[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

“Black Mamba”

mmmmmmmm name rings a bell, but can`t put my finger on it! 😀

maybe best turning it off first, before trying to put your finger on it. :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: just a thought due to trhe mmmmmmmmmm at start of post? 😳 :lol1:

😳 too much wine with my pub tea LOL

[Denise Goodfellow]

"Black Mamba"

mmmmmmmm name rings a bell, but can`t put my finger on it! 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

Thank you Harry 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

I waited up all night….. no pm 🙁

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Harry Cleary:

Sent you a PM Denise.

Oh Harry, I hope you are not sending me cheeky photos again LOL

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Harry Cleary:

I have a wee picture framing business as well and I put stretchers together with an ‘underpinner’. Simple but very handy bit of kit. Cut your mitres on a saw and then use the underpinner to ‘force’ pins across the joints. Strong joints.
You can get small economical ones or a good second hand ones on ‘that’ aution site.

Eureka

The underpinner seems to be the tool we require.

Will it work with the wooden bars cut at 90 degrees instead of 45 degrees that all seem to be shown on the videos?

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Chris Wool:

yes harry quite happy with normal canvas stuff.

at the cheaper end of the ready made printed canvas market like £10 for a 3×2. the frame is just 4 sticks stapled together,
its as if the canvas was shrunk and glued on.

Hi Guys

The one the customer brought in was as you have said, just 4 pieces of very thin wood, but it did have a piece in the middle also. The canvas was stapled.

I have a stapler to fix the canvas to the frame, but it will not fix the wooden frame together

[Denise Goodfellow]

when we first started we bought a huge collection of clip art from Staples, called ART EXPLOSION, cost about £45 had approx 20 CD`s in it, vectors of various sorts, from shapes to images. Approx 500,000 images we use it most weeks.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi Mo

I don`t mean to be rude when I say this…..

Just farm it out to someone who does vectorising.

We do it all the time. There are quite a few companies. I believe Andrew does it on here.

I know it costs, but you can earn more money doing another job. We also farm out the digitizing for the embroidery, there are people who will do it for $15. Its just not worth me spending an hour creating something when there are people out there who are quicker and better than me and only charge a small amount of money.

I hope I haven`t offended you. XXXXX

Any way its Friday and its wine o’clock….. 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi Chris

I can recommend Ceramic Designs, We have used them on a few occasions.

Bare in mind that if you require, say 200. They will make a few more, just in case of breakages in the kiln. If they all come out OK, you will get them all and be charged for them. So you might end up with 210.

If there is a problem and only 190 come out OK, then that’s all you will get, but you will only be charged for that amount.

You just have to warn the customer this, this is standard practice in the pottery industry, where they can`t control things 100%

[Denise Goodfellow]

This an email I recieved, the links or contact details might be of some use.

Following our previous conversation regarding your company’s possible interest in Apprenticeship Training, I was sorry to hear the feed back from Walsall College that unfortunately you were unable to progress with your interest for a 19+Yrs Apprentice, due to funding support issues.

I do appreciate that many businesses are not able to offer such financial commitments during the current economic climate.

Please see the link below which provides the overview of the Signmaking Apprenticeship: http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/Types … aking.aspx for future reference.

Please also note that funding is available to support 16-18 year old Apprentices with their training costs (although salaries still need to be paid for by employers – min wage £2.50 per hour for at least 30 hrs of work – rising to £2.60 per hour from 01-10-11).

If in the future you are interested to recruit for a learner in the younger age bracket, our training providers can assist you with this process to advertise your vacancy via the Apprenticeship Vacancy – online service, which is a free service to employers. (please see attachment for further details).

If you would like any further assistance in the future regarding Apprenticeship training, please contact me directly on Tel 0121 345 4567 (Monday – Wednesday).

Regards

Jayne

__________________________________________

Jayne Bold

Employer Services Advisor

National Apprenticeship Service (NAS)
NTI Building

15 Bartholomew Row
Birmingham
B5 5JU

( 0121 345 4567

mod-edit

To find out how Apprenticeships can be good for your business, visit apprenticeships.org.uk or call 08000 150 600.

Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/apprenticeships

Become a fan of Apprenticeships on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/apprenticeships

The National Apprenticeship Service is supporting WorldSkills London 2011 – ExCel London 5-8 October 2011

Tweets by Apprenticeships

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Ian Pople:

Hi,

Is the gov still giving the £2k for taking on someone who has been long term unemployed.

