[David McCarroll]

quote Robert Lambie:

Not sure what machine you are using to print, but if its HP then you get the online software free and is tethered to your machine serial number etc.

You just answered a question I’d had in the back of my head for a few days Rob.

Not all superhero’s wear capes.

[David McCarroll]

We’ve been with them 2/3 years now and albeit never had to claim, what we are covered for and the little things that other companies won’t/don’t cover for and sign elite do makes the difference to me.

While we haven’t claimed, I did email them when the covid19 situation kicked off to ask if business interruption would be covered and obviously it wasn’t the same as all other insurers BUT they did come back fairly swift, it wasn’t a generic email and they offered some advice for some other situations that would be covered so I’m that sense, I really can’t fault them.

At renewals they always make sure to double check with me if we have added any machinery etc to make sure we are covered.

[David McCarroll]

When I see something has been dispatched by Hermes or yodel I lose all faith it the item arriving.

Receiving order in Glasgow we get excellent service from DPD and UPS, fedex is useless, TNT we only receive metamark and it’s always good service. DX isn’t bad either.

Sending out, UPS for us every time. 8-10 parcels a week for the last 4 years and never a single problem.

[David McCarroll]

Hi David,

Interested to know the problems you’ve had with the MD-I?

We’re on our second roll and think it’s prints excellent and colour really pops but I’ve heard a few people saying it isn’t what it’s meant to be hence wondering the problems you’ve had before we get too deep in with it.

Thanks in advance

[David McCarroll]

Paul, have you looked at the smart station from Mounters mate? There’s quite a price difference between that and the workstation

[David McCarroll]

I’ve sometimes found it can be easier to leave the centre body in a circle then weed it off the vehicle once it’s been fitted.

[David McCarroll]

Since buying the laser, the only thing were using the CNC for is cutting foamex and for sign trays, everything else is on the laser now plus the easability of being able to stop and start lasers and switching materials is so much faster than the CNC.

[David McCarroll]

Kev,

We got a laser about 3/4 Months ago from Roddy at Mounters Mate, Omar’s counterpart.

It’s been excellent so far and the price was spot on, we opted for a 1300×900 bed with a 150w tube and cutting 5mm acrylic is about 12mms with excellent finish. It came with the chiller and extraction unit etc. We also bought the rotary device and honeycomb bed which we haven’t used yet.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Warren,

We do TONNES of this and have been for about 6 years now so know the market generally well.

One thing with PPF training is that the training courses are only really taster/beginner courses and shouldn’t be expected to walk away as a fledged installer so to say.

XPEL do a good course and probably the best of what’s out there but you will have to practice as soon as you get back, I think they are also now offering an advanced course.

SUNTEK/Lumar also offer a good course but personally I’d say they are more geared towards film sales than training.

Premium shield offer training also but I’ve not heard any feedback about them.

Other thing to consider is who your going to use for material and ultimately template software.

We scan all our own vehicles and build our own database so we aren’t restricted in that way and have tried every material going and would say for quality that suntek is a more forgiving material but also has an amazing level of gloss finish. XPEL is a thicker material and would be my go-to after suntek. Premium shield I didn’t rate as found it a very sticky/friction film to install.

XPEL has the best database of templates followed by premium shield and then suntek but suntek have just employed someone in the U.K. to scan vehicles and template them so that database will start to pick up better from now on. XPEL charge £150 per month for the database and Suntek charge a £300 deposit for the USB key which is refundable if you hand the key back. I think premium shield is the same as suntek.

One other thing, XPEL is the market leader in terms of brand awareness so when you have customers that know what PPF is come to you, a lot of them would request XPEL and I think XPEL are back to the game of not selling material to you if you haven’t done their training course.

Sorry to rabble on but hope the above helps.

[David McCarroll]

Dave,

Did you save £20 or spank £180 on stuff you didn’t need?

Don’t worry mate, I’m the latter also lol

[David McCarroll]

Hi George,

We run a 6000 and a fc8600 and to be honest, if you don’t specifically need the fc then I’d go with the ce6000, I would possibly say our 6000 is better at small stuff than the 8600 but in reality it’s probably just down to a blade worn down further.

