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Gemini started making acrylic plaques recently

Looks like they are printing with UV curable ink for a textured finish. Likely just layers of clear ink to build up the texture.

Paul and Bill have both passed away. Paul left to start his own sign company. When Bill passed away, Hardin Signs closed up. Thank you for sharing the memories!

Brad - did you work at Hardin Signs? Just curious. I own a sign shop in Peoria. BTW - I really appreciate your words of wisdom. As I get older, and am surrounded by more and more newbies, it is refreshing to hear from someone with so much industry knowledge.

Ugh, finally. I can't believe they languished this long. We're just downstate from them, but they were put on our no-no list a long time ago. It has been painful to see them come up so often in the FB groups.

We use seal tape on all window perf now. Too many failures. With the holes on the exposed edges, you're just asking for trouble otherwise

Sharon, it is an honor to have a legend like yourself here on this site. I'm looking forward to hearing your expertise in the ADA world. Welcome!

These kinds of situations are tough. You can have all the CYA's in place, but if your customer is not happy, it is best to work through a solution to make them happy. Not saying roll over, but be accommodating and try to work with your vendor to see if they will eat part of the cost.

Does that 3M vinyl have air release? We have found that you cannot use air release vinyl on polycarbonate for exterior signs. You will get numerous bubbles.

We did channel lettering on a ribbed building, where the ribs were a little deeper than typical pole shed buildings. The halo effect looks “pixelated”. It’s not terrible, but this case is a lot more dramatic. I think you would need a backer to make it look good.

I had a customer the other day that kept making changes, etc, with a looming deadline. I emailed her one morning and said I need to have a signed approval by first thing tomorrow morning to meet the deadline. 48 hours past the deadline, she emails me a laundry list of more changes. I reply...

I know you have a new machine and you are anxious to sell wares from it, but it generally is much more difficult to grow your business from that angle. Most customers do not care about what machines you have, they just want to know if you can be a reliable source for print / sign work. Focus...

I agree with this. Print on clear and lam with dry erase. That will eliminate the individual cut pieces to snag erased residue.

Glass Apeel should work. It is like a heavy duty version of static cling. But really, any “removable” option is going to be hoky.

Maybe the wall is not flat, like concave? I don’t think that material has as much flex to it as vinyl does. I would recommend a vinyl, like 3M 180.

I would highly recommend Physical Therapy. I ruptured my Achilles in the spring and was able to avoid surgery with PT. It is not cheap, but you should be able to get your boss to cover it with Work Comp. You need to remind your boss that many lawyers out there will help you get compensation...

The correct way to make a backlit print is to have 2 layers of color print with a white layer in between. That way you see 1 layer of color during the day, and 2 layers (when you need the extra saturation) when lit up. Color-white-color inkjet prints are the best way. Putting a layer of color...

You are wise to stick with 3M 180 for wall wraps. We have tried removable films, too, with hit-or-miss results. GF WallMark 226HTR has given us the best results. We print on a UV curable printer with no lam. Laminate seems to be the majority of the problem (extra weight, shrinking).

I wasn’t suggesting to be flippant about throwing out prices. Sometimes customers aren’t very forthcoming with information, and throwing out a qualified ballpark price can help move things along.

I agree it is good to have this conversation, but it can be a balance. I find some customers get frustrated when they are just “shopping around”. Once an order is placed, definitely make sure to work out those issues right away. We build in a certain amount of design / setup cost regardless...