Simon Clayton
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Gray,
All done with vinyl, most hand drawn and cut..(Church Board that is).
Its been up 13 years and until 3 years ago still looked in fair condition from a distance
Good Fun! -
Ordered some today,
2″ wide 50m roll, box of 24 £21.12 plus vat.
I will wait and see how good! -
Cheers paddy,
But If you look at B+Q and the like their rolls are only 20m or so, instaed of 50m
Somthing to look out for, also not very good quality
Simon -
Cheers Bob,
I will look it to that, -
I agree with Brian,
Why did they use real 22 carat gold, when they could have made normal gold vinyl look like gold leaf..
If a customer has asked for gold leaf they want gold leaf, not gold vinyl
I think it is an expensive gimick,
Somethings are best left to the experts. -
Tex,
Send new PM
Simon -
Tex,
Have sent PM
Simon -
I was trying to be funny…(but i don’t think it worked 😳 )
It was along the lines of non chrisian fish type of thing!
Sorry -
Or is it………… 😉
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😆 John they do look like cardboard, don’t they…..
They are in fact 3mm gold acrylic, they must have been up there years, the locator cups just feel apart as I pulled the letters..
Believe it or not they look even worse in real life. -
Thanks Eddie,
All vinyl 651, It was a bit tricky as it was one piece of black with yellow overlaid, Done in the cold and rain as he had to get back to yorkshire that day -
Sound advise, Martin..
Thanks every one!
This is something i will have to look into further.. (-) -
I got a lame duck if thats any use.. 😛 😉
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D’oh 😳
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Martin, your properly right,
You would be surprised about what equipment councils have, most have so type of sign/print shop.
Ricmond council are quite big with plenty of dosh…
Good luck! -
What about real sand blasting…I once see a sign that was done on both sides to a depth of anything from 1mm to 12mm. It was a world map in total relief… looked fantastic!
They were glass dividing panels, you just had to go up and touch it, run your fingers over the contours 😳
Does the client have any artwork to go on…business card etc. -
Cheers guys,
😉 -
I thought you may have had some fantastic vectorising program,
I spent a great part of my life vectorising text and logo’s (top of the range 286 computer, back then). The trace function in corel which i use is not much cop (you end up spending hours cleaning it, quicker to trace by hand)
It seams like all these programs perform pretty much the same.
Thanks again
Simon -
Post the font and what you need written, some one with a mac might be able to download font and convert it to Pc…if that makes sense 😕
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Lorraine,
That’s sound…! 😛Thanks again for that, What package did you use?
Simon -
Cheers Adrian,
I will show it to the client.
Thanks again
Simon -
What’s has happened to the sissors? 😆
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Hi Loraine,
there’s a place in new malden, a big moter bike shop
(not sure what their called) they do loads of clothing, and are quite helpful maybe they could point you in the right direction -
Good point Bob…! but don’t that double the work 😉
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Why not Just cut in half and join? I have seen plenty of street signs like that, plus you will save on material, (as the reflective is so expensive)
Simon -
Hi Becky,
Not sure about the spec’, but have a look at this computer site have high spec machines at low prices…see what you think!
My sis-in-law got one, been great so far.
Simon. -
I’m lucky… my phone don’t ring 😥
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Texcat’
Your prices look to be fair. Where i live there are a few others like my-self working from home workshops, I know we don’t have high over heads like larger companys, but i do wonder if they cost in any factors at all (heating, light, telephone and the like)
My workshop is 8mtrs long and 6mtrs wide and if i had to rent one, it would set me back at least £400 a month,
What i do is to source the needed materials add on around 20%-40% markup; add the cost of a fitter (half a day £160) and then calculate the number of hours needed to do the job (£23.00 per hour for my time), then if it looks too low add a bit for luck.
I also do colour visuals,artwork and neon drawings for another company for set type prices; colour visual £35.00-45.00. complete neon drawings for anything upto £270.00 depending on amount of neon and tcp drawings for around £50.00
This works quite well for me as i don’t have to earn that much…long story.!
I do also like to time the work i’m doing whenever possible, to keep it realistic, as some things you think only took one hour in fact took two. -
Sorry 😳 i don’t know what i talking about (as i don’t know what method you were using). i miss read your post, i thought it was sceen printed.
However The tarmacers were surprised at how cheap it was.
The point i was trying to make about the plumber, is they keep their prices all around the same.
As for the lady that wanted a cat on a t shirt, she would have to pay the going rate, if it cost £15.00; i wouldn’t sell it for £10.00 because she may go elsewhere.
what happerns is a price war “he” can do it for £15.00 so i will do it for £10.00 and so on, however if she went to joe bloggs up the road and he gave the same price as you then it down to service and quality, thats how i would sell it to her…. 😉
We all under and over price work, I recently did a quote for a jumbo transit two sides and back door in black vinyl (very simple plain text etc); price £190.00
this was still too much and he went elsewhere. i could have done that job and made money at £50.00 ( £10.00 vinyl 2 hours work £40.00) should i have done it? The going rate should have been more £190.00 -
If you use velcro on the table, a good tip is to staple it to the table as well,
don’t just rely on the adhesive on the velcro -
Here is a good example that martin has posted,
Half a dozen tee shirts 5 minutes work, £20.00. However if you timed yourself, it would have been nearer half hour to an hour, set up, design, packing, time spent on client stripping off backing etc.