Don’t get hooked in on speed difference between the both of them as I don’t think anybody ever runs them at full speed, I think we run our fc between 30-40 and the 6000 runs in tandem with it.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Mike,

The laminator was the first machine we bought from MM 5 years ago and it’s still as good as the day we got it and as you know, the service has been spot on.

We initially checked the tracking I’ve long runs against some of the other manufacturers and this was the one that stood out, we still do 1/2 40-50m runs every week and it’s spot on.

[David McCarroll]

We have the workstation from Mounters mate and it’s an absolute no brainier of a purchase. Speeds turnarounds up so much while probably giving better quality than your putting out just now. Great for putting application tape down aswell.

We move the work station and roll to roll laminator both from from Omar at mounters mate and I’d challenge you to find a better all round service to be honest. We’ve just had our third machine delivered this week from them but that ones not completely out the box yet 🙂

[David McCarroll]

CT1 is what we use for things like this, it does take 24 hours to set properly but blows everything else out the water. If your fixing the panels with some screws then they’d hold the panel in place till the CT1 has set.

[David McCarroll]

I’m pretty sure William smiths offers a range of finger post systems, can’t remembr if they have a timber option but worthwhile giving them a call.

[David McCarroll]

I’ll second Rob’s vote for signelite. 3 years we’ve been with them now and although its hard to say they are great as we have never claimed them, they have always been great around renewals and ask the right questions to make sure we have the right cover.

[David McCarroll]

quote Kevin Mahoney:

Bought one of the Chinese copies off Fleabay, didn’t have the patience to mess around after 2 days of playing. It only ever warmed up the workshop but never worked successfully. I ended up buying a high frequency welder, worth every penny

This was exactly my thought about the Chinese ones mate, do you happen to have a link to the high frequency you bought?

[David McCarroll]

We use it week in week out, They will definitely go away. Sometimes can take up to 2 weeks depending if sun is hitting the glass they are on etc but don’t worry about it.

[David McCarroll]

We send out a lot of these and use the R-Tape 4075 RLA range and works a treat. Remember not to roll them up too tight and always graphics facing outwards.

[David McCarroll]

Thanks for the referral Phil, I hadn’t even thought of HPC.

Sad to see any business go under but if what you say is correct then that usually explains why they have went under.

[David McCarroll]

quote Patrick Donaghey:

Thanks for the relpy , I have been looking at the latex models and loved the idea of instant drying, what type of vinyl are you using david on the hp its just for 3mm aluminum hoarding thanks

Chris what model of a vs are you talking about and is there a rough price for the roland care per year thanks

Hi Patrick,

For short use stuff like hoardings we would just use an oracal 3164 grey back vinyl, roughly about £80 per roll.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Patrick,

We use latex and wouldn’t move away from them for the sheer convenience of being able to use media straight away etc.

We ran 2x full 50 meter rolls yesterday of full coverage on 1370mm wide and it took around 9 hours so assuming your running 20x 8×4 per week the running time would be 4-5 hours. that is at a 12 pass print mode, we run promo stuff at 6 pass for one of our clients and it looks fine apart from some slight banding but the products are always used at distance or height and for less than one week so it ticks the box for them, that pass rate would be about 3 hours for a 50 meter roll. we run HP 330’s.

Hope that helps or at least throws an option in the mix.

I think you could get a new 315 with the budget you have but bare in mind that unit doesnt come with a take up and is limited to 54" width where as the 335 will be slightly more cost but you get full width and the take up.

[David McCarroll]

Rob, I’ll pass your email onto the guys we use for high stuff. His name is Ross and is very reliable.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Carlo,

We’re with Sign Elite for the second (or third) year running now and must say they have been been great and pricing is on point imo, Yeah theres possibly cheaper but these people know the sign industry so they have things in place for cover that a normal insurer may not such as heat gun use etc.

What i would say is, as long as your 100% honest with them when applying and realistic about your future year business activities then they will make sure your covered for what you need to be. Never be tempted not to mention something to get a lower premium as that something didn’t mention will be the thing that goes wrong lol!

[David McCarroll]

We would always have to use ‘roll 1 rear set’ , the other options gives the same result as your getting.

We don’t use signlab, we use Adobe illustrator with the graphtec plugin for reg marks etc and cut via cutting master so this may be another option to try if it persists.

[David McCarroll]

When your loading the material in David are you selecting rear set or from set?

