8k sticker order. I have questions

[10sacer]

We are a screen print shop that added a Mimaki CJV150-130 about 1 year ago. Our sticker orders to date have been mostly small runs of 100-300 pcs. This one is 8k x 4" round and I am wondering how I can do this in the most efficient way. It's my understanding that if I print much more than 4-5 feet we could have reg issues when it comes back to cut. I'm wondering if I could print the roll in 4-5 ft chunks at a time and come back and cut each section one at a time. Or maybe Rasterlink has an option to repeat a job over and over? Or my best option is just print/cut 100 pcs at a time?

Any tips or suggestions would be very appreciated

8,000 would be childs play for a roll label shop

 

[ikarasu]

Why not screen print a 5' sheet, put it on the drying rack and when they're dry, put 'em in, register them and cut them ?? You can print about 185 up at a time. You'd hafta print up 44 sheets, but go more, in case of flaws or other miscalculations. You'd have them printed in 2 hours and cut by the end of the next day after they dry. Cripes, you're set up for it.

Depending on the graphics screen printing 5 ft sheets is a pain. If it has small text in the screen you have to constantly watch hundreds of areas to make sure there's no ink leakage...

On top of that moving a 5-ft piece of vinyl without it touching itself takes finesse, not impossible but not as easy as setting up and printing a roll overnight!

We just did 120,000 decals they took up about 15 rolls of material, ink wise it would have been way cheaper to do it screen printing, but if you load a roll at night or when you have down time it actually ends up being cheaper to go digital.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I don't understand this place sometimes. Every other day there's someone complaining that nobody wants to work but when a post comes up with somebody wanting to do a job everyone tells them to outsource it. Why? Just because somebody can do it faster doesn't mean that there's no money to be made or that they would be anymore profitable than the slower guy. The ones that can do it faster have millions of dollars invested and huge overhead so it all equals out.
Take the job, get it all done and be proud of it. There's no pride in selling someone else's work.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

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 give you a good price.

 

[GAC05]

I don't understand this place sometimes. Every other day there's someone complaining that nobody wants to work but when a post comes up with somebody wanting to do a job everyone tells them to outsource it. Why? Just because somebody can do it faster doesn't mean that there's no money to be made or that they would be anymore profitable than the slower guy. The ones that can do it faster have millions of dollars invested and huge overhead so it all equals out.
Take the job, get it all done and be proud of it. There's no pride in selling someone else's work.

C'mon there very big member - time is the one thing no one can negotiate more of - once it's gone it's gone. Lots of other stuff to take pride in over a pile of 4" decals. Like raising some fine-looking chickens.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

C'mon there very big member - time is the one thing no one can negotiate more of - once it's gone it's gone. Lots of other stuff to take pride in over a pile of 4" decals. Like raising some fine-looking chickens.

Hey not everyone is the big show like you and Gino. Some of us peons have a little extra time on our hands to squeeze these little 8k sticker orders in. There's 7 days in the week, ya gotta use them.
All these damn chickens are starting to make me hate eggs too. I see some KFC in their future.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I got an order for some 20k stickers on 3m diamond grade, I started pricing before I realized I didn't know how to plot through the stuff, so I'd be making 80k hand cuts or using a shear, I subbed it out and they priced me so low, I couldn't get material for that cost...

Pricing on any reflective job is the one thing I don't get. It seems to be the one thing that some people get huge discounts on.

 

[Gino]

Depending on the graphics screen printing 5 ft sheets is a pain. If it has small text in the screen you have to constantly watch hundreds of areas to make sure there's no ink leakage...

On top of that moving a 5-ft piece of vinyl without it touching itself takes finesse, not impossible but not as easy as setting up and printing a roll overnight!

We just did 120,000 decals they took up about 15 rolls of material, ink wise it would have been way cheaper to do it screen printing, but if you load a roll at night or when you have down time it actually ends up being cheaper to go digital.

We had a one-armed bandit with a 5'×9' vacuum table, so those prints would've been a cinch. Carry on.

 

[ikarasu]

We have 3 5x10 tables, we do lots and lots of large format screen printing, I still stand by my moving a 54" x 60" Sheet takes a lot of finesse, and trying to watch text on 100 different circles to make sure theres no run through would be a pain... Ontop of having to run 45 different sheets through the graphtec vs using roll to roll... I see screenprinting them being much more labor intensive and not worth it, but to each their own!