Ian

we were told that no longer applied, I think its all down to the funding made available. But I was told that something like that might be on the cards again in approx August time.

[Denise Goodfellow]

We looked into getting an apprentice. £2 per hour, we were told.

[Denise Goodfellow]

LOL

A dirty hand print where the hubby copped a feel after messing with the van….

its a good job it was a work t shirt.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Even though we screen print and embroider as well as heatpress, we keep very little stock. But we do order 2-3 times a week, so its easy just to add on a few items for heatpressing. Most of the time as we order over the required amount we get free postage from the suppliers.

Personally I don`t see why you should have to keep stock, as there are too many colours, sizes or styles available. Do you keep 5 sheets of every colour in diabond?

If a customer just wants 1 item, and they require it before I will be ordering my stock, I just tell them you`ll have to add on the £8 or what ever the carrage charge is or ask them to get their own garment from Mataland etc. If they are having 10 items, the carrage cost is only 80p each, not a great deal. So most go with that option. Most also say, they can`t be bothered with going to fetch their own. If they can`t be bothered neither could I.

Not charging the carrage cost means you`ll be doing at least 2 shirts for free…. its a business we nee to make profit or go under.

The down side to the customer getting their own, even though we tell them to get a simple t shirt, they come back with garments that are toally unsuitable for heatpressing.

[Denise Goodfellow]

We pay close to £25 a month, + the usual % . The monthly cost is a fraction higher due to the pdq machine being cable free.

we were alittle scared when we had it, another cost etc, but we just put our prices up a small amount, so now everyone pays for it….. whether they pay cash or card.

If you haven`t got a pdq machine how can you ask for a deposit, most people will not have £100 cash on them. Let them leave the shop without taking a deposit gives them the opportunity to shop else where.

[Denise Goodfellow]

I feel for you Lorraine.

Most people have been stung at 1 time or another. Luckily ourselves have had only 2 or 3 people let us down on a payment.

Its alright people saying do this and do that, when its not them that have to do it. I find it very hard to do those things, though my husband has no trouble asking outright for money owed.

I think you have to know when to quit and when to fight. I lose enough sleep over other things in my life, sometimes we can let things get under our skin far too much.

My view, would be to move on and put the time and effort into getting other business/cash to push your company forward. I appreciate that its easy for me to say when n its not money owed to me.

GL to what ever you decide to do.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi Peter

We recently quoted the dentist near us on a similar system.

One to One Engravers 01604 644604

Very nice, but rather expensive.

The dentists opted for a 1 piece laser etched panel, we worked it out, that they could have 3 complete panels for the price of 1 interchangeable. So when someone leaves and is replaced, we just engrave a new complete panel.

One of the dearest things was the wooden plinth, we were quoted £70+. Ended up getting a few made from a local joinery shop, bought 5 but only paid £15 each. Stained them ourselves.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

Rob, i know sign roc and the like are very dense, but if working to a budget, and for smaller stuff maybe mdu could be an option?
anyway Lynn made a monkey out of me recently!

Peter

Where would I get signroc or mdu from?

How would I cut it?

We are working on a buget, its for the young lad that’s renting our old shop. We are letting him pay monthly for the sign, which is at cost. ( he mends our computers etc.)

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Ian Johnston:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

Hi everyone. 🙂

We are in the process of making a tray/sign. Tray bought from Ashbys, Vinyl applied.

But the customer requires a 3D shaped tray with a digital printed logo applied, fixed to the tray also.

The shape is of a monkey, which is too complex to make according to ashbys.

We can just cut it out of diabond, but its still not 3D enough, the customer would like approx 50mm return.

Anyone got any suggestions.

how do they mean it’s too complex, can they only make stuff that is straight.

Give Applelec a call , they’ll make it for you

TBH they did quote after telling me they could only do it a certain way, but failing to explain in a way I could understand.

BUILT UP LOGO (As chimp outline.ai)
Fabricated in: Descaled stainless steel
Powder Coated to WHITE (face) and BLACK (returns)
Size: 834mm x 808mm
Return depth: 45mm
C/W Half bracket fixings
C/W Paper template

Total £411 + VAT

That is approx £80 short of the tray we got from them (8.2m long)

I will try the other company tomorrow, thank you

[Denise Goodfellow]

thanks for your reply Peter.