Rear set usually always delivers the results your erring with copies whereas front set doesn’t for whatever reason I don’t know. Also make sure you have advance set on the cutter after each job, 10mm should do it but we have 20 as we have 25mm between copies/jobs

[David McCarroll]

Usually when this stuff arises it always makes me question the customer in general, by this i mean i wonder if the other company has fobbed them off because they are problematic.

In this situation, I’d quote the work as a normal job and possibly a bit on top to deal with any grief.

One thing to remember is, We always complain about ‘certain’ customers or these type of enquires but im sure there is many customers out there that fall foul of a bad sign maker occasionally and sometimes they are just shopping around for good service and not a cheaper price.

[David McCarroll]

Hugh, I would have def thought this would be a job for William Smiths. Hope this helps.

[David McCarroll]

Really? Some people need to get a life!

The fact that the sole purpose of a roll up is for marketing your business/product/service completely kills his argument.

I would hazard a guess that he has a regular sign company he uses but you may have been cheaper for this item but that’s obviously a guess. If you have a pre-works agreement or terms and conditions, just chuck it in that they have to opt out of you displaying their product as your work on your social media platforms.

[David McCarroll]

One thing to mention is if your looking for consistency with a regular file thats being printed then running colour calibration will maintain consistency. we run a calibration once a week on our most used medias and this helps.

[David McCarroll]

quote Robert Lambie:

The only true one to work that i know of is the Summa cutter with its automated take-up. £1000 extra add-on to a particular summa model of cutter (i forget the series)
it allows batches of printed graphics to be contour cut and then taken up by the reel.
it does this by reading a bar code periodically printed along with the graphics in batches.
the bar code allows for automated alignment and the take up system works each time a batch is printed, takes up, then feeds out the next x-amount of metres to be contour cut and repeats.

what i am trying to say, and i could be wrong, is that there needs to be a brain somewhere in the system to tell the take-up reel to kick-in, and when it does, how many metres at a time.
If a normal take up works on slack of the dance-bar or by breaking a laser and then taking up. it wont work, because it takes-up the slack till there is none. meaning as the cutter fires back and forward it will create a motor jam.

it could work easily if it was manually done each time by a simple button. but unattended is a different matter.

also, having a universal take-up would be pointless as the tracking will run out every 5 metres or so.

I purchased the Summa cutter for this very reason. roll to roll contour cutting of prints. however, i had to return it after months of fails and wasted media. Ultimately I was let down by the company “Perfect Colours” in overcoming the problems of what i believe in the end was a rogue/faulty machine, if not i was miss-sold the machine.

Every point you mentioned rob is the thoughts I’ve had and something also niggles me that you and I have spoke about this on here before or you have mentioned it previously.

We run Graphtec’s and tbh they never cause any problems so I doubt we’d switch to the summa cutter but it would be nice to have some form of a take up.

It seems I may have to go to the drawing board and see what I can come up with, even something simple along the lines of the cutter produces 1m of cut material and takes 1 minute so I leave the first 5x meters “on the deck” and set the take up/roll up at 2mins per meter so that it’s always running behind. Obviously not an unattended option as a whole and needs work for the speeds etc to work properly and efficiently but in the end it’d be nice not to have to roll up 50 meter rolls.

Thanks for the replies all (y)

[David McCarroll]

I’m glad I’m not he only one that earmarks an afternoon out when calling Edward Mathias to order lol!

+1 for smart knives! unless there is some major difference in durability or life span, I’m surprised anyone still uses standard blades as these make life so easy.

[David McCarroll]

I visited yesterday and can’t say that anything impressed me over the last visit tbh.

I always like to go to the show (not every year) and see something that I think to myself “that’s smart” or “that’s really different” but nothing this year done that for me and I found the show was really small this year. It was a decent day out and good to chat some suppliers etc but I’m glad I never got too excited and it won’t atop me from planning to go next year.

Sign geer has some nice new things on their stand and William smiths stand just looked the best out them all.

As a side note, the commercial vehicle show is on in halls 3, 4 and 5. This was great and some of the stands that were being used by manufacturers were extremely well done so if you have time, pop in and see it. Plenty to see in there plus the top end van racking systems and nowhere near the prices we see advertised on the internet so massive savings to be had if you in the market.

