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Does anyone run a flatbed printer from home based business?

bigben

New Member
So I'm looking to buy or built another house. I want to built my shop on the same land and I'm planing to buy a flatbed and CNC in the future. I know I will have to check with the city to know if I can do this, but I was wondering if anyone have ''larger'' shop running machine like flatbed printer and/or cnc from their home.

If so, cold you post some pictures and details about size and built specifications? I want to plan for the future and built it right.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Your flatbed will take up a nice piece of real estate. Ours is a hybrid, so we have 20' out the back and 20' out the front. With a traditional flatbed, you won't need as much room, as the bed size you get will determine what you need, but in either scenario, you hafta get around all the sides in a hurry..... just in case.

You don't want the CNC anywhere remotely near your flatbed or any other printers or laminators. It will also need a substantial area, but you're gonna need to look into completely closing the CNC off from everything else. Also 3 phase would be nice to have.
 

Brandon708

New Member
I would imagine you would need to build a steel building on your land separate from your house. I can't imagine having a flat bed printer and CNC in your house.

First you would have to narrow down the type of steel building or whatever you can afford to build. Then get the dimensions of flatbeds and cnc machines and lay it out in your computer to see if it would all fit. Also included tables, computer, material storage etc....
As Gino mentioned you will want your CNC in a separate room or divided off so it doesn't dirty up the rest of the shop with dust particles.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Oh yeah....... if ya build your room first, hopefully you can assemble your flatbed or CNC inside of it, as they are pretty big for most doorways.
 

bigben

New Member
As for the size, I'm looking to built a 30ft X 60ft (or something around that) shop with 15ft ceiling and maybe a mezzanine for the office. I will have amovible walls to ''close'' the printer area. It will be easier to control the temperature and humidity. And yes, I have planed a 3 phase.

But I would like to know if anybody had done this on their land.
 

joshGN

New Member
As for the size, I'm looking to built a 30ft X 60ft (or something around that) shop with 15ft ceiling and maybe a mezzanine for the office. I will have amovible walls to ''close'' the printer area. It will be easier to control the temperature and humidity. And yes, I have planed a 3 phase.

But I would like to know if anybody had done this on their land.

I work out of a 40x60x16 steel building at my house. The building is not just for sign stuff tho. I have a 20x35 closed in mezzanine office on 1 end of it..
 

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Gino

Premium Subscriber
I work out of a 40x60x16 steel building at my house. The building is not just for sign stuff tho. I have a 20x35 closed in mezzanine office on 1 end of it..


Very nice and looks organized. At my age, I'd hate to be taking all that stuff up and down those little stairs. Here's hoping you put an elevator in some day soon..... or have a cheap grunt person on staff for that stuff.
 

bigben

New Member
I work out of a 40x60x16 steel building at my house. The building is not just for sign stuff tho. I have a 20x35 closed in mezzanine office on 1 end of it..

You have the exact setup I want to built. The variant is I will isolate everything.
 

DerbyCitySignGuy

New Member
Gino's spot on. Since you're already talking about controlling temperature and humidity, I'm also assuming you've planned for proper ventilation and shop air? Sounds like it's gonna be a nice shop!

(P.S., not 100% sure what you're planning on doing with your flatbed, but unless you absolutely NEED a flatbed, you'll probably get a lot more mileage out of a hybrid.)
 

bigben

New Member
Gino's spot on. Since you're already talking about controlling temperature and humidity, I'm also assuming you've planned for proper ventilation and shop air? Sounds like it's gonna be a nice shop!

(P.S., not 100% sure what you're planning on doing with your flatbed, but unless you absolutely NEED a flatbed, you'll probably get a lot more mileage out of a hybrid.)

Yes, I have planned a proper ventilation. As for the printer, I've mentioned a flatbed to cut it short but an hybrid would be the first category I'm looking. But I need to be able to print on specific material and this is another chapter for another posts.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Man, I have been looking at putting a building on my property for awhile now and bringing the business back home... But we need 3500+ sqft too keep all that we have.
 

kcollinsdesign

Old member
It is a compelling option to have your business where you live. You will need adequate parking for service vehicles, employees and visitors, a compliant building code (business use, ventilation, light manufacturing, paint booth), probably a loading dock (or a skid-steer with a fork) and semi-truck access for deliveries, storage and staging area, etc. If you have business zoned or rural property, you can likely make this work. You will need this full-service capability because you will need to doing the equivalent of 5 to 6 (4' x 8') signs per day to pay for all this (figuring initial cost of pricing and CAM equipment amortized over a five year lifespan and a reasonable "rent" for the land and building investment – or opportunity cost if you already own it). The numbers are entirely do-able if you make a full-scale commitment. If you have the space and equipment, you will likely also being doing other types of sign work, including installation and maintenance which will be another stream of revenue with its own costs and liabilities.

