[Liam Pattison]

Chris,
i would probably do it at cost for them if possible, because i’ve had quite a bit of good paying work from them, and currently doing a repair to one of their vans, so can tie it in with that.

thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Chris, the CCTV sign is a really good idea, thanks

It would have been much easier to print them (if i had a printer) should have subbed out the prints and applied them as complete sheets.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I think i saw it print on a garment/fabric in that video. There could be many uses for this printing on garments, such as Slogans etc. Especially at all kinds of live events. You could print race competitor numbers onto t shirts, or you could print phrases onto t shirts at festivals.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Chris,

sorry for my late reply, will try and contact you, don’t have full membership access so will try to find your details.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Chris, i’m going to have a look at the second one you suggested.

cheers,

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Iain,
I just checked their website and it said ‘5-5 million pieces’, so i should be ok. Will contact them.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Can you get some sort of paper that reacts to heat, and then stays like that permanently?

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/hea … paper.html

Don’t know if the hand print stays there though.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi
can’t you just use something like this and photoshop it to fit? With the curtain pulled over. Convert it to hi res. Maybe i’ve got the wrong idea.

Liam

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Attachments:

[Liam Pattison]

Hi George,
i used these in the past – fonteyne signs and displays:

http://www.fonteynesigns.co.uk/

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I always think to myself, what will be worse, the awkwardness of saying i don’t do this kind of thing anymore, or the pain of actually doing the job?

Usually with this type of thing, the pain of doing the job (usually on a saturday or sunday) is far worse than just saying ‘no thanks’.

I hear what some people are saying about not turning work away, but it can get to a point when these little jobs are actually costing you money, because you could be doing something far more profitable.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Cheryl,

if you look at target transfers website. they have a Stahls Clam Basic machine.

This is what i would buy as a budget machine if i was looking for one which did not cost a lot, but still a very good brand.

If you give them a ring, they sometimes have ex display models for sale as well.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

The Pepsi van wins easily for me! They should still have that going about now.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Tom,
Paperlinx is quite close to us in Northampton. I have gone to pick up on short notice when i haven’t had time to wait for delivery.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Tom
i am based in Bedford as well. Let me know if you need any advice on material suppliers for our location.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I didn’t even realise you could do that. Just checked and saw it’s next to the page size.

[Liam Pattison]

If i don’t want to see the page outline i just make the working page much bigger than i need within design central and then insert the sign substrate, or draw a substrate within that.

The outline you see is just the edge of the page, you can make the page as big as you like.

If you type ctlr + 5 together whilst your substrate is selected you will center it within your workspace.

Or, if you are working on a square or rectangle you can make the page outline the same size as your substrate then surely you wont see the page outline will you?

Unless i misunderstood.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

This all depends on which way round you prefer to work as you can import your photos into flexisign and layout on top of them, but if you import your flexisign designs into photoshop you will have many more photo editing tools within photoshop (once you learn how to use it more.)

One way you can do this is to export your design from flexisign as a pdf.

Then right click the pdf file and open it with photoshop. In my opinion you have many more possibilities to make your mock up look realistic within photoshop.

I would look up some photoshop videos on youtube, or ask about any sepecific task here.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Lee

you have quite a good advantage there with another language. Also look at other selling platforms other than the well known auction site. Don’t want to say too much but there’s a few other such websites etc.

The seller i was talking about, was really the originator of the ‘wall quotes’ as we see them now. They may have even got the idea off other traders, but they were the first seller to really solidify the concept of selling quotes super imposed onto background images within the home. Back then you could get £30 for a wall quote which people were selling for between £7-£10 last time i looked a couple of years ago.

Obviously a hell of a lot of people realised how much this seller was making per day just by looking at their feedback and copied most of their products. Then people copied the copiers and so on! And now you have some terrible quality products on sale for pennies.

Also, back then not many people were selling these products, so you would be inundated with requests for custom designs, which you could obviously sell at a much higher price. So make sure you offer custom designs as these would be especially difficult for foreign language speakers to get i imagine.