He says he has already do it once before, but can`t remember how it was done.

He`s at it again today, so I`ll keep checking in to see if anyone else has any ideas, or I will get him to call cadlink.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

looks like a good deal. it is relatively slow, but a starting point for smaller sign business’s
My only concern, as this type of kit becomes cheaper, more and more medium size companies may consider doing their own stickers in house,

Peter

A nice printer, but got to agree with Peter and Jason, it opens up more people doing printing in house, or more people starting up, pushing the prices down further for printing etc.

But don`t forget, just like most printers, the manufacturers make their money from the consumables too, Inks, parts, substrates. 50cm does seem an odd size, so perhaps it will only print onto certain vinyl and can only use certain inks.

We had a P600 and I think it cost £5500 approx 10 years ago

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Martin Oxenham:

Thanks Denise I think thats what I might end up doing….where did you get yours ?

We bought from Atwells. Came next day, I think they gave us a free pack of eyelets.. Sorry don`t know the size of them.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Martin Oxenham:

Tried them before but they won’t fit my press.

we had the same problem, ended up buying another press from them with the eyelets to suit. The eyelets were of far better quality that those sold with the first machine . i think the total cost was no more than £100. Got us out of a hole as we had a large number of banners to make up and time was against us.

[Denise Goodfellow]

We buy Hexis. If I`m not mistaken the writing on the back is a different colour, It should tell you in the hexis catalogue whats what.

[Denise Goodfellow]

While I am a partner in a husband and wife business, so it makes sense I work hard……

While answering the phone and doing invoices is a valid job, my husband always says that when I am too ill to work, he never gets anything done ( so he has to admit I do do something LOL) If she isn`t doing it all the time she is being paid, give her more work to do.

I answer the phone, take orders, email quotes etc, embroider, weed cut decals, apply decals to signs, sweep up, empty the bins, make tea, do the dinner run etc etc

The only thing I don`t do is fit signs ( but thats only until my husband realizes I have a spare 5 minutes just before dinner time LOL)

In a small business, there is no place for "light workers or hangers on, they bring the business down" there are 1000`s of people out there that are willing to work nearly as hard as an business owner, you just got to find them, but you will go through a few before you find them.

Ask her to step up to the mark or replace her.

[Denise Goodfellow]

I have been ringing around today for a quote on a 8m tray.

Ashbys were the cheapest.

SMP were the dearest.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Mike Grant:

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

I think it is Pentawhite you are referring to!

Oh, now you are confusing me, can I phone a friend? LOL……

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.
We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

possibly HIP’s plastic?
normally used for cheap H&S type signage and the like.
has one gloss side and one matt side.

thats the stuff 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

Denise
Correct me if I am wrong, but do you not have a mimaki?
is it a possibility to print and die cut? never tried it with pvc (banner?) but cant think why it cant be done with a bit of trial and error?
Peter

Hi Peter
Yes we have a mimaki.

I might have miss led you, calling the material pvc, its a white hard plastic, but not foam board or perspex. Sorry cannot remember the name.

We buy it from RH, comes in sheets of approx 700mm x 1000mm. Less than a mm thick.

Chris`s invention looked just the answer, if the blade could have managed to cut the sheets. I did wonder about the pressure required, as the press used goes up to something like 5 tons….. which might be abit more than the cutter does LOL

[Denise Goodfellow]

At the moment we get a pvc stamped out in a certain shape, then we screen print them, its about .8mm thick ( sorry cannot remember the name) would this way be any option?

Doing it this way would enable us to do it in house and lead to different shapes ( as at the moment each shape needs a cutter tool made @ £80 a time)

[Denise Goodfellow]

forgive my ignorance, but what would you cut on a flat bed cutter that you couldn`t on the "normal" cutter

[Denise Goodfellow]

hi mo. be careful of machines that have worked 24/7 yet are only 4 years old. Just like a car, you could be buying a pig.

personally speaking, if you have the work, then you have the means to buy, via hire purchase.

we we bought our machine, we calculated we only needed to embroidery 20 tops a week to pay for it.

We have a machine from Y.E.S (SWF) Happy and tajima are the best IMHO.

Don`t forget you need software, corel drawings is great as its almost like creating a sign/graphic.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Thank you Kevin, I down loaded it and will adjust for my business.

