[Chris Wilson]

quote Peter Johnson:

I just did a quick experiment. I cut off a piece of windowperf from a roll I have and then stuck it down onto a piece of clear perspex. I then poured a cup of water down the centre of it, gave it a shake to remove the excess and then took pictures through it looking outside and a couple inside the unit.

You can clearly see (no pun intended) that the visibility is good through the dry part, but you can’t see jack where the water is. This is what happens when it rains on unlaminated windowperf.

And on the inside photos, I took the wet picture first and then gave it a quick once over with some blue paper towel for the ‘dry-ish’ photo.

I’ve also added a photo of a shopfront I did with windowperf laminated with optically clear. image shows inside and out.

EDIT: Forgot to say that once the water dries/evaporates, the vision clears up again. It’s only when the water is there that you have the problem.

Always happy to learn something new. Up till now I’ve been selling it as a pro/con material and explain the advantages over disadvantages.

Who’s laminate and vinyl are you using?

[Chris Wilson]

We are talking about one way vision film here yea? I was under the impression you couldn’t laminate it, or least that’s what I was told when asked and none of our competitors up here do as you see every rear window that’s ever been fitted has the the good old wiper mark.

I’ll maybe give it a shot [emoji848]

[Chris Wilson]

Just do like hire places do.
Just print out a basic document with all vehicle details handwritten at the top. Time and date it arrived. Then walk round it quickly with the customer point out any bad bits, dents, cracks etc.. right them down and get them to sign it. Stick in a wee line about paint. All good I would say.

If the customer is dropping the keys through the letterbox out of hours just put in a email to them that you will have to take any photos of damage to the car before starting work.

I just take them on my phone. I get them to sign when is it picked up also and that they are happy. I think this makes it look professional and that we are taking care.

[Chris Wilson]

I had the opposite problem yesterday. Was to busy for appointments so told folks I couldn’t do today and would have to be later in the week. They came in anyway. I don’t think we can win either way.

[Chris Wilson]

Another vote for BTC/ralawise and Xpres. Also depending on what clamp you have for the mugs the water bottles from Xpres are also a good seller (I was surprised at that one)

Personally though we don’t use FOTL. Stick to Gildan. Million times better for a few pennies more. AWDIS sports range is also a good one for us.

[Chris Wilson]

We run a VS 540 and we would be £4.73 for the same. We are running eco sol max 3 500 carts.

[Chris Wilson]

Just had the same conversation with a client.

We price it so the removal is about 10% less of new sheets. The way I see it is the hours to strip that and clean it up I could be making money doing something else.

[Chris Wilson]

Aye finally got there. Can’t say am a fan though

[Chris Wilson]

quote Daniel Evans:

Hi Chris

Thanks. Left it until this morning and it’s now ok.

When you say you’re more careful with the swab, can you go into a bit more detail so it doesn’t happen again for me.

I currently do a manual clean every Monday morning, clean the head, capping station and wiper with a swab. When I clean the head I do go all over it but then I was told this wouldn’t do any harm.

I did have a power outage the other day for 24 hours over the weekend when I wasn’t in, I wonder if that started the issue.

Yea as Philip says don’t touch the head. My bets would of been a tiny bubble of a solution on the head then. Clean round the edges only, the wipers and round the edges of the capping station, not the grate in the capping station. I do a manual clean everyday.
Annoying when these little things happen.. currently in a 45 min battle with crop marks.. [emoji35][emoji35]

[Chris Wilson]

This has happened to me once or twice. After being pee’d off and not getting anyone on the phone to help, it went back to normal after a few hours. I just left the machine doing nothing. Both times it happened after a manual clean. I put it down to getting a small amount of clean fluid in the capping station. Since then I’ve been more careful with the cleaning swab and it’s never happen [emoji848]

[Chris Wilson]

We use Pexels from time to time. Image range is limited but quality wise they are fine. It’s free.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Matthew Boulton:

Done a bit more research and it seems most people believe the Rolands to be more reliable. Think i’m going to look at getting a Versacamm sp300i or similar as I do like the idea of the direct care plan with Roland when buying a used printer.

We went for the VS 540 as its wider so give a lot more scope for printing and what possible but I was also told that bits will dry up fairly soon for the SP machines, although the "i" might be slightly newer.

Very happy with our machine. I know she is just an entry model but for what we do she powers through and I don’t think we have an limits on what we can print or produce. So far anyway. As mentioned above payments are so low and the work that has come in for us there not really an issue.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Matthew Boulton:

Thanks again everyone. Having looked at the market and prices, I think we are going to look to getting a “2nd User or manufacturer Refurb” as were trying to keep things below £6000.