I also used to tailor some of my products to certain types of shop interiors so that’s another area for you could look at.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Lee

As far as i know most countries have been flooded with vinyl wall art. As the particular auction site where they are available is world wide. This was part of the problem in the first place, as you can often buy them from china all-in for less than the cost we pay to post them within the uk.

If you know of a country where you think they are not currently available, keep it a secret!

When i began selling them, there were only a hand full of sellers with good money to be made. I remember one particular seller making £1000+ per day easily with only about 30 or so listings.

Many of the ‘wall quotes’ you now see on ebay are copies or variations of that sellers listings.

I had my own unique products. The key is to offer something different and unique to every one else. I don’t just mean different designs, i mean find a different market. if you can find a gap in the market, there is money to be made for a while. But the trouble is it will seriously wind you up when sooner or later you see other sellers ripping off your designs or offering their own versions for pennies.

I gave up eventually as i just could not be bothered to compete and keep up with people who seem to almost be running at a loss when their sales don’t even appear to balance with seller fees.

Just my advice there, but if you are looking for vector clip art etc, you can find pretty much everything you need be googling ‘(whatever you’re after) vector’ or ‘……. eps’. Also vector clip art cd’s are available on the same auction site where people sell the wall art.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Imagine parking that thing anywhere! No matter where you put it, you can guarantee some idiot would park within an inch and open their door right into it whilst trying to get their great big bum out of their own car!!

[Liam Pattison]

"i don’t really want to spend too much getting my van done coz my mate can do it for £100"

Really means:
Your such a freeloading p*ss taker that your mate can’t stand the site of you, so you’ve had to come to me!

[Liam Pattison]

Alan, sorry to go off track here, but i agree with you about target transfers. The closest i have found to their old material is the RF garment film supplied by ralawise. I highly recommend it.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi,
it’s a really good design. But i agree, it will confuse people. I would change the cross part as it looks like military medical aid. I think if you put some different wording within the circle it will be brilliant. i would use that space to list services and products you offer. I would not try to theme the vehicle as an interception vehicle as it’s too complicated. Just my opinion. but other than that, i really like it and i think it will get you work.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks John and Jean for your help. You have cleared a few things up for me about screen colours. I realise now they will be slightly different In all programs.

I just did what I should have before I made all this fuss and went and read flexisign instruction manual! If you go to ‘view’ in the menu bar and select ‘soft proof’ that will allow you to work in a cmyk preview mode which seems to be the best mode with closest colours to the PDF I was sent.

Hope this helps someone else who goes through the same trouble.

Thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks John,

I’m a bit confused and I think I may have lost my mind over this.

It’s my fault for not explaining. But what i am trying to achieve is the same colour mode throughout all of my software. So say if I receive a PDF like I have in this case, I want to be able to look at that PDF on my screen in adobe reader and know it will be the same when I open it in flexisign. And then if I want to export it as a PDF from flexisign to show my adjustments to the customer, I want it to still be in the same colour. And then if I want to use that PDF to edit it in photoshop, I still want the same colours. Because I need to edit it in photoshop to send to a magazine so they can use it as an advert. And then I need to edit it and use it to send to another printer to make it into business cards. And I need reasonably consistent colours throughout. None of said printers will be matching Pantone colours.

I hope I am not talking complete nonsense, sorry if I am.

At the moment it seems to come out different colours in every software I use.

Can I change flexisigns input or output to match the PDF? Or what is the most accurate colour mode to work in for saving to PDF? I have had problems with this before but in this case it seems to be worse than ever.

Thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Jean,
Thanks for your message. I’m not cutting it I am using it to prepare artwork that needs to be given to printer.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks for your replies. And thanks Mike in particular for sharing your knowledge. That is a great tip about not weeding. I will be sure to use that. I should be ok as i’m sure the box is thicker than 6”. I will post up a picture when completed (if it goes right!!).

Bit worried about the join in the middle, but i’m going to order the panels with the rebate join pre cut.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi,
sorry to bring this up again. The last time i did a light box i used the opal 50 in white and then applied coloured text to the top. The problem was, when switched on you could see the shape of the tubes.