[David McCarroll]

Yellow raw plugs from B&Q for us, they have sharp ‘wings’ in them which grabs nicely and no.6 screws for small/medium locators and no.8 screws for large locators. 5mm drill bit for the holes does the job.

We do this weekly and never had a problems. Hope this helps.

[David McCarroll]

While this thread has some attention, am I correct that it’s the coated swatch we should be working off of for printing?

Also, when ordering custom paint aerosols or getting paint mixed for painting built ups, is coated the best book to work off of also?

[David McCarroll]

.

Nice article guys (y)

What an exceptional piece of kit eh!
I like your thinking Rob against Madame Tussaud’s. I always enjoy seeing how advances in technology change other industries of which they never originally set out to break into.

[David McCarroll]

Thanks Luke, much appreciated.

[David McCarroll]

That’s the one guys 🙂 I knew I had read about it but couldn’t think for the life of me and regardless of my google searches I was hopeless.

David, that explains why the customer had a 2440x1220mm sheet but the top end wasn’t pretty bare lol

Anyone any idea on price?

[David McCarroll]

What an exceptional piece of kit this is, I looked at it 2 years ago and it was just that bit too far out of our price range but at this price, it’s very interesting.

[David McCarroll]

Best supplier for service and equipment I’ve dealt with. Can’t recommend them enough.

[David McCarroll]

I had a quick look about for some budget roll up stands last week and came across Colourbyte, budget stands £9odd each if you buy a box 6. Clamp top and adhesive rail at the same cost.

I think previously we were paying £17 or there abouts for the same cheap Chinese budget stands.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Jason,

We also install loads of this and also dry but never have any problems, usually any marks that appear with dry apply always disappear within a week and we’ve never had to go back to one.

I find metamark relatively honest if you speak with your local rep, if they’ve had problems with batches they would usually admit to it so may be worth a try.

[David McCarroll]

Last year I went was 2015 so I’m def due to go this year, tossing between train or flying but most likely fly on the Wednesday.

Edit: just booked flights for Tuesday as they were about £50 cheaper than the Wednesday lol

[David McCarroll]

Hi Martyn,

It sounds more like the company you bought from are just box shifters and do not commission the machine so to say before delivery.

The excuse they have given you does make logical sense but personally i would say it only really needs calibrated on delivery or initial setup and it doesnt sound like that has been done with yours. Our roll to roll laminator is a Mounters Mate and its been through 3 property moves and still functions as it should while being occasionally moved around my workshop.

If you go down the new route i would speak to Omar at Mounters Mate, they sponsor the site and have a link on the right hand side with all the other sponsors.

Hope this helps.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Warren,

I’m sure machine mart sell these, it’s becoming very common now so plenty people selling them.

[David McCarroll]

quote Robert Lambie:

trouble you will have is that designers, good or bad, often have no clue about designing vehicles, especially vehicle wraps.
vehicle wraps have curvature, recesses and more that all must be taken into account when designing. 9/10 so called designers normally work on flat basic surfaces.

If you already have a logo and details etc…
use a stock photography site like Adobe or Fotolia (same company now) and buy a generic abstract colourful design for the wrap. then simply apply cut vinyl graphics on top.

I realise this doesn’t answer your question as such, sorry. but i would rather be blunt honest than have you spend a small fortune subbing a wrap design and it not going to plan.

some online sub-contract site like upwork.com or freelenacer.com

Morning Rob,

Thanks for the reply. My thoughts are the same as yours regarding designers with vehicles and they do just think it’s a flat space etc.

I had a look at a few freelance sites last night, even the designers on these sites showing previous work and costings are looking around £1k for what I would deem good work… can you imagine our customers if we suggested £1000 design price lol!

I’ll continue on my quest, I’m sure there will be a few out there that specialises in wraps but by the above, I think I’ve found the price bracket. If I find anything worthwhile I’ll post it here.

[David McCarroll]

Morning guys,

Thanks for these, they all don’t seem to have the same system, the fixings are through the face on this one whereas all I’ve seen is side clamps so to say that hold the plaques.

The plaques are also frosted on the rear but with a 10mm perimeter of clear acrylic. Wether these have been clear with frosting added by the last supplier or the plaques are a stock item who knows lol I’m obviously hoping a stock item!