Have been looking around and really like the look of some of the Mimaki Machines, I like the fact that they generally come with a the take up and stand and have only really read good things about them. Have read to stay away from the cjv30-60 due to media size not readily available in this size so look to at least a 30″ printer.

Considering a MIMAKI CJV30-100 or similar, does anyone have any advise when buying used or refurb printers? Or a reputable place to buy from.

I’ve had a look at Granthams Ltd but they do all seem to be private used printers from what I can tell. Signmaster seem like they have a good little warranty package and they do deliver and install in there prices but tend to be a bit more expensive. Then there’s signmakingandsupplies which looks like they have a large selection.

Thanks again!

Aye still waiting to see my warranty. I can however tell you though that the warranty doesn’t cover anything.

Most suppliers do second user products. Printmax and Grafityp do. CSL digital have a few I think.

We use a Roland. I don’t know much about mimaki’s but I heard you have to print registration marks for it to read before it cuts, sounds like a bit of a slow process.

When we bought the first machine we looked at all printers and mimaki seemed to have more expensive run costs, to no major benefit, from what I read.

We are now on Roland cover. They come out within 4 working days if something happens. This means less down time. I’d be look for similar personally, from any machine brand before making the purchase. Nothing worse than a 6k machine sat in a corner doing nothing for a few weeks waiting for someone to come and angry customers resulting in refunds or no payment.

[Chris Wilson]

I was taught to do something similar but only if it’s spotted soon after coming off the press. Just re-heat, pick with scalpel and off it comes. I find though that prints on colour items leaves a noticeable stain. White garments are normally safe. Not that it happens that often.

[Chris Wilson]

We’ve had a lot of people drag there heels with payment recently. Mainly big local companies/authorities up here. Left the cash flow hanging at times. It’s very frustrating. Especially charties that "don’t pay VAT". Get the 3rd degree over the phone from there assistant accountant then a few days later get the top brass on the phone and it’s paid, or being paid next week.

Customers all seem very happy this week. However I seem to be having nothing but glitches with all the machines. All of which have fixed themselves might I add. But still knocked me back an hour/half a day at times, and deadlines are tight at the moment so it put the pressure on big style. The mouse took a trip across the room the other day. Suppose I just can’t have it both ways.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Dominic Butler:

Hi,

I hope I am posting this in the right section!
O.k. so I am looking for a company that offers a DTG service, someone that is reasonably priced.
I am only looking at small quantities at a time, until we can buy a DTG printer.

On another topic, I don’t get vibrant results with the printed media and it does not last at all. Is there better media available, I’m using Metatex on a BN20.

Thanks,
Dom.

Hi don,

We have a machine coming in September that will be for this exact thing, small amounts, at trade, with full flexibility, live stock etc etc..

However for now it could be down to the material or your colour settings maybe. We use the Grafityp films (PU+) in a satin finish, or victory designs PU film, which I find weeds easier, especially if we give the graphic a bleed over the cut line.

We guarantee 50 minimum washes with all our items and as I far as I know there has been no problem. We also provide them at trade to several embroidery shops and small garment set-ups and there has been no complaints. We go through a hell of a lot, and we’re using the eco sol max 3 ink on a Roland VS-540.

[Chris Wilson]

It’s no bad but that’s me just finishing now (rolls eyes)

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Hugh,

Yea if there is a power cut or it crashes then auto backup kicks in. Sometimes I find files from months ago suddenly want to pop up. Slows it right down.

Make the image smaller and try tracing that way, then blow it up to full size. Can sometimes help to only have that open. Not sure if I can leave my email address here but if you are stuggling send it to info@creativesignandprint.co.uk and I’ll fire it back.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Mike Thornley:

Had someone call out of the blue in April needing a commercial food vehicle sign writing urgently as his current supplier was not available…. should have heard the alarm bells ringing….

We matched the price on a proviso it was payment on collection, anyway they didn’t pay on collection as they promised to do a BACS later that day, and then have ignored our invoice and then reminders. So they took advantage of my trusting nature.

So is it worth the aggro to take this further for 185 quid, its more the principle for me, but lesson learned for me, to me he as stolen from me, simple as.

I have thought of visiting the premises of the said van and stripping the graphics, but its not local.

What do members think?

As Kevin says. Just ring ring ring. Eventually they will pick up and pay.

Always been wanted to buy a vehicle clamp and sticking it on the early hours of the morning, but I’ve never had to go that far yet. Am sure they would pay up fairly quickly.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Stafford Cox:

Most likely the chip reader then. Have a search for ID contact PCB, if not I’ll have a look in the office on Monday.