Luckily that customer wasn’t bothered, but this customer is a bit more fussy so i wanted to get it right. So can i see the tubes because of the depth of the light box and the tubes being close to the board?

How will i know if i am going to see the tubes on this one? Is it just trial and error. I was wondering if i need to apply light difuser white to the back of the opal or will this block out too much light?

I am going a bit mad thinking about this.

thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

This might be a totally random guess, but are you definitely pressing cut and not rip and print or something on your toolbar. I don’t know why you would need to rasterize to cut.

Just a guess,

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thank you both. I thought 50 and opal came together somehow, so thanks for that Mike.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I’ve just done the same thing tonight as well, found a lot better offers on moneysupermarket. Vancompare was a bit pricey for me.

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Martin, yes i had been looking at insulating the garage and that is something i am thinking of doing. Ive looked at the cost of insulating the roof. I had originaly thought of the bn20 to get me started because that would suit a lot of what i do, but a bigger model would do all i need and loads more that i want to offer and i wouldn’t be as limited. The things i want to be printing right now are signage, garment transfers, small stickers and canvases. They are the things i have needed to produce.

Yes the space is a big issue and one of my main concerns so im still, thinking about options. And to be honest i might go out and spend the money i have right now on a vehicle this week! But i will still always be thinking of a printer in the near future so i appreciate it when people discuss it with me on here, thanks.

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks for the advice Martin, I have read loads on exactly that issue on this forum in the past and It has helped me. I have been reading about the things to consider when buying a printer for quite a while. I have been waiting for a year or two to buy one to make sure I have enough work, or could create enough work and products to keep it busy.
My main concern is having space for it and the correct environment, so as soon as I think I’ve got that sorted, I should be alright.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks both for the info.
Never seen one of those heaters Chris, looks like a good option. Will contact some of those suppliers and ask them to keep me updated with any machines they get in.
I agree that my set up isn’t ideal Lee, but I just wanted to get started with digital printing, and get some experience with it, thanks again for the advice!

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Have you got this one?

http://www.irfanview.com/

if you download it, also download and install all of the plugins, which are available as one download, in order to view eps files.

Hope this helps

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Daniel,
when I did this I cut the template in some cheap vinyl I didn’t think I would ever use. I weeded out the letters and then cut through the outline of the letters on the backing paper as well with a knife/scalpel. Then I masking taped up the template into place and fitted the letters into the gaps. I didn’t want to stick low tack vinyl onto the painted surface so I used this method instead. It worked very well for me.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

A very interesting documentary related to this subject, (featuring the bulb Rob mentioned):

The lightbulb conspiracy

$this->BBvideo_pass(‘$8’, ‘$4’, ‘$7’)

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Jamie,
in CS4 it’s under ‘effect’, but i just don’t know how to seperate them, they seem to be attached to the object.

thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Jamie,

it’s CS4

[Liam Pattison]

Usually i would spend longer getting this right when i do it, but as you were in a hurry this is the best it came out, may not be of any use but here you go,

Liam

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Attachments:

frame1.pdf

[Liam Pattison]

Hi hugh
might be too late but if you run a jpg of that trhough illustrators live trace it often simplifies it down to the correct level for cutting, failing that i often run the jpg through photoshops ‘cutout’ filter first and then illustrators live trace and it siplifies it. Don’t know if you use those programs though

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Jason, i will check these options out.

cheers

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

woah, that is the machine for me Jason, thanks for posting that. i’m going to try and find out abou that.

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Chris, not 100% sure i’d be capable of getting them accurate enough to stack neatly all the same size if i tried that, i will have practice some how. This is probably a weird thing to be making a fuss over though! Sorry

[Liam Pattison]

quote Chris Wool:

quote :

I was thinking the best option would be to cut down to squares with some sort of guillotine

sorry don’t work as every sheet has to be the same.

just lay the big sheet on the cutting table and slice them out

I see what you mean, just thought cutting by hand could be a bit too time consuming. If you want to get them all exactly the same size, do you print a guide line to cut to?