[David McCarroll]

I’ll second mounters mate, I’ve had mine 3 years now I think and hasn’t let me down once. We also have a flatbed applicator table from them and service for both items was spot on.

Give Omar at mounters mate a call and mention myself and he’ll look after you.

[David McCarroll]

Always been a bugger of a situation this and tbh a small part of why we stopped doing vehicles last year.

I always think you get a good idea of who will be a “problem” as soon as they come through the door. Unfortunately I was never in the position of being paid and someone not turning up but was guilty of making someone wait a week or 2 before we rebooked them if I blatantly knew it wasn’t a genuine reason.

Unless it’s in your terms I’d say you always take it on the chin and get them in when YOU can. On the other hand, we work with a lot of motorcycle dealers and if the bike isn’t ready for our booked time when we get on site then we charge £30 per hour and cap it at 90 mins and only then will be rebook at our convienence.

[David McCarroll]

Pretty much all suppliers are raising prices these days, seems like a monthly/bi-monthly trend.

If you rely heavily on these for a contract or such then I would be shopping for quality of service at a fair price. I couldn’t recommend europoint enough, we try to have as much as possible with them and service is second to none.

If I understand your post correctly then I would also suggest that you fit backing rail on your own, easy enough job and should surely speed things up opposed to waiting on a supplier giving finished products and somewhere along the line they will be charging for the rail being pre-fitted for you.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Kevin,

Is this what you are thinking of?

---

Attachments:

[David McCarroll]

Seen this yesterday and suitably impressed, obviously a crucial piece of equipment to make some people jobs easier.

The one thing I couldn’t stop it reminding me of was the circa 10 year old sci fi movies that would have authorities branding/barcoding the general population to keep track of them lol

[David McCarroll]

quote Robert Lambie:

I do not know Derek, I don’t think it is effected.

The Scotland branch went under today.
I forget the name and exact amount, but i know there was a Scottish sign firm that went bust some months ago and owed them around £60-£70k, so that would be a sore hit to try and sustain.

I heard a lot about this and unfortunately another local metal company suffered from this massively. I actually seen last week said bust company was having their exterior building painted and new signs going up… shameful.

First fix is a company we stopped using as much when they moved premises earlier in the year but all a great bunch of staff that always delivered. Hopefully it’ll work out for them but from what I’ve heard they were due to be paid the months salary tomorrow and fingers crossed that works out for them with it being holiday season and school holidays.

[David McCarroll]

I’ll second what Jasper has said, We also found that the 4075RLA stuck better to oracle than other brands for whatever reason I’m unsure.

Graphics always facing out and if possible, use the largest diameter tube that still maintains the same postage rate. Graphics in a 4 inch tube will always fair better than a 2 inch tube.

[David McCarroll]

Thanks for in input Luke, I half expected that would be the case.

I’m now thinking that I can’t be the only one with a graphtec that would benefit from this contraption.

[David McCarroll]

I’ll second europoint but I know Amari definetly do

[David McCarroll]

As mentioned above, print all test plots and examine them probperly.

Try a different profile of the same Caliber i.e. Md5 vs orajet 3651

Try different pass rates, sometimes low pass rate can cause very slight banding but a calibration can sort it.

Stock profiles aren’t always great so build your own, I’d be happy to send you one over to try if you want but def start with a fresh profile as then you are tailoring it to your needs.

Both of ours are brilliant machines, both came with faulty printheads from new and both have had the same heating module fail even though each machine was 1 year apart on build.

[David McCarroll]

Europoint have an abundance of samples at the trade counter in bellshill with foamex, ACM and the acrylics range they do so that gives a good bit of wall display for you.

I’m sure if you have a chat with who your using for rollup banners and flags etc they will have spares or rejects lying about. Some rejected stuff can be a spelling mistake or such so still a perfectly good option for display.

I think companies like signgeer have quite an extensive catalogue with POS and every other thing they stock so these are handy also.

One thing I would say though, flags and roll up banner materials vary so much that you can tell the difference in quality so make sure what you have on display is what your selling. It took us a while to find the roll up banner material we use now and have customers sometimes asking "it’s still the same material isn’t it". Flags have different levels or perforations and meshes and they can all look totally different so get a few if possible.

[David McCarroll]

Best investment you’ve made Dan, I Littirally don’t know where we would be if it was for the equipment we have bought from mounters mate over the years.