I have just got to add a small section relating to idiot tax. LOL

I think some customers you cannot win, they will argue till the cows come home.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Gregson:

Yes, you did ask for confirmation but the phone number would have been your error – I’d have done the same and reprinted for free, then slapped the person who did the artwork. :lol1:

All printed for free and collected. Not worth an argument.

I will have to put a comment as Martin mentioned when I email approval.

I gave myself a good talking too, I didn`t slap myself as I thought that was going too far……. 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

We have not heard this in our area.

I have had to supply artwork, sizes etc to the council before now.

and every now and again, them seem to have a blitz on illegal roadside signs.

Our friend has had a letter from the council telling him to remove such signage ( banner advertising his sign biz) or they will start legal action against him.

yet some folk seem to get away with it!!

[Denise Goodfellow]

When we first had our printer, we saved all the waste thinking it`ll come in handy one day……..

After tripping over the 3 "boxes of bits" for years, it now goes in the bin,

[Denise Goodfellow]

I think this thread is very important, after all it`ll effect most of us sooner or later. What are your plans when it comes to retirement?

We did try to sell our business about 4 years ago. we brought in a company that specialized in selling businesses.

He look at our books and gave his suggested sale price. So i suppose there must be a mathematical equation.

At the time we turned over about £120,000, profit was at approx 65% and the suggested selling figure was £50K.

We placed large adverts in our local paper, and got very little response, apart from a couple of texts asking if it could be run from a bedroom….. even though in the advert we mentioned we ran it from a 2000 sq ft building.

I still haven`t an answer, we are thinking of bringing in my husbands son, letting him run the business, and having a small amount of the profits. i quite agree its hard to just let it go for the price of the machinery…

Forgot to mention, we had a competitor who set up in a small rented unit, cheap cutter, then sold it for £5K after 12 months, all he had was the cutter and software and a few bits of vinyl. ( I couldn`t help but not ring to be nosey LOL)

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi Lorraine

Hubby and I plan to retire in 5 years ( OK, semi retire) and have talked about a similar thing. As you say, times are hard and I`d be surprised if a Small business like ours would sell. After all. a £400 cutter off ebay and your a sign maker, right?

We talked about getting a manager in and having a Small % of the profits or a monthly rent, which sound good, until the equipment need replacing or repairing. What happens if the manager/leaser left and the next day a printer needed replacing…..

You could look at it like having a house to rent out, sooner or later you`ll need to do repairs or in this case replace equipment, so factor in some financial measures to do this.

Saying that, if you haven`t a printer, cutters, heat presses very rarely go wrong ( our cutter is 6 years old and the heat press is nearly 10 years old)

I don`t have an answer, but will watch this thread closely.

GL.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Thanks Guys. Had a play on google maps, easy when you know how 🙄

[Denise Goodfellow]

I can see where Glen is coming from, but some companies require the stake to be colour matched to the board.

has no one thought about putting the installers details on the stake eg spray stenciled??

we`ve been asked to start this service up, as an agent near us is suffering with bad service. he suggested this option as a way to advertise our company ( depending upon the way the board is mounted of course.)

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Mark Pettit:

Does any know of a estate agent sign post supplier, mine is getting increasingly slower and more costly… any ideas… 😀

Hi
We are just doing some research on this subject at the moment, surely the posts are just sawn down the middle by about 800mm ( depending upon the fixing method) or have I got the wrong end of the stick/post…. LOL

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Tim Painter:

If you buy from screwfix just make sure it’s the ones with 3/8″ – 8mm heads, otherwise you will be kn*ckered when trying to buy caps as some of the Screwfix ones have 10mm heads.

Try these guys:

http://www.teepeeproducts.co.uk/index.php

They are local to me and will give any advise you need and have a great selection. They also produce in house TEK screws with coloured heads that need a special driver. They look good and avoid the possibility of caps coming off.

I’m in no way connected to them, but think they would be a worthwhile toolbar addition.

Hubby says " Good Find" (Had to spray paint a load of heads the other day…) book marked 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Cooper:

The cost has fallen significantly.

HM1: We do have it, the price is $420 for the kit and if they want dampers it’s an additional $199. The kit comes with 1.5 liters of ink and the ink lines are no cost.

That’s £430 including inks & dampers!

WOW, that has come down in price. I take it thats from the US. Have you contact details for the supplier? ( sorry if thats agaist the rules)

Have you heard about a solvent option pack?