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks all for your advice on this, i rang Roland and they were not really any help.

I was thinking the best option would be to cut down to squares with some sort of guillotine. One that allows me to do a good few sheets at a time. I’ll look into this sort of thing, but if anyone could recommend anything, that would be great, thanks.

Thanks again for your help

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Chris, i’m just looking on their website, might give them a ring tomorrow if i get a chance, i’ll post what i find out.

[Liam Pattison]

Woah, i didn’t know about this Cheryl, thanks. I am constantly getting persuaded more and more to go for a bigger printer, when i see the limitations of the smaller one, i was only looking at it really because of space. But i might look at a second user versacam and move some stuff out of the way.

[Liam Pattison]

Hi
As Derek has said your best option is to get a different angled blade specifically meant for cutting flock, with own pressure and offset settings. You can use a standard blade and increase the pressure, but obviously that will decrease the lifespan of that particular blade.

I keep different blades for cutting different types of materials, such as one for sign vinyl, one for t shirt vinyl one for flock etc. And i have all their setings written down on a notice board.

If you ring EDWARD MATHIAS, google them, tell them what you are trying to cut, they will send you the correct blade and give you some advice.

If you get the correct blade to cut flock you shouldn’t need to increase the pressure very much at all from normal vinyl, i have been cutting it for months with the same blade on a reasonably low setting (pressure 12 on graphtec ce5000 120). Always do a very small test cut first starting at lowest pressure setting, so you don’t blunt the blade before you begin.

Hope this helps

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Interesting job you have got there! I have got tickets to see them on June 29th at heaton park. Cost me £250 for two tickets, ridiculous price but cannot wait to see them, will look out for the guitars!

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Jon, thanks for the links, i had already check whatthefont, i should have mentioned that.

Thanks Chris, you are better than whatthefont! I had a feeling it was stretched a bit. I had just re-traced it, but the font will be much better.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Chris Windebank:

got some oracal 509 blue but only about 3or4m left in 630 width as Robert Horne have run out again!

Hi Chris,

thanks so much for the offer. It was an ‘Everton type blue’ i was after. I thought i had one, but when i put it up against the black background it was to go on, it looked too dark. As i was in a hurry, i just went ahead and used it, just hope the customers happy.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

The likeness is, that they could both be considered for producing t-shirts.

I was also comparing these two options. With the BN20, the process looks far more long winded to me. You print to a media, weed it, then apply an adhesive facing paper, remove the backing, apply to garment and heat press.

That seems too time consuming to me.

You’ve got the cost of the ink, the printable media, the facing paper/app tape so it could all mount up to quite a bit per t-shirt, depending on how big your prints are.

I would prefer direct to garment but i can’t see a safe enough machine to spend the kind of money they cost yet though, heard too many bad things about them.

I would like to here some info from roland on cost per t-shirt etc, so may be doing some research as well.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Lorraine

i also charge in the same way and include the ‘waste’ in the price. Thanks for your advice on this, at least i know my price isn’t way out now.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

You can use this method, they are meant to be cables running down the sides.

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … ght=blinds

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks both for your answers, i never heard of a continuous ink system, so i will google this and look into it. Thanks for your advice.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

looks like Vivaldi

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

don’t know how it would cut with one of these, but i was looking to make some wooden signs with this technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpeedCL0QNg

you would only need to sandwich the correx between two wooden sheets and attach the jig to the top sheet. then re-use the wooden sheets as a template to cut more with the router.

i often use hair brained ideas like this to make stuff. Not sure if it is worth the effort, depends on how many you are making.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

not sure i have understood you correctly, do you want to cut parts of the frosted out?

Make sure the part you want to cut out is on top of the frosted.

Select them both by selecting one of them, holding shift and selecting the other.

then go to ‘effect’ in the very top toolbar go down to ‘combine’ and select ‘cut out’

that should cut the logo out of the frosted and show whatever is behind it.

Hope this helps,

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote John Cooper:

quote Liam Pattison:

The main thing that would concern me with buying one of these printers is what kind of support could you get in the uk? As the company who supplies them do not seem to have any body based here.