Before we bought the flatbed I always wondered why it was called a workstation then after a week you realise… you never use any other work bench to do everything on.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Dan,

When doing (what I think your doing), are you using the cutter setup through onyx to get the 8600 to cut?

I’ve found onyx and graphtec never worked that great so we stick with the marks within illustrator then do the cutting through cutting master, in cutting master you just select the pert option along with the destance between perfs etc.

Hope this makes sense and helps

[David McCarroll]

Can you not set up a trade account and just supply them via that?

I’m not 100% sure but I also think all numberplates have to meet BS conditions so maybe check with them on process.

I’d have thought the better option would be to tensor the letters onto the acrylic?

[David McCarroll]

Good points everyone,

Chris, I have been thinking about this exact approach as I have 1000sqft of fitted out office space that’s not being used and I had though about renting out individual offices or the whole lot to a small graphic design company.
Just trying to get past the though of having strangers in my "house" lol!

Denise, I like the thought of a designer in house that is willing to do the whole greeting thing as this also allows them to get a view of the person but the few people we have been interested in aren’t interested in doing anything else unless it entails sitting in front of the computer.

It seems we might have just had a bad bunch and just need to wait on the right person coming along, I think I’ll try the freelance route and the first few jobs I’ll also do some work in the background so if the designer doesn’t work out I’ll not be left with a mountain of artwork.

[David McCarroll]

Gavin,

Are you trying to replicate the style of the ultratek number plates?

[David McCarroll]

Getting a college leaver is the right idea I think rob, grab them before they get the "not my job" mentality.

If I’m honest I’m against the subby option but don’t have enough work for a dedicated designer,

I get what you mean about graphic designers being actual designers, we had one before that was a summer job in there final year, gave them exact plans and wholla perfect piece of artwork… ask them to do a van layout and you’d a thought I was speaking German.

[David McCarroll]

I’m not overly sure but just chipping in a warning… foamex can’t be passers as it produces harmful gasses. Isn’t VHB tape a form of pvc in a sense?

[David McCarroll]

Hi Billy,

We have a mounters mate laminator, swear by it. Have a look on their website or give them a call. It will take up generally the same floor space as your printer though.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Billy,

As with any print, you should really laminate. The latex inks do offer brilliant resistance to scratching (try it with your fingernail) but categorically don’t stop scratching. Put it to the test for your project as you know the use of this better than us.

I always laminate for peace of mind but loads of jobs I’ve done I know I’d a got away with not doing so.

[David McCarroll]

quote Robert Lambie:

Thanks for the update David and good to see you were able to sell your product via UKSB so quickly. :thumbsup:

No problem Rob, Thank you for also sorting out the problem i had with uploading the pics.

Now to decide wether to list the rest of the stuff I’ve held onto for a year as i may use it one day… #Hoarder

[David McCarroll]

Hi Guys, now sold to James and collected today.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Ian,

I really don’t think it’s possible to do what your trying to do, hopefully someone else comes a long and sheds some idea on it.

My only thought would be to perforate cut and make the gaps as small as possible but even at that, I don’t think you’ll be able to do edge to edge so invalidates it really.

I have a "window film handler" in the workshop which may work better for you but doesn’t automate it anyway

[David McCarroll]

Provisionally sold to James pending collection at the start of the week, thanks for the interest and chat Guys 🙂

[David McCarroll]

It’s one of the best workshop tools we bought but I would imagine for someone on your level james they are an absolute must.

[David McCarroll]

Hi James,

You can email me on info@cre-8-ive.co.uk anytime (y)

[David McCarroll]

Hi Luke,

Based in Kirkintilloch, Glasgow. We’re about 20 mins from the city centre if your not familiar with the area.

David

[David McCarroll]

Hi James,

It’s pretty much where it has to be if I’m honest, I bought it about 18 months for £650 but I’ve had good use of it.

Let me know if you have a change of heart james or make me a reasonable offer and I’ll get it emptied lol!

[David McCarroll]

Hi Sean,

I seen one of these at my barbers… Yes he spends the money lol! the letters were on a clear rigid plastic but only seemed about half of a millimetre thick so maybe james at group 101 may be able to help with these. If its a permanent sign then id go with some black flat cuts perspex as this looks good.

