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116' x 9' banners? Even with a 35% flow-through you are lucky the ties broke instead of the fence falling down!

I have had great success using Alumiweld for simple frames and repairs. Most of our fabrication is out-sourced. If you have enough business you might be able to justify adding a welding area, buying TIG equipment, and staffing qualified welders. You will also need a large paint booth, the...

I think it is still technically illegal (in Illinois) because you are not required to pay it (opening the door for fraud), but if you collect the tax and remit it I don't imagine the state will complain too loudly. In any case, the collected tax (whether legal or illegal) is still a burden on...

I stay with 3M 180. I can get $6.50 sq/ft (laminated). There are plenty of guys who charge less, but we stick to our guns and stay with quality, 3M warranted materials. It pays off in the end! Note: We only use calandered vinyl for temporary and promotional graphics.

Grinnell Mutual. About a 35% increase over the last five years due mostly to a hardening of the market. A 120% increase would likely be due to audit discoveries or increased coverage. General liability and Workmans comp insurance are sky-high in the sign business (if you use aerial equipment...

I don't think you can do them for 25¢ each. But a factory screen printer could probably do them for around 17¢ each, cut and packaged. You could probably negotiate for a price around 25¢, but most factory printers aren't interested in a measly $2k job. Stouse or Sticker Mule would probably...

I'm in Illinois. I don't have to pay retail tax on things I buy for resale, but I do need to collect retail tax when I sell my products to the consumer, the exception being if the item sold becomes part of a real property (most signs). In that case, I must pay use tax when I purchase the...

1. Ease the corners and edges with a file or corner rounder (or router) before you do anything. Sharp edges will not allow enough surface area for a proper film of paint to form. The sharp edge corners will fail first. Lightly sand and throughly clean all surfaces with a tack cloth. 2...

For some reason I can get a pretty good sense in the interviewing process what the intentions of a potential employee are. If I feel they will be a good fit, I share with them a salary matrix we came up with and ask them where they think they fit. I start them there. Same thing for all the...

Are you confusing "gamma" with "gamut"? Common beginner mistake. Gamma: Gamut (color gamut): defines a range of colors within a spectrum of colors.

Neither will work. Silicone is not glue, and epoxy is too rigid. Try lexel (don't ask me what's in it, but it works).

Indians are wonderful people, but they have some quirks that need to be understood. Wealthy Indians use Family Offices rather than banks to manage their business affairs, and dealing with them is not as straight forward as we are used to in the U.S. It is common for a family representative...

In all cases, if there is any question of somebody getting hurt (liability), all due diligence should be applied. Even if nobody is likely to get hurt, liability issues make proper engineering essential. I will use a qualified engineer in most of those situations. It is unrealistic to expect...

Kerning on type was originally designed into the sort for certain letters that needed to overlap the body of the sort to look good. The kerning was designed by the type maker, and the amount of kerning (along with serif sizes and other relationships) depended on the point size. Spacing between...

Lexel for that. Drill some holes in the wood (and in the panel if you can; at least gouge it up as much as possible). Even better, screws or a retainer system. https://www.sashco.com/products/lexel/

I would not pay a licensed engineer for this type of job. I would just engineer it myself in 10 minutes.

People trying to tell me what to do. Clients can tell me what they want, but let me figure out how to do it.

If you are talking about Florida, I agree, it is not normal. I worked in Florida for a few years - it was not easy to get the required licenses (contrary to some opinions earlier in the thread, the electrical test was hard). But we worked along side "licensed" competitors who knew essentially...

The solution would need to be engineered. Welding on an appropriate sized base plate with gussets would be the ideal solution. Drill oversized holes into the concrete to accept threaded rod of the appropriate size, install the rod in the holes with epoxy (make a little scrap plywood temporary...

For a small shop (under $4M a year), the money is in installation and service. It makes no sense to even think about trying to compete with the wholesale fabricators. Buy your signs from them, mark them up %20 – %40 percent, then make your money on the install. I have to deal with online...