So i was wondering what happens if it breaks down etc? How could you get help.

This is a genuine question, not a critisicm of the machine.

Thanks

Liam

Liam, those were exactly my concerns when deciding which DTG printer to purchase. I’ve been interested for years, researched solidly for 4 months and visited all the mainstream brands. The difference between the NeoFlex SYSTEM and the other offerings was so great, I took the risk.

I have required technical support in the use of the machine and its software and in that respect the support has been nothing less than superb. We use webcam, skype & remote control and it’s just like having a one-to-one with a tech present. When they gave me an hour software training, I recorded the lot so can refer to my video at any time 🙂

Hardware backup is something I’ve not required but, I needed to know how this would be dealt with and I’m quite satisfied & confident in the support I’d get.

quote Liam Pattison:

The main thing that would concern me with buying one of these printers is what kind of support could you get in the uk? As the company who supplies them do not seem to have any body based here.

Liam

Watch this space.

Thanks John

I have read a lot of what you have posted on this forum and others and really appreciate your feedback on this printer. I am moving more and more into t-shirts and am seriously considering purchasing one of these machines. If you look on the t-shirt forum at any dtg printer all of the threads belonging to the other brands are riddled with people having problems. This is one of the main reasons i am attracted to the neoflex.

So i will continue researching like you did, and think about my finances, should have gone to the printwear and promotion show but i was ill.

Thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

The main thing that would concern me with buying one of these printers is what kind of support could you get in the uk? As the company who supplies them do not seem to have any body based here.

So i was wondering what happens if it breaks down etc? How could you get help.

This is a genuine question, not a critisicm of the machine.

Thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi
are you supplying graphics?

thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

You can’t rip off other peoples work and sell it without their permission/ license to do so. You may get away with it, if you don’t have any moral problem doing it, but then again you may not get away with it.
You especially shouldn’t do it if the subject matter you are copying is still an active company who is selling the same thing for profit, as they will see you as someone who is eating into their profit and will be more aggressive at taking action against you. It’s the same if they think you are damaging their reputation by selling inferior quality copies.

E bay largely could not care less what you sell as it all makes them money as long as you don’t sell grot or something which directly says ‘this is counterfeit’ you will get away with it until the copyright owner contacts them at which point they usually wont even question it, they will remove it immediately. If you do it more than 3 times you’re off.

The union jack would be considered to be in the public domain, plus how could they police something like that. But if you’re directly copying a companies logo, many of them have people employed to look out for this.

So either seek permission or sit and worry about getting caught!

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Good for you mate, totally unique job to have done, can see it ending up on some of those websites that have loads of bizarre pictures and then there will be all sorts of speculation that it was done for an eccentric duke or something.

[Liam Pattison]

Nice work there, have to ask, what is the story behind the Shane Ritchie-mobil?! Surely you can’t post that picture up without an explanation!

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks for posting the pics Rob, i don’t fit too much these days but i swear a lot of the places i had been recently insisted scaffold towers only so i was directing that reply at you more than original poster who is probably not going to come up against the same kind of health and saftey people. I will show these pics to my pa and ask him if he’s using these!

But i would agree with you trestles are far more practical despite health and saftey regs.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I thought Trestles were considered to be an old fashioned thing that nobody used anymore! Was quite surprised to hear you used them Rob as most places such as lorry depots/yards, train stations, bus stations, airports etc don’t seem to allow them anymore and insist on scaffold towers. In fact i think we have an old set that i might put up for sale soon.

By the way this was not meant to be saying your method was wrong or right, just didn’t think they were generally aloud anymore under most health and safety rules.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi, you say you wanted 8300 matt, i thought 8300 was only the gloss range of colours. 8200 is the matt. Well thats what amari told me anyway, or maybe its just they only supply 8300 in gloss and 8200 in matt. I have their swatch with me and there is no cobalt blue in the 83 range in it. The amari based in bedford does not open saturday. Highway blue is the closest they do in the 8300 from looking, but slightly lighter, liam

[Liam Pattison]

Nah i wouldn’t buy one, couldn’t afford it first of all, and wouldn’t have space. I just wanted to see what stage the technology was at and capabilities etc, just for reference when it comes to subbing out printing.