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Cooper:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

quote John Cooper:

White ink clogging huh! That was the nightmare that kept me away from DTG printing. You are aware there’s a solution to that – makes white ink clogging a thing of the past.

do you mean the system that pumps the white around, ?

Yes! The conversion changes the ink delivery from ‘open’ bulk ink where the inks are exposed to the air to a sealed ink delivery system using degassed inks.

I’m pretty sure there’s a conversion kit for the HM1.

John

yes there is a kit, we were quoted £1000, there should be a kit to convert it to solvent, but they were not forth coming with the info..

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Cooper:

White ink clogging huh! That was the nightmare that kept me away from DTG printing. You are aware there’s a solution to that – makes white ink clogging a thing of the past.

do you mean the system that pumps the white around, ?

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Cooper:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

quote John Cooper:

Did you go to P&P John, I looked buy couldn`t see you about.

Hi Denise,

Didn’t make P&P unfortunately! We tried our best but time was very much against us 🙁

John

Hi John

Thats a shame, would have loved a look at the solvent version/head, we have a HM1, we are looking into changing the ink type to solvent, as it doesn`t get much use at the moment.. The white was a nightmare so flushed and just used cmyk.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Cooper:

I thought this was quite neat 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TsOk-32Q8

Seen it before, but still good to watch, it must have taken ages to set it up.

Did you go to P&P John, I looked buy couldn`t see you about.

[Denise Goodfellow]

We buy from Robert Horne. Sorry can`t remember the costs, but not too dear.

Personally unless you know there will not be any come backs with whatever you are printing, I would stick to what you know. When we had a cadet we tried ( dare I say the name….. B&P) a cheap material, it too ages to get it printing acceptable, wasted time and ink. Never again.

[Denise Goodfellow]

we can run our mimaki on either signlab 8 or rasterlink ( rasterlink came with the printer)

In all honesty, signlab is much easier to use ( well I think so) but rasterlink gives better reds.

Signlab is a full program with rip, rasterlink is just the rip ( so I`m lead to believe, the conversation at tea time is riveting, the downfall with working with your hubby)

[Denise Goodfellow]

I`m sorry I don`t agree that screen printing is a dying art.

You are correct when you mention Strong smells, solvents etc.

But a single colour print is 1 stroke of the squeegee. If you print table is 40" x 30" depending upon the size of the design, you could be printing 100`s stickers every 15 seconds. 10,000 stickers in an hour. Not many machines can do that.

Screen printing is very fast, we only have a small vacuum bed that fits onto a t shirt machine, we print correx signs for lamp posts, printing 120 per hour quite easily.

Horses for courses. There’s lots of ifs and buts. For us, we make screens most days, so it does`nt throw us out to make a screen for stickers/signs.

[Denise Goodfellow]

many thanks everyone for replying XXXXXXXXX

Its for litho printing, so I can see why designing in CMYK needs to be done. ( having just read an article on how litho done. )

but how confusing, even the printers of the leaflets offer different advice. I`ve just read a link on someones website, they say they will only accept PDF`s, others say just send a j peg @ 300dpi….

Looks like I`ll have to use corel ( we have X3) 😉

In signlab, I can click on a colour tab and alter it from 1 shade to another, and also convert it from RGB to CMYK.

Can I open a palette so that its CMYK already? or so every time signlab is opened the palette is CMYK ?

[Denise Goodfellow]

I would have thought that you have the upper hand slightly.

With so many firms going bust, I have seen many a unit or shop empty for 12 months, this is bad news to a landlord.

As a landlady myself, we would rather lose a few £`s a month and have the place rented out for a longer period of time, than get full rent only to find it empty again in 6 months time.

I`d just be honest and say its a big step forward for you and you`re unsure and ask for a reduction.

[Denise Goodfellow]

we`ve just ordered plastic knobs from here

http://www.mossplastics.com/mss/mss-pc. … GIT-8DHMR8

[Denise Goodfellow]

well you an`t having mine………………

not without a few G&T`s first 😳

sorry I`ve had a wine 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

Here is another company I found when I was searching for plaques

http://www.dragonflyhouse.co.uk/standardshaperp.html

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote John Gregson:

I can screen print them, if you supply the blanks, but I’ve just noticed this website that will probably be cheaper in the long run.

http://www.rallyplaques.com/products.php

I have used this company for grill badges, and found them to be very good.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Harry Cleary:

Some food for thought with Jill’s American Sans.