For some people, this will work out well. Others will have issues with people at their home at all times, and the constant pressure of always being at work.

I know several businesses who have set up large format printing operations without committing to installation and maintenance capabilities. Much of their business came from local sign shops without large format printing capability, or they concentrated on vehicle graphics or trade show and display graphics. This may still be viable in a metro area, but intense competitive pressure from large-scale printing operations (multiple printers, multiple shifts, national advertising, distribution contracts, etc.) has caused a lot of these businesses to re-think their business model or close up shop. All of the commercial and electric sign shops in my area are now ordering large format printing and almost all fabrication from wholesalers. Their ten year old printers are collecting dust. A few companies specializing in display graphics and vehicle wraps are still in business, but new businesses are sprouting up that offer the same services and are outsourcing printing and fabrication, and without the overhead are able to offer much more competitive pricing. The national chains have for years relied on huge production companies with significant economies of scale (although there is still a strong and stable market for installation and maintenance).
 

bigben

New Member
It is a compelling option to have your business where you live. You will need adequate parking for service vehicles, employees and visitors, a compliant building code (business use, ventilation, light manufacturing, paint booth), probably a loading dock (or a skid-steer with a fork) and semi-truck access for deliveries, storage and staging area, etc. If you have business zoned or rural property, you can likely make this work. You will need this full-service capability because you will need to doing the equivalent of 5 to 6 (4' x 8') signs per day to pay for all this (figuring initial cost of pricing and CAM equipment amortized over a five year lifespan and a reasonable "rent" for the land and building investment – or opportunity cost if you already own it). The numbers are entirely do-able if you make a full-scale commitment. If you have the space and equipment, you will likely also being doing other types of sign work, including installation and maintenance which will be another stream of revenue with its own costs and liabilities.

For some people, this will work out well. Others will have issues with people at their home at all times, and the constant pressure of always being at work.

I know several businesses who have set up large format printing operations without committing to installation and maintenance capabilities. Much of their business came from local sign shops without large format printing capability, or they concentrated on vehicle graphics or trade show and display graphics. This may still be viable in a metro area, but intense competitive pressure from large-scale printing operations (multiple printers, multiple shifts, national advertising, distribution contracts, etc.) has caused a lot of these businesses to re-think their business model or close up shop. All of the commercial and electric sign shops in my area are now ordering large format printing and almost all fabrication from wholesalers. Their ten year old printers are collecting dust. A few companies specializing in display graphics and vehicle wraps are still in business, but new businesses are sprouting up that offer the same services and are outsourcing printing and fabrication, and without the overhead are able to offer much more competitive pricing. The national chains have for years relied on huge production companies with significant economies of scale (although there is still a strong and stable market for installation and maintenance).

It is a very interesting point that you mentioned. In my case, I have a very niche product that I don't want or can't sub out. No customers will come and will have plenty of room for a semi-truck. I already planed to get a lift. As for production, I will have a minimum of 50 4x8 per day.
 

SightLine

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3 phase power will depend greatly on the utility. They tend to be very resistant to 3 phase power in residential settings and they may charge you quite a bundle extra since they will likely have to add another transformer on the pole just for you. I know at least around here, 3 phase is unheard of in residential. A friend wanted it to a building on his farm property and SCE&G wanted quite a lot to do it. I dont recall the exact amount but I think it was into the 5 figure range.

Also need to decide on what type. Wye is more common but you need to try to balance the loads. I like Delta myself as you get a full 240v instead of 230v but Delta (high leg) is less common. I have 600a Delta to my shop but its not residential.

I do like the loft idea for the building.
 

Emd2kick

New Member
Three phase converters also work well, we had to have one installed as it was far cheaper and quicker then running a new line. Cost was about 8k installed.
 

CTWRAPS

New Member
So I'm looking to buy or built another house. I want to built my shop on the same land and I'm planing to buy a flatbed and CNC in the future. I know I will have to check with the city to know if I can do this, but I was wondering if anyone have ''larger'' shop running machine like flatbed printer and/or cnc from their home.

If so, cold you post some pictures and details about size and built specifications? I want to plan for the future and built it right.
13 years ago I worked for a shop (that was a house turned into a shop) they managed to get an HP hybrid into the building. It wasn’t easy but they made it happen. Their wasn’t any extra space in front or behind the machine and using it was an absolute joke ‍♂️. If you are building from scratch a separate building this should be easy to install a hybrid. Many traditional flatbeds on the other hand.. usually need to be brought in by fork lift and won’t fit thru a standard door. They even have forklift brackets permanently attached on the bottom.
 
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