I would rather learn to screen print and get that set up at the moment than DTG but i don’t have space for that either!

Not sure about days yet,

Thanks for the info on the suppliers, sounds like it will be worth going

Cheers

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I am thinking of going to this, would like to see some machines like direct to garment in action and i would like to see if there is any clothing suppliers there with samples as i always have trouble finding specific types of garments. Not sure if clothing suppliers have stands with sample garments on, so if anybody has been before and knows i would be interested to hear.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hugh, the dragon is really impressive, experimental technique. Just an idea could you print green onto white reflective for the company name then it would light up at night but stil show up in the day, liam.

[Liam Pattison]

Just a late idea from me whilst i was watching a hole night of reggae programs on bbc4.

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Attachments:

[Liam Pattison]

Ha ha, i know what you mean if they want cheap, give them cheap, but they think the sign is great! So i just wanted to look for some kind of adhesive that was easily removable instead of the aggresive as you say velcro adhesive.

I think i am looking for an option which doesn’t exist (as i often seem to be) or maybe not without buying in something especially which then defeats the object of being cheap anyway.

Maybe i’ll stick it on with a frame of white vinyl, that’s pretty cheap.

Thanks for making me see sense.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi
when i supply to customer i always use hi tac tape, the perfecttear was the best i could find. I have not yet had any issues with high tac tape damaging the customers surfaces (pealing off paint from walls or anything).
Any less tac and the customers could often not get the vinyl to lift from the backing paper.

For postal tubes, when i first started out i used to order them in, but now i use vinyl core tubes or boxes as i found the extra it cost in postage to send them was less than the cost of buying tubes in.

But if you are buying them in you want a minimum of 5cm diameter. You will be able to roll something of 1 meter by around 60cm to go into a 5cm diameter tube without it getting damaged. I have done thousands this way.

But if your vinyl is any bigger than that, you need a bigger tube.

The most important thing when supplying to a customer is to give clear instructions, because if they mess it up, they will probably tell you it was damaged in the post or something, so you will get false information and think something was wrong with your product. When really it was fine.

So i always give videos and written instructions to customers.

Hope this helps

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Peter Mindham:

Hi Matty,
Have had a look but most I have talked to don’t offer ‘Trade ‘ prices. Will keep looking tho 🙂

How are you? Cant PM you but give us a call if you want.

Peter

Hi Peter,

uk leisurewear usually do them if you check on their website-

http://www.leisurewear.co.uk

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Hi Craig,
i’d been wondering the same thing, so i looked in the graphtec section on this forum and found some other people had asked the question already. So have a read there and you can find some info i think.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I’d give Target transfers a call if you haven’t already done so, as they seem to supply this manufacturer

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Peter Mindham:

Hi Liam,
Our local test centre doesnt have problems with mags so I dont think it is a legal issue. The size however, is very much a legal issue. From my experience as a motorcycle instructor I know the examiners want every part of the vehicle to be legal otherwise they will not go out on test. I might suggest that the mag problem is just one examiner being a little too officious. I might be wrong though 🙄

Peter

I think you are right about it being down to the examiner as i know there is one particularly notorious one at this test center.

John, that’s a good idea thanks, but too technical for me!

From what i found out, they should be removable and should only be used if you’re taking someone on a lesson, or on your way to a lesson (or a test).

The permanent stick on ones are for learners who own their car and are the only user or they are for mopeds and the like which have to display L plates all the time.

So what i ended up doing was making the plates out of vinyl, i stuck them on his car and sold him some body coloured magnetics so he could cover them up when he needed to.

Thank you all for your help on this one.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Peter Normington:

Liam I am sure you are correct about not showing L plates when not instructing,
But like mobile phones the law is just ignored by many!
A lot of our customers use top boxes, with the “L” on them. could you not sell your customer one?

