Anyone else went from crazy slow to crazy busy?

[Stacey K]

Very slow when we first shut down then it picked up. The last month I've been very busy! It's just me and I did 2 trucks and a trailer last week and a same this week along with a lot of signs. Our building permits are up 50% this time from last time this year. That is great news for our local economy.

The school has a new way to get free things...they ask a couple sign shops to design a logo for this or that and then they pick which one they like better and order little things like discounted key chains, etc. I've turned down a couple of them this last month, way too busy to go back and fourth on freebie stuff. Trucks, trailers and signs = money. Keychains and freebie designs do not. I did enough price cutting during the Covid stuff for the schools, now it's time to make some of that money up. Anyway...that was off subject LOL My point is that a couple of the tshirt girls in the area rely on 90% of their business from the schools and sports - that's all cancelled now. They have time right now to do this little stuff and need any bit of business they can get, and I'm fine with it.

 

[Andy D]

This is why I have upgraded my system so I could play games with friends after hours while still running print production. Perks of being single and no life outside of the digital world.

What games do you play? For a old dude, I was big into gaming with a group of friends I met online, until I moved into a broadband dead zone
My game was mostly left4dead2.

 

[bannertime]

What games do you play? For a old dude, I was big into gaming with a group of friends I met online, until I moved into a broadband dead zone
My game was mostly left4dead2.

Right now, it's mostly Modern Warfare which currently takes up a whopping +200gb of storage. My group never really got into left4dead, but I heard great things about it. We play something similar called World War Z.

 

[Robert Armerding]

Very slow when we first shut down then it picked up. The last month I've been very busy! It's just me and I did 2 trucks and a trailer last week and a same this week along with a lot of signs. Our building permits are up 50% this time from last time this year. That is great news for our local economy.

The school has a new way to get free things...they ask a couple sign shops to design a logo for this or that and then they pick which one they like better and order little things like discounted key chains, etc. I've turned down a couple of them this last month, way too busy to go back and fourth on freebie stuff. Trucks, trailers and signs = money. Keychains and freebie designs do not. I did enough price cutting during the Covid stuff for the schools, now it's time to make some of that money up. Anyway...that was off subject LOL My point is that a couple of the tshirt girls in the area rely on 90% of their business from the schools and sports - that's all cancelled now. They have time right now to do this little stuff and need any bit of business they can get, and I'm fine with it.

Stacey K, let me pick up on how "the Covid stuff" is beginning to impact your near future. How do you see it unfolding?

 

[Peachtree Signs]

I have a small supply of 1/4" clear extruded acrylic. I can supply you with cnc-routed blanks, sneeze guards, etc. - maybe even full sheets, if you don't mind a trip to South Ga. Shoot me a PM or email to james @ moultriemade.com, and I'll get you a quick quote. Thanks!

thanks I'll let the boss man know

 

[Stacey K]

Stacey K, let me pick up on how "the Covid stuff" is beginning to impact your near future. How do you see it unfolding?

Short Term: I see it staying busy until the election. People have money to spend and they are spending it. Anyone who walks in my door is busy as heck and jobs lined up for weeks or months. Covid may have slowed things down for a bit but in reality I think it's boosting the economy. Product delays and shipping delays - I do NOT see the delays going away any time soon considering the state of the political environment.

A few months from now...If Trump wins and the House and Senate stay the same - the economy will likely continue to grow, no changes. We know what to expect. If Biden wins or the Senate or House change hands there will be a spending freeze from businesses. We don't know what to expect. Massive changes could be ahead which means people will be real careful spending money for a while. Not trying to be political but I think there's always a period of weariness after an election if things change hands. To be expected no matter what party you align with.

Personally, I only know two people who are not back to work. They are both lazy so no surprise there. My other friends and family are mostly back to work full time or working OT.

I enjoyed my time off and it changed the way I do business for the better.