Stafford

Hey Stafford,

Roland came up last week and replaced the whole column and its back to normal. Not sure what the fault was. An old carts chip wouldn’t work on a new cart, but a new chip tricked the old cart into thinking it was full and let me run for a few days on fumes.

Cheers for the offer though.

[Chris Wilson]

We’ve got a Vauxhall mavano. Roof rack on top. Job wise and easy of fitting everything in is great.

When it breaks though. And at 85k it seems to be a fair bit. Everything is in a stupid place. Nightmare to get to. Parts are cheap. Won’t buy another one again though.

About to take on a boxer on hire lease.

P.s there’s a mavano going cheap if anyone is keen

[Chris Wilson]

List is good idea. I just go round in circles without one.

I find little personal things to work on help keep the buzz going. I’ve just had the idea of creating a wee printed folder for vehicles as a kind of thank for choosing us/how to look after your van now it’s sign written sort of thing. I suppose just like the folder you would get with a new car. Maybe I’ll chuck a wee discount code. But I can picture the cover and looking forward to designing it and ordering it in. Give us a nice wee finishing touch when handing the keys back.

[Chris Wilson]

We don’t have one. But thought has crossed my mind.

Thing is the machine is very expensive. A single head machine will do 30 garments a day with you standing over it.

We use our neighbour for the odd bit of EMB and they charge me £3.50 a logo. That’s a lot of £3.50 to pay off the machine and a lot of days at 30 garments a day.

Am sure there are plenty trade supplier about. Personally think they are only worth it if your doing massive bulk week in week out.

[Chris Wilson]

quote David Mitchell:

Hi Chris, BN-20 has 5′. Can You tell me what films u use?

I use easy print from xpress, but find it’s a little heavy, prett scared after initial results to try anything else if I’m honest

We are using Victorys satin film, or from time to time C-Print PU+ from Grafityp. Victorys weeds better. We’re going through 25-50m a month at the moment and switched Eco-sol Max 3 last September. As far as I know no problems. Most of our customers are weekly/monthly orders.

Speak to Kim at victory design and she will send you a sample am sure.

I’ve never tried the Xpres films. I actually have samples and use them for sublimation products, but every time I come across people using them there is always complaints about wash life/durability. I’ve used the siser films for last 10 years, so very used to them and don’t want to take the chance with xpres.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi David,

We are running Eco Sol Max 3 and films have been fine. We do a large amount each month.

We had problems at the start and we’re told to switch back. More with colours and poor print quality. I believe the flushing carts were near £700 but we have 8 carts, BN only has 4 is that right?

[Chris Wilson]

quote Chris Windebank:

Sometimes quicker to low res trace image to get a vector then ungroup and add boundary

Its quick then just needs tidying up

I was going suggest similar. I trace the item. Merge all the colours together. Then click for no fill and right click on my palette for contor or perf cut. Does need a tidy up from time to time.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Robin Summers:

Hi, I’m new to these forums and need some help regarding printers. I have ran a decal business for the past few years using an excellent summa plotter, which I have now decided to step up to a printer and cutter setup.

As my business focuses on mostly wall decals, I don’t really want a white border/background to the designs. Can any large format solvent printer print well onto transparent vinyl, or do I need a one that can print white?

Also a lot of my designs are just White and after doing a fair amount of research, it sounds very difficult to print a good looking all white sticker without a black border or background. Is this another area where a printer with white ink comes in? Would it allow me to print just white onto transparent vinyl?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

Hey rob,

We got our first print and cut machine just under a year ago. We have a Roland VS540, it’s print and cut in one. Quite happy it. Spent a lot of time looking around a various machines.

I decided to run it on CMYK though, which at times has been a bit of a pain sometimes for certain jobs. Plenty only machines about, but if am going by the experience of laminating prints and then loading them back In to cut.. its stressful and takes time. I can’t imagine a stand alone plotter is much better.

As for the white outline/boarder we set the artwork up to go over the cut line by a few mm.

As for the white ink being poor quality a lot of things can effect this from ink quality to material quality to profiling, to print set-up etc..

Best thing to do is go and look at a few machines with your nearest supplier and see them running. Any supplier we have dealt with are always happy to take along your own files so you can see the results on a file you know.

[Chris Wilson]

100% Pete.
Our main business is garment printing. January and February are the worst. The phone calls normally go

"Hi there I’d like to place an order for 100 hoodies with this this and this on them"

"No problem they will be £17 each"

"Aww well I can get em for £6 each"

"Well we can’t even buy them for that"

"Aww.. right well I really wanted you guys to do them"

"Well they will be £17 each then"

9 times out of 10 they always come in 2-3 weeks later and say "am just gunna order 5 for now"

[Chris Wilson]

quote Lynn Wang:

Hi,

We had problem printing light cyan, test print is half dropped out.