I not trying to put anybody down, but this is how thing go down hill.
Now the next time this client wants work doing, he has your price as a guide line and wouldn’t want to pay more.
So he goes up the road to Joe Bloggs who has just bought a machine. Who says i do it for £18.00.
I bet if people were to do time sheets (as i have done in the past) they would see the true time taken to do the simplest of jobs.
This is why so many sign companys have gone bust. We all do skilled work, including designs, colour visuals and fitting etc, but don’t charge properly for it.
Yet if we call a plumber, we would pay £50.00 call out and then £60.00 an hour there after? -
Many of the prices i see being charged, are far too low,
You have people buying a vinyl plotter and calling them selfs signmakers.I have worked for sign companys doing all types of jobs from Drawing office manger, production manager, surveyor to freelance graphics installer for exhibition companys, I have done quotations the lot.
I agree with Becky, However a lot of customers will spend thousands of pounds having their shop completely refitted and then have 10mm thick foamex panels screw fixed to the wall with white plastidome caps to hide them with applied vinyl. It might look *hair* but its cheap.
Example: I ve seen an advert for 3’X2 foamex builders board £12.00 plus VAT.
Going on UKsign groups prices, foamex £11.67: Vinyl 3m X 1260 £5.04
5 boards out of 1 sheet = £3.34+VAT for material that leaves £8.66+VAT for cutting, weeding, laying and packing plus all the costs of running a factory electric etc. I would estimate 30 mins per board cutting and laying, that makes a profit of around £8.66 =VAT per hour as half must go on wages and factory
Most companys i’ve ever worked for, charge their staff out at 25.00 PER HOUR.
I have just start lower my prices, to match what other are doing in the area.
I blame the local councils, as they let any old rubbish go up. If they took a firmer view and only allowed quality to be used, things would look a lot more attractive. -
Maybe a couple of hooks attached to front of table, than just hang a banner or foamex panels to them
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Cheers Robert,
I think i may be able to scrounge up some ink from 🙄 somewhere -
Did you have to scribe the sign to fit? or was it all fabricated at base and fitted with no problems (?)
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Did they catch the van driver that bent the post and scratched down the front of their new sign..? 😆
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It really depends on what type and size of letters he wants and what surface they will be applied to.
MDF letters for instants can have brass studs fixed into the back, then matching holes drilled into the wall, fill these holes with grip fill/no nails or silicone and push letter into place, clean off excess silicone and its done.
If the wall is flat rendered locator fixings could be used.
Hope this helps and no doubt you will get lots of useful suggestion from everybody else. -
I once worked for a company producing all of kodaks signs, there were five of us, one sales director(he looked after kodak and did the odd survey), one managing director, (we only saw him once or twice a month the rest of the time he played on his farm..??)a secretary and two production staff, (me and one other). Fitting was subded out.
In 18 months trading, before we went ****-up our sales were £489,000. In the first 6 months we trade from the factory we had all been made redundant paying very little or no rent, using scrap perspex and other materials, only buying the occasional ally box. (very high profit margins of at least 70% – 80%)
I was given the opportunity to take over the work, (as this company was going bust) I talked it over with the other production staff and i looked for factory unit’s getting a good deal from one council 6 months rent free etc. He wouldn’t take the risk, and as i didn’t have that much money, and didn’t have time to train a new person to do the work (Kodak are quite particular about the way their signs are laid out) I missesd the boat. somthing i have always regretted, as i know it would have been a great sucsess.My advise Go for it, sub-out the work until you have the capital to invest in equipment to do it all in house.
Maybe once your partner sees how much money could be maked he will agree to the needed machinery.
Or get a bank loan and go it alone . -
Good points all round, however most signs and the like are custom made,
so if a sign is ordered and not collected you are stuck with it! (how can you sell a sign reading Bobs plumbing to sam the painter).
It’s not like a power tool that be put on the shelf until you sell it on..
As for your example John, The dealer would have sold it anyway, if this was being custom made from scratch, i doubt if he would have done the deal.
I have been caught in the past, expensive lesson.
Deposit every time -
The type style is called BrodyD
I have but don’t know how to upload it -
I,m on ntl world broad band, all free, connection modem etc, plus free web cam.
three speeds
£14.99 a month, 128k twice that of phone line
£24.99 a month, 600k
and finally £34.99 a month for 1meg, plus you can move up and down between them each month.
had it three months with no problems -
Hi lorraine
I have found a couple of suppliers.
I will give these a call, and see if their any cheaper
Thanks
simon -
I agree with Martin, I have seen someone do this type of work at my sons primary school.
He was marking out snakes and ladders ,numbers and letters, in the play ground.
All the work was free hand using the road marking spray paint in a wheelie machine. (not sure what it would have been like if it was straight lines)
Within a few months the paint started to rub off, leaving it patchey.
I would try the local council, believe it or not they are somtimes cheap….price that is!
Then again it depends on what the residents association expect,
do they want line like the multi-storey carparks, thick white paint that lasts forever?