I like Harrys. But as you want to go into wrapping, I would drop the "screen" and just keep AM PRINTING OR AM SIGNS & PRINTING

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Peter Normington:

Ok, forget pshop for cut vinyl, Illustrator is fine though, and most cutters will include a basic cutting interface that you will be able to use.
but if you are serious, you do need to start off with kit that will do the job, and for a reasonable time, to get you a return to invest in better equipment.
Say for instance you get a “cheap but branded plotter” and all looks well,
your first job comes along, its a transit sized van, and you quote £200 for the job.
you start cutting the day before the van arrives, all good so far. but half way through, the plotter packs up… what do you do?
How do you deal with the customer?
So my advice, if you want to start a business, its not just spending £700 on a plotter, and if that is your budget, then the best of luck, I do hope you succeed, its a hard word out there at the moment,

Peter

I agree with peter.

I`d opt for a personal load and buy new, you`ll be up and running in half the time it`ll take buying 2nd hand, especially when you don`t know a great deal about software and cutters. buy both some the same supplier and I`l sure you could ask them to install the software and set the machine up, so you know what you`re doing.

You`ll have peace of mind that if thing’s do go wrong the answer will only be phone call away.

[Denise Goodfellow]

I too use a local shop, tried to order of Dell once, but couldn`t get past the automated phone system… gave up in the end ( I`ve no patients)

Back up. The proofs in the pudding, just like most guarantees.

We bought 1 computer from a well know local supplier, it went kaput after 3 months, no problem I thought, it had a 2 year warranty. I was told it`ll take 2 weeks to repair….. I did get it back in 2 days after I screamed the place down. They knew it was a working machine.

we moved to another local shop, had a problem with it, the guy took the cover off on the counter, tried a few things, it turned out to be the power supply, he mended it there and then.. I gave him a £20 tip, worth every penny to be up and running again. Nothing worse than the computer doesn`t work and you`ve got jobs waiting.

I now always keep the old comp as a back up.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Laura Harrison:

I have requested a engineer and i was told they would phone today hopefully an they havent, i dont expect anything free i just want the printer sorting

I spoke to a lady in the Manchester dept, she emailed me over a request form, I filled it in and emailed it back.

[Denise Goodfellow]

HI

You could get a screen printer to flood coat a good white vinyl.

Matching pantone colours in screen printing ink will only cost £30 a half litre + the cost of screen printing it.

We have only done this where a few meter’s are required, never had a problem, we did also laminate the vinyl to stop it from scratching..

[Denise Goodfellow]

I don`t mean to be funny, but if you are so desperate, then you need to request a visit by and engineer and pay for it..

Spandex will not give you free support if you do not have a support/repair contract with them. I think they offer phone support for a fee.

I requested a repair call out and the engineer came within a few days.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Why not ring Spandex up 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

go with the cheapest option first, buy the lead and if it doesn`t work call in the engineer.

If its not the lead you can always sell it to another edge user or save it until the original lead gives up..

[Denise Goodfellow]

our edge is about 8 years old, so they still mend them.

while we were sure it was the printer, the tec guy checked, by using his laptop and lead that he knew were ok. As the laptop ran the edge it was certain to be a computer problem….

personally, as were are quite busy, the more time we spent on the problem just lost us production time on other items. so we called in the engineer, it was money well spent to get it running again.

like you, ours was printing 1 moment then not.

sometimes you have to except that you need help with a problem.

[Denise Goodfellow]

i would check if they are all the same, I`m sure the tec guy mentioned they do difer… pin numbers at the end ect.. but they are`nt much on the net, so worth a go.

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Laura Harrison:

quote Denise Goodfellow:

I`m not sure they use the same cable as onne from say PC World. Ours seem to be about 10mm thick from what I can remember…

We`ve just had a problem with ours, after days of trying different things, we called in the engineer from Spandex.
It cost us about £280 call out fee which included the first hours labour, and to be honest, the engineer couldn`t do enough for us. It ended up being a problem with windows and the port, but hats off to the chap he was vgood. 10/10 for call out service.

Hi Denise,

Was you waiting long for an engineer to come out ? what kind of problems did you have with your gerber? many thanks

Hi

He came out within a few days. Hes very bussy covering the midlands and the north on his own. Our problem was with sending the file, Signlab came up with an error in the rip, we thought it wa the printer as we printed to another printer using the same cable and software… £280 is alot of money, but we had jobs sitting there not being done, so worth it to get up and running again.