We called ink supplier, and they get engineer come on site to check.

After all checking, head, part change etc, engineer concluded it is ink problem.

But the ink supplier don’t believe the engineer’s statement, and insist to get all the light cyan cartridge back, otherwise they would not do anything.

issue is, if the cartridge is sent back, we got no idea how they are carrying out the checking, and final answer might be no problem with ink. and we need to bear all the costs.

Has anyone had similar experience? Any suggestions or advise appreciate.

Thanks

raty8502@gmail.com

I can’t give you any advice on the machine as it’s above me, But is your engineer from a well know company and well established? I would tend to trust there opinion, seems a bit odd they would disagree with the engineer they sent. Have they suggested anything else?

Most folks that try to sell me 3rd party ink normally state the wet parts of the machine are covered? Am guessing this is not the case?

I would buy a small genuine cart of light blue and run it on the machine. If the head comes back the bingo. I’ve always been told with ours (Roland eco sol max 3) that we don’t need to flush the machine or anything just plug them straight in and your good to go. Not that we have ever tried.

[Chris Wilson]

Not sure if the cable will effect.. I wouldn’t think so.

We are running 25.00mm in top boy and 200 grams of force (second box)

All media is different though.

[Chris Wilson]

Take perf length down to 25.00mm.

Check your blade and how much you have sticking out the holder. Try giving it a mm or 2 more. Then try cutting again at about 200 (what we cut at)

[Chris Wilson]

quote Conor Clarke:

Andy, would you laminate much wrapping material with it? I’ve heard that’s one of the hardest jobs…

To through another machine into the mix we went with the mounters mate. Same as you, weighed up all the options and read a few things then asked on here. Should give Omar a shout, am sure he can talk you through everything. Very happy with our machine.

[Chris Wilson]

Hmmm I have used this before.. brush script maybe? Sorry am terrible at remembering names of fonts

[Chris Wilson]

No way!! Just had a snoop and 3rd car in custom shop up here we do work for. Just let the boys know.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Joe Wigzell:

If you get one line of a box missing in RVW (and you’re using .eps) just go to the Queue settings for the queue you’re using and under the ‘File Format’ tab add an eps margin – 0.35 should do the trick.

Thanks joe. I’ll go try that. Everyone else I’ve mentioned it to has just shrugged. Cheers

[Chris Wilson]

Sorry lost my train of thought, also a faster print speed I believe. Some of the SP machines I have seen on YouTube seem to be quite noisy also.

[Chris Wilson]

quote David Mitchell:

54″ this time. if theres any particular m,achines anyone would recomend, or any reasons against roland sp540.?

We went with the VS540. We bought reconditioned and there was about £1,000 difference I think, BUT I called Roland and they said parts for the SP were not going to be around for ever if something bad happened.

We also went with ECO sol Max 3 inks which are cheaper on 500 carts I believe. Touch dry very quick even on paper. Profiling has been a issue though. Lots of faffing around and tests.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Jon,

Yea mate you need to set up the colour chart to have one as perf and one as contour. Should be a few YouTube videos on this. I believe you can set it to whatever you want but ours is 100% magenta. You can added it to your colour palette on screen and right click the text/object.

We found this though which I think is a Corel problem. Versa works try’s to crop the image/whatever just a bit to much. Meaning if it’s a square you have 3 sides of it cut and one missing. We not add a extra square/box hairline just bigger than what we are cutting, making sure it has no colour/white and group it with the print/cut.

[Chris Wilson]

Check out mounters mate. We have one. Few others in here do to. Well worth a look.

[Chris Wilson]

Ultima displays possibly. There catalog is pretty big

[Chris Wilson]

quote Jonathan feeney:

Hi everyone I need some advice , i currently use corel x6 but I’m buying a printer and had been thinking about moving onto signlab ,my question is do I need to buy the full version or do I buy the one with versaworks ?

Thanks

We use Corel and just export as EPS into versaworks. I’ve seen the pricing signlab before and I often wonder what more it could really do that Corel doesn’t.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Jonathan feeney:

Thanks everyone ,I think we are gonna go with the second hand newer machine not the one from signmaster as ive have been reliably informed it has been well looked after and has had new heads recently and i have spoke with a Roland service engineer who is local and has worked on the machine for the person that currently owns it looking forward to stepping onto the printing world for the first time

Good luck. Sounds like a good shout

[Chris Wilson]

quote Jonathan feeney:

The older machine comes with a 3 month warranty we have a budget of 5k

100% make sure the head is covered from all angles, weather it is wear and tear or accidental damage. Make sure all the wet parts (anything ink touches) is also covered. Ask for it before hand in writing.

