, Changshu, Shijiazhiang and Beijing. Very generous hosts. Very impressed with what I saw.
Where abouts are you?
Andy Picton
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I spent 12 years in the Corps of Royal Engineers. Started as a Construction Plant Fitter and progressed to Fuel Pipeline construction and Well Drilling. Finished as a Corporal. It is the best corps to be in. Great spirit, fantastic opportunities:- Hon Y Soit Qui Mal Y Pense!
Good luck Brad
Andy Picton
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Pillows are pads or cushions of various shapes and sizes usually covered in teflon or similar. For example if you are using a 15×15 inch press and you want to press a pocket logo, using a pillow under the pocket will help avoid pressing buttons and collars. I make mine with offcuts of mousemat in layers if necessary. Works a treat.
Andy Picton
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Follow the instructions for your chosen film and you should be ok but do use greaseproof or silicone paper to protect the surface. Keep zips and buttons out of the way. Use pillows to make sure you don’t press what you don’t mean to.
Andy Picton
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Reminds me when, in the early nineties, an industrial mat manufacturer started to include health and safety messages on their products. Trouble was people started bumping into things because they were looking down! :doh:
Andy Picton
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Acrylics – Hobarts Ltd, Tel:- 01634 848000
Heard of them but not tried them.
I use a couple of different trophy suppliers for my business but they do most of my engraving at source. What sort of products are you looking for? If they do what you’re after I’ll point you at them. – Glenway, Transworld Trophies.
Andy Picton
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:drink4:
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Commenting on an error in a pub sign: GeorgeandThe Dragon –
There should be a space between George and and and and and the
How did I do?
Andy Picton
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Try looking at the promota web site or the British promotional merchandise association (bpma) site (a good guess in both cases will get you there and avoid me getting into trouble with the mods)
Andy
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I don’t use the plug in that you refer to but whenever I have the problem you describe it is because I have not set the cut lines to ‘hairline’.
(you probably thought of this already and I’ll just shuddup now)
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quote John Wilson:when I’m printing onto ceramic products that the ink scratches off a little too easy……
This sounds a little strange John. The whole point of sublimation is that the dye becomes a part of the polyester coating of your imprintable product. If your image is flaking maybe it is the coating. Are you using a trusted supply of ceramics. I bought a box of mugs to try from a new supplier a while back and was very unhappy with the print quality. I blamed my inks at first and tried recalibrating and resetting the colour profiles but when I tried an old stock mug I realised that the new ones were behaving totally different. I’ve given that remains of that box away to an old folks home. Lesson learned!
:doh:
Dreckly
Andy Picton
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I’ve been to P&P for the last 4 years and IMHO it is going downhill. The emphasis has shifted from machines and equipment to mainly garments. Be prepared to see all the usual suspects…. Ralawise, Pencarrie, BTC, Elms & Elms etc etc etc. On the machinery/supplies side…. Y.E.S., Victory, Magic Touch etc etc etc.
Last year the hall was padded out by having exhibitors in more than one location around the hall filling in the empty stands.
All that being said, I do use the event to meet people from around the country. Probably the best reason to attend.
PS I’m really looking forward to the Promota show this year so I’m not negative about all the shows 🙂
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I traveled up (and back) from Cornwall for this yesterday (Sunday), justified by transporting my Son to the Autosport International event.
Dan had a great time! I had 3 hours in Trophex i.e. 3 times round every stand and and hour for lunch and then went back to the car park and napped in the car until he had finished.
Lots of visitors, not many exhibitors (I did see one or two of my suppliers who appeared to be there as visitors).
Bit of a disappointment really. What did others think? Was it a good show for the exhibitors?
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A very happy Christmas to you and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.
It’ll be Chrismus dreckly!
andy
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This sort of fits the tone of this thread. I’ve played with this for hours.
http://mirrored.flabber.nl/boob.cursor/
Andy
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I’ve been telling this joke for best part of 20 years now and it never fails, sorry, works:
Q. What is the difference between a duck?
A. One of it’s legs is both the same.
makes more sense when you’ve had a skin-full
It’ll be Chrismus dreckly
Andy
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I’ve just taken an order for 50 cuff-links and tiepin sets. Easily done and this order will have paid for my doming starter kit. 😀 :clap2:
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Wow… This all sounds familiar.
Are your domes destined for outdoor use?
To start doming I bought a starter kit from Victory and couldn’t make anything work. I tried different printers/ink, papers, vinyls. I tried everything that has been written above (including dehumidifier which fortunately I already had). Then, in the continuing search for alternative substrates I spoke to Creative Printers of London. They asked what type of resin I was using and explained that bubbles were more likely to happen in one type of resin than another i.e. Epoxy v Polyurethane (I think). I haven’t got my doming kit around at the moment so I’m embarrassed to say I cannot remember which was which but… the type that uses 2:1 mix ratio is much more UV resistant but requires very strict environmental controls. The 1:1 mix is suitable for indoor applications (great for my trophies and promotionals) and is much more forgiving. I ordered some of the 1:1 mix and have not lost one item to bubbles since. I’ve not even had to blast the flame at them.
I’m sorry I cannot remember which is which. Maybe later, when I can look at the labels I’ll post again.
I’m sure that both types are available from any number of sources and I do not wish to suggest any endorsement of any supplier. However, of the 2 suppliers that I spoke to 1 was particularly helpful and apparently knowledgeable and the other had difficulty in speaking about the product in any detail.