We have know switched over to a usb to parallel cable

[Denise Goodfellow]

I`m not sure they use the same cable as onne from say PC World. Ours seem to be about 10mm thick from what I can remember…

We`ve just had a problem with ours, after days of trying different things, we called in the engineer from Spandex.
It cost us about £280 call out fee which included the first hours labour, and to be honest, the engineer couldn`t do enough for us. It ended up being a problem with windows and the port, but hats off to the chap he was vgood. 10/10 for call out service.

[Denise Goodfellow]

abducted by aliens

[Denise Goodfellow]

Good Find Peter 😀

[Denise Goodfellow]

Might be a bit late now….

Where the power lead goes into the printer, there is a small fuse there, is this the one you are talking about?

I got a couple from Maplins..

[Denise Goodfellow]

quote Matty Goodwin:

Hi Denise

Transit, Sprinter the way to go. I don’t own none of the above so not a great deal of advice here! All I know is a colleague of mine has a T4 and is permanently of the road!

Matt 🙁

sorry, perhaps I didn`t make myself clear.

we have a transit LWB hightop we are keeping it, we need a smaller van for "smaller jobs, and for little me to drive. xx

[Denise Goodfellow]

I don`t normally join in debates on here, but heres my 2p worth.

I would have to agree with peter and co.

Today we have to appraise our new lad…… that came from a big franchise group with 3 years working there.

We have to say things like

you have body Oder.
you do not load the cutter properly.
nor the printer. which could lead to head damage
you do not listen to everything i ask of you.
you are on the phone to much
you sit back and watch me load the van…
you stand there watching the cutter cut, in stead of cutting then weeding it, and while you are weeding cut another item…

Our idea of hard work is a million times different than those who you pay a wage too.

some might sound petty to some of you, but its not to us.

we would not employ if necessary.
we would never employ a friend or relation.

we have a flat above the shop and this chap has asked about it….. no way LOL

[Denise Goodfellow]

you could clamp them, a taxi standing still is not earning money…..

[Denise Goodfellow]

We run our edge via Signlab. though we have a gs15+ we only use that for basic contour shapes, as we find it can be 4mm out sometimes.

We print reg marks 4 2mm squares, and contour cut on the summa. it reduces the print area, but on some shapes its better than the gs.

Harry the blade sold and set the cutter up to enable it to work.

Sometimes we have to overlay the reg marks with white or black vinyl some the laser can see them better.

[Denise Goodfellow]

Hi.
We do a bit of embroidery, and get asked about school items by parents, for the same reasons……the school prices are very expensive and the service is terrible.

We say no. The school makes a profit on the garments and that money is put to the running of the school. By under cutting them, while it might not be against the law ( I don`t know if it is or not) its not something I want to do.

But I would put an offer to the school. But……

We do embroider for 1 school and TBH it is a pain. They are quite savy about the prices and they are not prepared to hold stock, yet require delivery very quickly. If it wasn’t`t for the school being local I would let them go…

[Denise Goodfellow]

We do it a couple of ways..

As you have mentioned, via the Epsom 1290 using in jet transparencies, though some films are better than others… we buy off ebay, very good quality, approx £50 for 100 A4. highest dpi setting.

Ruby film..

or for speed, just cut black vinyl and apply to clear film…….. i`ve heard some folk apply to the screen…. not recommended.

[Denise Goodfellow]

😳 😀
sorry for laughing… i thought the thread was about cheekyy films ( X rated)

[Denise Goodfellow]

hey, my first post …. hello everyone 😉

we have one, it didn’t come with a saw, because as the seller said, the customer might already have one, which I can see the point, as it could save you £100+ on the overall price.

The panel where the saw should be bolted on, had/has various holes in it, which we thought might be helpful with mounting the saw… they did not!

The hole in our opinion is too big, the saw almost fell through it. We had to make another mounting plate to bolt on top of the original. It might just be the type of saw we bought (Hitachi)

That’s our only gripe with it, its a good piece of kit, tbh we never fold it away, its there fully erected and used everyday……..

In hindsight, I would ask to for a saw to be supplied with it when ordering and the holes drilled etc, then there should be none of the problems we’ve en counted.

If you do have to buy a saw, make sure its got a bag attached to catch all the dust etc, ours haven`t and I have to hoover it up at the end of everyday. I did not realize it would make so much mess
😀