Also you can get the serial number of both machines and call Roland and ask for any reports they have, was it under one of there care programs etc…

We bought a second user Roland VS540 and… well.. we would of been cheaper buying a brand new VSI after it is was repaired, not even mentioning the 6 week down time.

Also as much as it is great to buy these machines outright you can pay part cash, put the rest on finance or bank loan. Brand new machine comes with a much longer warranty.

We should have bought new. Hands down.

[Chris Wilson]

I wonder this about a great many vans/cars. I do one wonder if designers actually think about the end result of a van. That I will be used by a business.. that wants to advertise. Old style kangoo’s are the worst!!!

All vans should be VW caddy shaped.

[Chris Wilson]

Check out stripe. We are using it. Fees are fair enough. No monthly costs and no terminal.

[Chris Wilson]

Wahoooo she is here 🙂

[Chris Wilson]

Personally for me a business partner is someone who is always going to cover the business and keep it in safe hands. If I call In sick, I need to know he/she is not going to let the client down as best they can.

I think personally your offering someone a chance to buy into a well established business, taking a huge amount of risk out of there investment, with the flexibility of that investment growing. If I was to be that partner though i would need some sort of re-assurance that am not going to be left on my own, personally that’s why I would go down the apprentice route. I don’t know what English law is like but I look up here the other day and for someone leaving school you £3 something an hour (I was on £600 a month when I started in this trade). The safety net to this is if 3 months down the line your find there just standing around doing nothing you can cut them loose (harsh I know) but you then also have another business partner to bounce ideas off, pick yourselfs back up and try move forward again.

[Chris Wilson]

Difficult situation indeed…

I agree with Denise though. It is easy to buy cheap and build from there. Personally I wouldn’t buy another sign company.

I would go down the partner route. Sell a share in the company. If someone is investing cash then hopefully they are no idiot and will work hard to get that cash back. I don’t think it necessarily has to be someone from a signage background either. We have all learnt and still learning. There’s plenty of courses for vinyl skills out there, and part of there buy in would be cash to go on those. The hand holding as you say can be a very short process.

You might also find that a person with a marketing background or even running another business has fresh new ideas and make you both a ton of cash.

You could expand on this further and with the cash investment take on a apprentice at the same time. Build the company as a "team" with firm ground rules. Again it would take more pressure off yourself and your new business partner in the short to long term. I suppose you have to look at what’s best for you but also what is best for them, if you can’t be there all the time they need a bit of back up to for busy days and for times when things go wrong.

From your selling post you seem to have a fairly well built up business with a lot of equipment and a good stock of everything, so it seems like you have a good foundation.

[Chris Wilson]

Just tried the Avery MPI 2006 on a wall we are having trouble with. No luck.

https://graphicsap.averydennison.com/en/home.html
See attached PDF down below for reference:

Avery_Dennison_MPI_2006_Hi-Tack_PDS_Rev_2.pdf

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Ewan,
We did a lot of looking around and decided to go with a Mounters Mate. I did look at the same easy mount as you. Excited to get ours up the road. Should be here in the next week or so.

[Chris Wilson]

quote David Hammond:

It’s recently come to light that we’ve been undercharging by some margin on some things we do, and for quite some time too :blushing:.

Aye been there once or twice.
Can be a bit tricky sometimes. Recently put on the spot for a quote for a job. Turns out we were £600 cheaper, but I was still pulling at good £700 profit for a days work :s
I don’t like putting in quotes and then no getting the job. But everyone nearby to us pricing is all over the place.

Customer recently asked my how much for a job they had already done. We said £125 + VAT. Company that did it were £140 inc VAT. Another well known came in at £710 + VAT though. *major shocked face*

I suppose a few bad jobs and people will start avoid them and hopefully benefit yourself in the future.

[Chris Wilson]

Thanks guys.
Always get confused with the different poly types. No something I look at often

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Martin,

I think there is a number of variables in your question. I would say the largest is customer budget. Some folks just want quick and cheap.

Certain vinyls also have boundaries as to what they can and cannot do, thus putting the customers budget up to do the job correctly.

As sign writers it’s our job to provide the customer with the best solution, but if customer only wants to spend £100 and best option is £300 then it’s just not going to happen, but we all have to eat so there is no pointing turning that away. Just have to work with it best we can.