[David McCarroll]

As harsh (and silly) as it sounds, I’d probably be charging in the region of 450 vehicles as it seems like they are quite willing to have you wasting half your time "guessing" if vans will be at a depot or not.

I would work out how many vans you may get through in one night and offer a favourable price for that many to be at an arranged depot then it’s not wasted nights. I’d be worried that depot one has no vehicles so on to depot 2 which has 1-2 vehicles so your then on to depot 3 and have no motivation to do anymore.

We got caught out with a job similar to this (not as unorganised if I’m honest) and it just felt like we were busy fools. Half way through I’d had enough and we called their bluff about terminating unless they could organise themselves, suddenly it was quite easy for drivers to let the base know when they would be back and things went a bit smoother but never again.

Get the foundations in place properly and it should be a good earner 🙂

[David McCarroll]

Cheers James, after running dry wipe boards for the last 2 days I may aswell do another and benefit myself this time lol!

[David McCarroll]

Good work man, now if he picks to do the rest of you’ve done the hardest bit lol!

[David McCarroll]

Hi Martin,

You can buy a blade for the saw and it’s always a high tooth count and it’s specifically for acrylics and ACM I think. It’s been a long time since we’ve needed one but I’m sure they were about £110 and 96toothcount.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Guys,

We’ve just invested in a further latex this month and wouldn’t have hesitated with the new one. We went for a 330 as this is the one we already have and feel the performance of it is perfect but also the gap between the price of the new 365 and 330 we bought was too much plus other things like holding diffferent print heads and cartridges.

I’m sure lots will be along with advice but for us it’s a no brainer going down the latex option. A lot of our work is time sensitive and being able to hand over sameday sometimes always impresses the client.

[David McCarroll]

ALOT!!!

They are very work/time consuming. Taking into consideration using a 3m product we would be pricing this in the region of £650-700. I doubt we would get it but I’ve done 2 of these and they do eat up the time.

Hope this helps

[David McCarroll]

quote Chris Tennant:

quote David McCarroll:

quote Chris Tennant:

Why ship it, if youre having to install cant you carry it?
I travelled to southampton from newcastle last week with 5 x 1.5x3M panels to fit

We did last year Chris but Glasgow to Swindon isn’t justifiable for 1x panel hence using an external fitter.

Thanks James, I think the easiest option is to use yourself a (y)

Ahh fair enough!
Sorry if i came across harsh, i read to much into it!

Nah don’t worry about it chris, my first reaction would have been your words also as we actually quite enjoy our cross country trips lol!

[David McCarroll]

Random question, is it metamark vinyl you are using? We had something along the same lines before and i was determined it was our machine (not a RR), had lots of trial and error and eventually realised that for some reason some metamark vinyls would create this problem but oracle and 3m are completely fine. Its almost as if the backing on the metamark liner is slippy and causes it to bunch where as the other brands are more paper feeling.

We discovered the reason when laminating a 2x1m Air release print which bunched terribly, tried again and same result. switched to a 3651 air release and no problem, switched our cut vinyls the next day and never had a problem.

[David McCarroll]

quote Chris Tennant:

Why ship it, if youre having to install cant you carry it?
I travelled to southampton from newcastle last week with 5 x 1.5x3M panels to fit

We did last year Chris but Glasgow to Swindon isn’t justifiable for 1x panel hence using an external fitter.

Thanks James, I think the easiest option is to use yourself a (y)

[David McCarroll]

I’ll go for an oldie on this…

Don’t eat yellow snow 😀

[David McCarroll]

quote Dan Osterbery:

Thanks David, just sent him an email. Would like to look at all of the available tables and then see which one suits us. Hadn’t spotted that one online so grateful!
Cheers
Dan

No problem at all Dan, I’m not sure if omar (or all others) include a cutting mat for the top of the glass but make sure you get one as it makes life much easier and any excess app tape doesn’t stick to it as harsh as it does the glass.

Ours is a Rhino matt.

[David McCarroll]

$this->BBvideo_pass(‘$8’, ‘$4’, ‘$7’)

Hi Dan,

You’ll never look back once you have one and you will kick yourself that you never done it before. We have one big enough to do 10×5 panels with ease so not as big as Rob’s but it saves so much time. Don’t forget that they are also very good for taping up and laminating. (Our roll to roll has been a bit neglected lately)

We got ours from Omar at Mounters Mate and the service has been brilliant since day one, Give him a call for a quote as he’s always more than happy to help.