Peter

Thanks Peter,
i will ask someone about this when i get a minute and post what i find out.

I have got him lined up for a top box in the future but he can’t afford it right now, so thanks for the tip. Just hope he doesn’t go looking on fleebay in the meantimee.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Lynn Normington:

Liam most of the instructors cars we do use magnetic’s they don’t think it’s not legal, but they are to the specified size.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn,
well this instructor said he got asked to stick them down with sellotape because the examiner did not like them being magnetic

But from memory i swear i was told by my instructor you’re not supposed to display them unless there is a learner in the car or you was on your way to teach your next learner and you could not display them on a motorway, something like that, hence why they had to be removable. Bit confused now. I can’t remember, this is why i gave up trying to be an instructor, because i couldn’t be bothered to remember all this stuff!

I’m going to ask someone official tomorrow.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Matty Goodwin:

Hi Liam

When the wife was learning I did the ‘L’ plates.

I made them to fit the boot area, not to any ‘laws’.

If the police pull the car over, well, what can I say!

Can’t honestly see a problem, but I’m no lawyer!!

Matt

Thanks Matt,

as this is for an instructors car, they have to be done strictly to the rules, i trained to be an instructor (i hated it so i quit) and i know the examiners can be well fussy. Instructors must have stick on plates, not magnetic.

you can get points if they are the wrong size believe it or not, just wondered if anyone know the rules as to whether i could cut through them if they overlapped the boot.

I’ll ask the customer as he’s the instructor, then if he gets into trouble it’s his own fault!

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Jason Middleton:

Its worth trying a sports direct shop, I know a bloke who runs a local sports shop locally and he gets quite a bit of stock for his shop from there as he can buy it cheaper than he can from his wholesalers.

Thanks for the suggestion, i can actually believe that as i got a £70 pair of trainers for £6.99 out of that shop. Now i’ve decided i don’t like them, i’ve seen them going for £30 on ebay, so i’ll be selling them on there. I think i’d be better off doing that than making signs.

Thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Robert Lambie:

moonfruit allows you to integrate paypal shop etc…. very easy to use all in one too…

I just looked at that moonfruit site, might give it a try for ecommerce. Wix is very good for a portfolio type website and gets good google search rankings or whatever you call it. You can build a shop site with wix, but it’s quite limited and i would not recommend it for that.

Thanks for posting that link

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Nicola McIntosh:

heres one similar to what rob posted http://www.wix.com/start/wfree 😀

I would recommend this one as well, very easy to use, not very good for ecommerce though

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

I have fitted some mesh privacy blinds, which had logos printed on but were still see through.

Everything on it looked like a standard fixing, although i have never supplied these, only fitted, so i don’t know where you would get them (sorry)

I have attached a quick diagram of the system, hope it makes sense.
The blinds were about two meters wide and were used to partition off open plan offices or hung in windows as decorative blinds.

Liam

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Attachments:

[Liam Pattison]

quote Jill Marie Welsh:

Want me to come over and beat them up?
I have a large candy cane cut out of AC Plywood.
First you grab them with the hooked part, then pummel them with the sharp splintery edges.
😀

I was just going to laugh at their efforts and maybe post a picture of them on here! Slightly glad they didn’t want it in the end as it looked like a nuisance anyway. I still got the rest of the work, this was just being tagged on almost to the point of being a favour.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Robert Lambie:

the bottom line is, if they want cheap crap, give them a stencil in vinyl.

.

Pretty much spot on! This is what’s happening, i even quoted for foamex and that was too much, so they can do it themselves.

But thanks everyone for taking the time to offer your advice as it really helped me a lot. And i have learned loads i can use in the future as well,

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks for that advice Steve, i am trying to find a way i can make them from composite.

Peter, i definately agree with you about the labour, and this also means time.

The best price i have been offered for composite is £60 a piece plus VAT

what do you think is a reasonable price to charge for these each??

that’s going to mean £100 each surely once vinyl is added, is that reasonable, it’s a regular customer so i don’t want to let them down on this.

Liam

p.s love the curls Peter!