Paint also fades over time and gets dirty, so it would depend on age of vehicle also regardless of colour.

[Chris Wilson]

It depends what you need and how far your stretching yourself I suppose.

We bought a second hand versacamm. And it did break straight away. It’s now gone on Roland care. Like Denise says if a machine comes with a 2 year warranty… between the new head and by time I pay for the care package over 2 years I would of saved money buying new. Unfortunately for me the cash wasn’t there at he time.

Next on the list for me is a DTG machine. Not sure which way I will go with that. Second hand your saving almost half the price. But bad luck could strike again. Personally I’ll way up the options and if I can get away with a head having to be replaced and still save a few ££’s I’ll probably go that way.

Read the warranty serval times new or old (if there’s that option) sometimes warranty don’t actually cover very much.

[Chris Wilson]

If you’ve got space then go for it and rent them out. Just be strict with your tenant, maybe I have had some bad luck over the years, but with other spaces we have rent out people are not afraid to take take take and push the boundaries. The new boy I have in this now I’ve sat down with him, shown him the electric bill and the likes and made it very clear that if it suddenly doubles he’s paying it on top of his rent.

One the note of sales/graphic guy I think this needs to be a seem less, well communicated position. From experience of working from bigger firms the following happens.
1 person answers the phone and takes the job. Goes out and surveys. Gives the price
Next person designs it
Third person is now in charge of ordering the correct stuff.

By the time all this has come together something has already been forgotten.
The person who has to prep the sign has to use the wrong red vinyl for the job as proper red hasn’t been ordered in.
It then gets put together.
By the time the fitters have it there not aware the customer is extremely busy that day between 9am-2pm. They turn up at half 10 and crack on.

It just all goes wrong or can anyway. I certainly saw it for 5 days a week for the 9months I worked there.

[Chris Wilson]

I’ve gone on a slightly different route.
I’ve actually rented a desk in the unit to a graphic designer now, we’ve also struck a wee commission deal.
My thinking behind this is he can see the whole process, he’s also out looking for work and contacting new clients, something I don’t have a lot of time to do, and if am snowed under or something’s to difficult for myself to produce, I can put it on his desk and work the price into the customers quote.

So far so good. New clients coming in and good quality of work. Seems to be working both ways. As he is just starting out he’s getting some good stuff for his portfolio.

[Chris Wilson]

Love a rant.

I have a retail store to which has a barber that’s moving out. He’s not using us for his new sign as we won’t give "mates rates" or do him a favour. I believe he got the bill in the other day and from another local sign shop and was shocked.

We’ve always done bits for him at trade. Bit of a kick on the teeth but hey ho. Saves a load of hassle and adding to a hectic work load for no gain.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Gary/rob

Cheers for the replies.
Think we will be going with one of these then which I was leaning towards anyway.

[Chris Wilson]

I’ve always been told to dig down 600mm and then fill with post Crete (2 bags normally) I don’t think there’s any harm in going a bit deeper if you feel it needs it.
As far as I know any signs I’ve installed or working for others have never fallen down.

[Chris Wilson]

quote Simon Worrall:

..

Yup;
And they will question the bill so you have to write down all the details so you can explain it!…. :rollseyes:[/quote]

100%. Plus the pleading for a discount on there 2ft x 5ft banner at £40. But the designer got paid £100 and did a good job. *shakes head*

Maybe it’s my youthful looks that make a target. Should grow a beard or something and dye my hair silver.

[Chris Wilson]

We have another issue up here with graphic designers and customers supplying logos. There all low res. Some are stupidly small. Completely out shape. Then emails have to go back and forth, 10 emails later we finally have the file, but it’s in bits so I have to put it together anyway. I literally had someone just yesterday tell "aww we use Corel draw to, I’ll just send you the file". What I got was a CDR File, which consisted of the graphic, in a really low res jpeg, about A5 size masterfully put on top of the lime t-shirts that’s it’s going onto.

So I just get on with it and try and do as much in house as possible as it actually saves me time, phone calls and hassle.
Downside is with that my design inspiration lacks.

I have thankfully found 2 really good local designers in the last month that understand files and don’t produce something that’s almost good enough for a Facebook picture.

[Chris Wilson]

[quote="Peter Wynne" Not all that exciting but keep us busy![/quote]

Mr modest haha I dare not post my work then 😉 looking good to me. [emoji1305]

[Chris Wilson]

Interesting. Had a similar issue recently on one wall in a building that was painted grey. Am going to put some breeze block vinyl on first, then the graphic over the top. Sure that will bond no bother.