[David McCarroll]

Hi David, we would have probably been in the market of £900-950 + vat but with all the other factors and headache I know that would come with a job like this plus as steff mentioned the payment terms, I’d have probably pushed onto £1100 to make it a job that we wanted to finish opposed to they jobs we’ve all been caught out with and you don’t have the heart in it.

Don’t beat yourself up about it mate, we’ve all done it and we’ll all do it again but it’s a good lesson learned.

[David McCarroll]

We’ve just had gas central heating installed through the full workshop now but before this we had all our media in a small room with an electric oil heater in it that kept the place about 18-19’c. I don’t think it cost much to run

[David McCarroll]

It’s just evaporation, nothing to worry about. However, your site prep guide should have it in it to have an extractor fan fitted in the room the printer will be used. It’ll only be apparent on heavy dark areas.

Also bare in mind that some reason it can trigger fire alarms… we’ve been their lol!

[David McCarroll]

I’ll second the young man boss tower, once you’ve bought one you’ll wonder why you hadn’t already.

Just remember your PASMA to go with it lol!

[David McCarroll]

Hi Graham,

If none of the above take this let me know and I’ll head over from Glasgow on Friday and collect.

David

07720857536

[David McCarroll]

Hi Mark,

If you have it in writing that the graphics were included then just fight your case with them.

If I’m honest, the quotes you’ve had I think are cheap/relative to what’s being asked so possibly you have underpriced it to start with. If you have your own printer and space is the problem, remember they boards are narrower than a door opening so even take them home and find some space between 2 rooms.

I wouldn’t farm it out if it’s within your ability, you could also put bubble wrap down in the back of your van and fit them in their then deliver to the customer.
If none of the bigger companies like group 101 etc are able to do this at the price then I think you’ll struggle, especially with shipping those dimensions.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Matt,

I wouldn’t have thought you would have any problem with Rtape 4075, that is a high or very high (I can’t remember) tack tape that we use every day and it sticks no problem at all.

It’s your working conditions possibly damp? Even slightly? We keep all out vinyls and tape in a minimum of 18’c but most likely just now hover around 20-21’c with the slightly warmer outside temp. We use our flat bed and by hand and have no problems. Also some times if your tape has been sitting id take the first n maybe second layer off before using.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Aaron,

We recently used James at group 101 for some Duratrans which looked great. Give him a shout.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Dan,

For cutting I just adobe illustrator with the graphtec plugin… I don’t know if it’s the best but I’ve always know the Adobe suite really well so it works for me and I would say it’s easy but everyone has different preferences.

Printer rip I use the latest onyx, it’s so easy you question it sometimes but the main reason is that it came with my first printer which was second hand and version 6, when I upgraded to latex and got version 11 (I think) the interface was pretty much exactly the same so navigating it was seamless.

What ever kit your buying, try make visits to whoever will be supplying you as most of them have demo showrooms and you can get a feel for it.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Neil,

We do a lot of this and unfortunately the recommended bonding and guns are he best way to go. The gun will only set you back about £45 so it’s not bad in the grand scheme of things but they are very solid so you don’t feel completely ripped off.

The key thing to remember is that the manufacturer recommended stuff is coloured so you can lump it in the sand it down for a literally invisible seam.

[David McCarroll]

Hi Denise, We are with AXA but its a bit of a bundled policy.

3x personal cars
2x Vans
equipment, contents, public liability, employees liabilbilty, loss of business to fire etc, full motor trade use for vehicles unto £250k value and various other bits and bobs. All our equipment and pricey stuff is itemised.

very good company and keeps all our stuff in the one place and we can sleep at night 😀

[David McCarroll]

Hi David

It all depends on what your trade supplier is charging you for LEDs and transformers. Let’s be fair, they will be making a small markup on supplying these plus manufacturing so you could find that you may save £50-£100 per job.

By that figure I’m taking a guess at 100x LEDs n they make £20 markup, £40 for manufacturing on top of the cutting and £5 on top of the transformers BUT these all depend on what your supplier is charging.

Don’t forget what you can make in that our of manufacturing though if your have more than enough work coming through the door it might not be justified and leave your trade supplier to do it.