Good luck and regards
Dreckly
Andy Picton[/u]
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I’ve used both Victory and Xpres (superflex) in the past with generally good results with single layers. When I tried layering with the Victory product I experienced quite a lot of shrinkage between layers which caused some registration difficulties. Having said that I managed a good result with 2 layers (‘inspired’ by a skate shoe logo) on a hoody for my Son about 3 years ago. It looked great new and after wearing it to death it still looks good now. I find the Xpres superflex has a much better ‘handle’ than the Victory but I haven’t tried their other films.
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It depends what you mean by hi-viz. There are very strict European Norms (EN) definitions of high visibility garments which usually combines the fluorescence of the background fabric and the reflectance of the stripes. I often get asked if I can make, for example, navy blue hi-viz garments. In short I can’t, but I can make navy blue garments decorated with reflective stripes :bigwink:
If an organisation assesses a need for hi-viz garments then there will be a CE marked product to suit and it almost certainly will not be white.
This is a difficult legal minefield. If what you’re selling your customer does not have genuine CE markings DO NOT call it hi-viz.
My first port of call for anything out of the ordinary is Leo Textiles who are specialists in hi-viz and can make to order http://www.leotextiles.co.uk
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Don’t know if it’s to late to offer an opinion on this.
I was an industrial launderer for several years and I now make garments for that industry. Of the various options on offer, I’d be less inclined to use cut vinyls. In order of preference I would go for embroidery first, sew on badges, pre-printed transfers, screen print badges, direct screen print and then cut vinyl. With the quantities that you are talking about you could get badges or transfers made by someone like J&A, Target Transfers, Polymark, Mirical (no order of preference or endorsement) but do ensure that they are tried and tested workwear items. Industrial Laundries specialise boiling and beating the cr*p out of garments. Washes of up 95 deg and drying in steam tunnels of around 150 deg don’t do your decorations much good.
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I went to my first franchise exhibition at the weekend, National Franchise Exhibition at the NEC. There were lots of sign based franchises on offer. I was looking for more towards promotional products etc but I could be tempted. Is anyone on this board already a franchisee or have experience of same?
I was told about one of the major sign franchises at the show that only 3rd up franchisees made the business work i.e. first franchisee in a business sets it up but doesn’t get through the problems and sells it to the 2nd franchisee who corrects some of the issues but still fails and then sells it to No3 who reaps the benefits from the previous 2 and makes a going concern. Sounds a bit harsh. What do people think?
My expectation from a franchise is to provide a framework for quicker startup of a business. I’m currently employed and paying a huge mortgage. I want to run my own business but worry about surviving as the business gets a foothold. Is this a reasonable expectation or am I being naive?
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Hi Paul,
quote Paul Rollason:I’m from sunny funny FalmouthWhere are you based
If you ever find yourself in our neck of the wood, pop in for a brew
Well I never, I live in Falmouth. In my day job I run a garment manufacturing business in Penryn but I run my hobby business out of my home in Dracaena Avenue.
What sort of markets are you involved in? (I don’t seem to be allowed to look at profiles)
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Something I forgot to mention. I have been looking at digital printing direct to garments. It has until now been somewhat limited because of the problems printing onto anything but white. However, I’ve seen at least 2 machines now that include white inks and offer full colour printing on to even black.
If you are interested I saw one of the machines here:
http://www.yesltd.co.uk/html/fast_t-jet.html
There is no mention of the new print on dark facility but I saw the output at a show last weekend.
See you dreckly
Andy
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quote drogers4:However it seems difficult to do anything besides a solid decal that you can just peel and position on the garment (no small separated text).Doyle
The Magic touch are offering a combination of products that enable print and cut with separated elements, I think it is their OBM paper with an application tape. I had a demo at their offices and it worked really well. You have to put the cut print and application tape through a cold laminator. I haven’t used this system myself so please don’t take this as an endorsement. My preferred method of adding separated text is by overlaying cut vinyl over a printed image.
On sublimated garments, I am a great fan of sublimation for most of its applications and use it a lot but I am totally turned off by the usual range of polyester faced garments for sublimating and what they cost. Recently there has been an improvement in the styling of such products and I must admit to being curious about the Vappor Apparel range from The Transfer Press. Notwithstanding this I find a greater range of garment styles available from traditional fabrics which I print using Colour Laser Copier processes. My favourite supplier of garments has a good range of stylish products in a wide range of colours and contrasts, many of them with white as the prime colour. I can also print onto customers own items such as baby wear etc.
I’m rambling now so,
See you dreckly
Andy
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quote Andrew Bennett:Hi Andy,
I would love to relocate to Kernow. How’s competition down there?I’m not a native but I do enjoy living down here (its a bind getting to anywhere else though). My perception of the competition is that no-one has really grabbed the market. There is lots of opportunity for garment printing either direct to tourists/visitors or to the retail souvenir and designer outlets. Most of my experience is with businesses buying for uniforms and with sports teams providing a ‘merchandise’ service (I offer the option of displaying a sample range of products and the club will take orders which I aim to turn around within 1 week. If the club want to make anything for their funds then I just add it to the price I charge. This means the club don’t buy stock up front and I usually get a good price).
Oops! digressing. There are a few like me, supplying part of the market and a few of us overlap, although most are bigger and better than me.
I’ve been contemplating a franchise to increase the range of products and services I can offer and to benefit with things like marketing support etc. Does anybody have any experience or views?
I’ve just realised what I’ve asked and perhaps I should post that in a different topic (?)
It’s nice to see that there are others from the South West, I did see a post that referred to Pool Market which is near Redruth so I guess there must even be somebody else in Cornwall.
See you dreckly
Andy
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It doesn’t take long to get a response here does it?!!
Thanks for the warm words of welcome. I think I’ve managed to work the avatar properly. My favourite pose – why spend all night binge drinking when you can do it in one go?