[Chris Wilson]

I mainly use BTC. Not as many products as ralawise but always given us a better price. Website is easy to use also.

[Chris Wilson]

Seen it happen on 2 ford vans when working for some else. It was for the local dealship. They weren’t bothered, got told it was faulty Lacour. That was 07/08 vans though. I won’t touch or explain that story to the customer when removing graphics.

[Chris Wilson]

Don’t have a redsail plotter.
But had similar problem when we put a 10m extension cable on the USB. Starting cutting very odd shapes. Computer couldn’t find it then it could.Just noticing your word converter there.

We took the cable off and all fine again. I was told I should of bought a boost with the cable.

We run signblazer through ours by importing the graphics from Corel draw. It’s a old cheapy one we use for garment film. Was a night mare getting it set up years ago, signblazer found it instantly.

Don’t know if that’s of any help.

[Chris Wilson]

Cheers guys. I’ve passed the information onto the customer.

He must be regretting sanding it down now to "make it look better" I suspect he is going to be around a £1000 to fix it. Oops.

[Chris Wilson]

Personally I would just edit the "y"

Most likely is same font, just customer didn’t like the flick or the very bottom of the Y looks to be on a recess/join. Maybe it was chopped of

[Chris Wilson]

Hi kev,

Cheers for the reply. Managed to get my hands on some today. £1.67 a set.. and the customers doesn’t want to pay for them now.. *shakes head*

[Chris Wilson]

Got an email from printmax yesterday saying the same and then Roland today so I guess so.

[Chris Wilson]

Best of luck. Hard work and no problems. Always wondered what sign trade would be like in Aberdeen, plenty of big hitters around with hard cash.

Kev busby where are you? We can’t be far apart.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Ewan and kev,

Will call plex displays tomorrow and see if they have what am looking for.

Uploaded photo anyway, sometimes i forget there is a wide range of these things than what’s available from our normal suppliers.
Anyway these but in metal. Has a wee screw to fit it to the frame.

[Chris Wilson]

Hey Gary,

We are using the orajet 3164 (always get digits mixed up could be different) for stickers. We don’t laminate ours either unless requested. But with a fresh blade I can cut perf cut at 190grms. Could possible do it at a little less. Also have it set to cut at 25mm a score.

Not that any of that helps with the issue but that is my settings on 540 version of machine.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Adrian,
If your not under Roland care already I would go down that route. Even just the bronze package. If it is a faulty unit they should replace it under that care, am 90% certain that is in the terms and conditions, but only once they have exhausted all other options. Which means they could find a fix relatively quickly.

Other than that it depends on the terms and conditions from where you bought the machine. There’s not a lot of protection for this sort of thing as to many things came be pointed out as "user error" so you need to stick to your guns and prove your point the best you can.

I have seen this on black prints that we have done once or twice. It was suggested to me that it could be a static build up as the machine is on thin carpet. Laminate would solve the problem. I have piece of Lino but am yet to put it down. So can’t comment if it does or not.

[Chris Wilson]

Hey rich,

I might not be much use I have only used Versa works for our Roland, am not sure what you are running.

In the cut setting on Vera’s works next to the pressure for the depth there is the distance it would cut (right above) in a oner. Our versaworks came set at 50mm, the engineer instantly advised taking it down to 25. Am pretty sure he said the reason was to produce a cleaner cut

[Chris Wilson]

I used novabond tape from Grafityp for a panel of similar size in our office. Not moved a mm and seems as stuck as ever.

[Chris Wilson]

Not so much an application tip but in general we have found ways to cram more work into the week. For example if there is a banner needed for Tuesday and one for Friday they both go down at the same time. Even down to the t-shirt flex, all black gets cut for the jobs that day and the next, then the white goes in etc.. till all jobs on list are complete. A few years ago we were doing about a 5th of what we do now and I know then I thought we would need to take someone on.. but am still plodding on alone.

Another big saver is subbing artwork re-draws out. Saves a heap of time. Normally back with 24hrs.. and we get charged £6. (David recommend a good company on another thread, not sure what the deal is with name dropping companies though)

Taping up.. I’ve always been taught to line the edge of the tape your using to the flats of the letters. In "Taping" the t and n should be perfectly in line. Saves time trimming, measuring out etc..

[Chris Wilson]

We’re up the top of Scotland in Inverness. I would give Grafityp a call and get a sample. I’ll take a photo of the how the print comes out tomorrow when looking at it up close. We do a fair bit of digital prints of all sizes and I always tell guarantee my customer 50 minimum washes and never had a complaint.