 

[darinmcd]

I don't understand this place sometimes. Every other day there's someone complaining that nobody wants to work but when a post comes up with somebody wanting to do a job everyone tells them to outsource it. Why? Just because somebody can do it faster doesn't mean that there's no money to be made or that they would be anymore profitable than the slower guy. The ones that can do it faster have millions of dollars invested and huge overhead so it all equals out.
Take the job, get it all done and be proud of it. There's no pride in selling someone else's work.

If the money makes sense

 

[Geneva Olson]

We are a screen print shop that added a Mimaki CJV150-130 about 1 year ago. Our sticker orders to date have been mostly small runs of 100-300 pcs. This one is 8k x 4" round and I am wondering how I can do this in the most efficient way. It's my understanding that if I print much more than 4-5 feet we could have reg issues when it comes back to cut. I'm wondering if I could print the roll in 4-5 ft chunks at a time and come back and cut each section one at a time. Or maybe Rasterlink has an option to repeat a job over and over? Or my best option is just print/cut 100 pcs at a time?

Any tips or suggestions would be very appreciated

One of my first jobs was 1000 3 inch stickers. Those stickers showed up at the Texas Capitol. We chunked it up into 200 at a time (I believe). I did it based on length of material going through the plotter.

I outsource all of my bulk sticker jobs. the product is great and usually a better price point than what I can provide from my machine.

 

[Pauly]

I have a fast printer and all of the equipment, but I would sub that out in a heartbeat. Sometimes its better to make a percentage profit than to spend 20 hours labor to make the same money. I understand wanting to use the equipment you have sitting there, but the math has to work or you will just be spinning your wheels. I sub out anything over 1k pieces.

Fast printer? how fast is fast?

If if was us doing this job, 2 hours to print, rest of the day to cut on the plotter.

 

[ChaseO]

Fast printer? how fast is fast?

If if was us doing this job, 2 hours to print, rest of the day to cut on the plotter.

Fast is a relative term. I have an XR, but compared to my old SP, its fast. Some shops are set up different than others, my point was a phone call to stouse allows you to work on other projects. I for one don't want to be in the sticker business, I make better money elsewhere.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Fast is a relative term. I have an XR, but compared to my old SP, its fast. Some shops are set up different than others, my point was a phone call to stouse allows you to work on other projects. I for one don't want to be in the sticker business, I make better money elsewhere.

I donno, orders of this size are extremely profitable, I would run orders like this all day if I could get them. I figure around $600 all in for materials (Intermedite vinyl & lam, ink) and around 10 man hours of labour. even is you sell these for $0.50 each, that's $4, count on $100/hr shop rate, you are still clearing $2400, and this is a job you can have a low level employee run if you have one.

 

[ikarasu]

Orders like this are my bread and butter.

My "side business" is based around printing stuff at home overnight / while I watch tv. Cutting it on my roll cutter while I walk away...

I can print a roll in 3 hours, just takes 5 mins of setup / roll switch. Laminate on the roll to roll laminator with 2 mins of setup and come back in 20 mins... 5 mins of setup on the cutter and it's all roll to roll cutting... Then the rest of the time would be popping decals out.

If your machines aren't in use 24/7... I don't see why you'd outsource this. Very little labor involved if you have the right setup. And yes, I'm sure if you calculate overhead and hours to print vs outsourcing outsourcing would be cheaper... But if you throw it on the printer at 430 and print overnight... Do you really need to calculate the 4 hours of "labor" of printing into your calculations? Think of it as a low overhead bonus job for the end of the day.

 

[Jester1167]

At the shop, I used to work at we did a lot of short-run specialty decals for the aircraft industry in-house, and I would still outsource this all day every day unless there wasn't anything else to do. Jobs like these suck up way more time than you think and a wholesaler's price at these quantities is less than your actual cost of time, materials, and ink. Instead, you can make 30 to 50% by placing an order and continue making money in your shop focusing on more profitable jobs. There is one caveat, if you can get the same price each that you charge at 300 for the 8000 order, I'd probably be all in time permitting.

If anyone does go the wholesale route, read the fine print and educate your customer. The wholesaler we used had a policy that 10% over under was considered a complete order.