[Liam Pattison]

would this be good enough to use? i cant seem to get any coloured composite board at a price which would make this job work

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Exterior-Plywood/invt/110117

Thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks all for your replies.

I have just enquired for a quote on having these cut from composite, but i would like to make them out of wood as i enjoy the challenge, so i’ll see how the prices compare and if the customer is willing to pay for the extra cost of labour etc involved in the wood versions.

It’s an old fashioned location so the wood ones would work well.

Jill, thanks for your advice, sorry for my ignorance, what does the A/C stand for in A/C fir plywood.

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Peter,

will look them up, as i’ve wanted a supplier who could do this type of thing for a while.

Still tempted to make them out of wood though!, so if anybody could also recommend what type of wood i should use i would be greatful. I recently made an oval sign out of pine, don’t know if that was the ideal material but it seems ok.

thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Rob,
i am just supplying, they will fit them to wooden posts i believe, also they will be using them every year (as long as they last!)

Thanks Peter,
funnily enough i just brought some material from blackburns for the first time last week, five minutes drive from me so i don’t have to pay delivery.

I did not realise they did composite, i will contact them about this. Thanks for the tip, should come in handy for future jobs as well.

i wondered if there was a company who could cut the material if i gave them an eps file of the shape. Maybe that’s too lazy and i should just cut them myself!

Thanks again both for your replies

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

They custom make them here, may be of some use:

http://www.signbuyer.co.uk/custom-made- … -119-c.asp

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

What she was doing is called ‘dogging’, you may have moved into a hotspot.

But in all seriousness, i had the same trouble in my flat. I live on the top floor, three floors up and we always had the window cleaners who used those big poles with brushes on top, so they would always do it from the floor and never come up to the upper level windows.

So i’m use to being able to do whatever i like up there without anyone seeing.

Until one day in the summer it was hot so i was going about in my boxer shorts. I was carrying a mannequin across the living room, actually with another pair of pants on my head to keep my hair out of my face. Then all of a sudden up pops a ladder to the window (they must have got a new window cleaning company) and a man appears at the window.

So i must have looked a bit strange to him.

All i did was put some net curtains up, you can get some quite plain ones, not like the ones nans have.

Liam :lol1:

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks both for all your help working these out. Helvetica Neue LT Std looks good for the projekts one. Second one looks most like square 721, i’ve got that font so will be ok thanks.

Thanks again for taking the time to help on this, i had to match about ten snd spent all evening yesterday. These were the last two, thanks again

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

no, that’s Won Hung Lo

:lol1:

[Liam Pattison]

IS it too late for this?

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Attachments:

[Liam Pattison]

Hi

somebody on here recommended me this-

http://www.irfanview.com/

I find it works quite well, i had to download and install all the plug ins from the page as well to get it to view eps files.

Hope this helps

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

Thanks Warren and Stephen for that clarification.

Tim, i’m not sure about that one either, as i had always got my prints laminated from other suppliers, it’s just this supplier who made me question wheather i needed it or not. I think he was either trying to save himself some work or money after original quote was given maybe.

Thanks

Liam

[Liam Pattison]

quote Martin:

Liam, laminating should never really cause a problem with vehicles as a wrap vinyl can be used if the reccesses are bad and the laminate is matched to the vinyl.
This obviously makes the job more expensive so you have to explain things to the customer offer a couple of different options and then let them decide.

If you explain things clearly so the customer understands then it helps when a customer gets more than one quote and someone gives them a much cheaper quote because they are doing the job the cheapest way possible.

If you think about the car wash aspect with these being Taxis then they are probably going to get washed far more often than most other cars so the need for some sort of physical barrier is increased.

Martin that’s great advice, that i should explain in depth the difference between different options or at least explain in depth that my price includes lamination to make them see it’s true value.

:lol1: When you say ‘with these being taxis’ that’s probably my fault for calling them cabs. By cabs i mean the front part of a lorry where the driver sits! That’s what i call it. These are going on lorry front doors and some kind of humongous generators which i think take up the entire back part of the lorry.

Thanks again

Liam