[Chris Wilson]

Try the c-print PU+ from Grafityp. We are printing on it, there profile works better than the generic heat press max 3 profile. Print quality isn’t the best be we are getting away with it up here for now. Also having a fair few problems with these inks.

[Chris Wilson]

I was getting that impression David from seeing other people’s posts. It will pain you here that I’ve had some people tell me they were charged £160 by other local competitors. There is however 9 of us up here all doing similar or the same thing.

[Chris Wilson]

Do both if you can. I find it quite handy. Up hear the going rate for a pop up banner is £95, so we take it down to £65 for graphic designers etc.. still make good money. Graphics come through in a nice high res file. All I have to do is load the media in. Press print. Then attach to the kit.

It is crazy the work volume some days but I would say personal reward is good. Margins up here anyway are also good.

[Chris Wilson]

Investment/juggling cash flow at the start can always be a nightmare. I would stick with it though. We have a fair few graphic design companies in town. We offer a trade of by doing signs/pop up banners/garments the lot at a reduction of at least 25% meaning they can mark up to there customers a little and still be competitive. On the flip side of the coin if we ever had a big job in the needed a extra flare on the design side there is already someone there that you’ve worked with and have a relationship with.

I’ve had one business partner for last 6 years and he is spot on. Works hard and we both has the same direction etc.. but I’ve also had several others in other businesses and there all gone now. Can be hard work to make the relationship work let alone the business.

[Chris Wilson]

On the note of the new inks we have a Roland Vs 540 with the new eco sol max 3 and have had nothing but problems with print quality. We’ve had one print come off that is as it is ment to be, only for us to put the same file down and it’s back to the same fuzzy/pixilated print 🙁 we’ve spoken to a lot of engineers/media companies in the last week and it seems to be a problem, Roland on the other hand claim there is no problem.

We were offered to convert when getting the machine and should of maybe waited a little so these teething problems could be sorted. It now looks like we are converting back to eco sol. That said the RF models might run fine with it.

[Chris Wilson]

little bit jealous. Always a big fan of the BTCC. It’s interesting to see some of the cars new liveries each year. I would say you nailed the best one this year with mr Jordan’s chrome.

[Chris Wilson]

Hey Dave,

Never seen this before. What brand of vests were they? All should of been fine.

I have picked up other inks/ stains before. Am pretty sure I used thinners once. Just give the plate a good scrub. And find a spare garment and press it a hundred times over.

[Chris Wilson]

Another that’s just popped into my head is Izettle. It’s portable to as plugs into your phone and uses the data. Works on %. No contract.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Ewan,

Had difficulty with PayPal holding money for months on end as we have transferred the money out to quickly in there opinion. We also had money float for 18 months once because the customer put "gift voucher" in the description for some reason.

I also know a retail store that had there entire monthly takings frozen for 6 months through PayPal.

I’ve heard of a system called "Wave" it’s like quick books.. I think you can take card payments on it.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Dominic and Seun,

Cheers for the replys. Typical flat out Friday so only noticed now. Will try both first thing Monday.

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Gary,

Nightmare it is. Prints have been taken back to HQ to try figure it out. I’ll let you know if something works.

To be honest it’s not noticeable unless your right up next to it. I think it more thrustrating having seen the print quality on the shame machine. It’s a solid block. And so it should be.

[Chris Wilson]

As far as I know Phil. It was checked again and adjustments made which did improve the quality but this is as far as we have got. It was a lot worse before hand. I’ve attached photo below.

🙁

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Denise,

We use ultima displays. They have the kits for the price you were getting them at with lots going up on price bit by bit. The cheapest is the "wasps" I think and there fine for pop up shows/events.

Robs link could be cheaper still though. I’ve not looked.

[Chris Wilson]

Hey Nino,

Never had it this bad before.

Things I’ve discovered with garment vinyl going like that.

One pinch roller being tighter than the other.
Machine cutting to fast.
Or it’s catching on something.

With some machines you can set the path it follows. Mines in my plotter settings, where you can choose I direct path, fastest route etc.. Maybe try changing it so it does the outside cut lines first?

It could also be the texture of the vinyl. Had that once before when I got a roll from someone and couldn’t get the plotter to hold it straight for any length of time.

[Chris Wilson]

Hey Steff,
Cheers for the reply.
It’s from sign master as a 2nd user but re-furb. Head was running fine when installed. Then we had the wee issue.

They’ve suggested to leave it soaking in the Roland cleaner over night. We did that earlier for an hour but no effect. Fingers crossed.

Or maybe someone one here will have a wee trick to save the head.

[Chris Wilson]

Photo of problem as described above