My crystal ball tells me Coronavirus and rioting will disappear after the election. We could see a period of scary civil unrest in August. Your love life will improve in September, you will see great health in October and November will be very creative you.

 

[FourNines]

We got a Flexa Miura II, it’s a bit more manual than the fotoba and you literally have to set all your blades in position then manually adjust the blade pressure but once you’ve done 5-6 rolls you can judge it pretty easy.

Tracking isn’t an issue at all either, stays within ~1mm over a whole roll (not sure if that’s helped by the Colorado cutting a straight edge on every roll and having excellent tracking also though).

With regards to speed, I’d say we average about a roll every ten minutes. Naturally the larger signs/banners cut quicker and a roll of 12” by 16” vinyls took about 15-20 mins. Considering it takes about 2 hours to print then about 25 mins to laminate I’d say that’s not bad lol

Ours came with three single blades (one each the edges of the roll and one down the middle for jobs without bleeds) and one double cutter (for cutting jobs two up with bleeds).

We’ve since added extra double cutters but they’re fairly cheap and you can just buy replacement blades eventually that cost ~£50, though I can’t see us needing them for at least a year.

They gave us two days for install and training but install took about an hour and we were pretty much fully trained a couple hours after that. Very easy workflow in onyx too.

I think with the cutter, install and training, then adding two extra double cutters, we’re about 17k all in. And we got quoted 42k for a fotoba and 12k for the table that comes with it lol

First time poster, long time lurker...
$17k??? We've been in the market for an X-Y cutter for a bit and recently was quoted $37K for the Flexa Miura II, $47K for the Flexa Miura II Plus and another vendor quoted us $52K for a Fotoba XLD 170. It seems that there are only a handful of Flexa distributors here in the US, and they are pricing these units stupid high. It might be cheaper for us to purchase the unit in Europe and shipping it over....

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Big production shops will see an uptick in business. Smaller production shops will start to thin out as sign making, and especially digital printing, becomes more commoditized. Electric sign installation and maintenance will continue to be a consistent revenue stream, especially for corporate customers and national accounts. Small, independent shops will be the last to recover as their success will be hand-in-hand with the recovery of local restaurants, small retail, and tourism.

 

[iPrintStuff]

First time poster, long time lurker...
$17k??? We've been in the market for an X-Y cutter for a bit and recently was quoted $37K for the Flexa Miura II, $47K for the Flexa Miura II Plus and another vendor quoted us $52K for a Fotoba XLD 170. It seems that there are only a handful of Flexa distributors here in the US, and they are pricing these units stupid high. It might be cheaper for us to purchase the unit in Europe and shipping it over....

That’s crazy! I’ll ask my supplier how much shipping is the the USA for you and see if it’s worth mentioning to you! We did get a great deal on it though, those guys are our main paper supplier so guessing they make enough from the paper to throw us a bone every now and then.

They actually mentioned they sold an R2000 at around cost to a customer simply so they could sell them the ink, guessing it’s the same for us, the more posters we can cut, the more paper they can feasibly send us lol

 

[FourNines]

I appreciate that! I am seriously considering buying one from across the pond and shipping it back.

 

[PrintItBig]

That’s crazy! I’ll ask my supplier how much shipping is the the USA for you and see if it’s worth mentioning to you! We did get a great deal on it though, those guys are our main paper supplier so guessing they make enough from the paper to throw us a bone every now and then.

They actually mentioned they sold an R2000 at around cost to a customer simply so they could sell them the ink, guessing it’s the same for us, the more posters we can cut, the more paper they can feasibly send us lol

Who’s the supplier if you don’t mind me asking?

Wouldn’t mind a cost price R2000 and will happily buy some ink from them.

 

[iPrintStuff]

Who’s the supplier if you don’t mind me asking?

Wouldn’t mind a cost price R2000 and will happily buy some ink from them.

If you wanna know feel free to PM, but I think it’s the “some” ink that’s the problem. The company have two R2000’s and run them literally 24/7. Making more money from selling ink than machines lol