Gerber Scrappy

[James Burke]

Is anybody using a Gerber Scrappy? Basically, it's friction feed adapter for sprocket fed plotters such as the 4-Series and the GS/HS series. I'm possibly in the market for one as well.

I'm having trouble getting (fresh) Hartco 310 blast mask that is sprocket punched and was wondering if the Scrappy might be able to work in this situation. Hartco runs limited supplies of the sprocket punched material and sometimes their supplies have surpassed their useful shelf life.



JB

 

[Fred Weiss]

Is anybody using a Gerber Scrappy? Basically, it's friction feed adapter for sprocket fed plotters such as the 4-Series and the GS/HS series. I'm possibly in the market for one as well.

I'm having trouble getting (fresh) Hartco 310 blast mask that is sprocket punched and was wondering if the Scrappy might be able to work in this situation. Hartco runs limited supplies of the sprocket punched material and sometimes their supplies have surpassed their useful shelf life.



JB

The Scrappy™ Friction Feed Adapter was my product. We sold the last one in 1993 and discontinued manufacturing the product.

Friction feeding on any material such as sandblast resist is not recommended due to blade drag resistance being high enough to cause the material to skew. What will work is taping the material down on an edge punched carrier sheet made of plastic that has not been treated with a release silicone. Examples of this would be Gerber PVC-10 or Gerber Rubylith with the rubylith removed. Simply tape up to 13" wide material down with masking tape leaving a small amount of untaped area at the trailing edge for air to escape. The carrier sheets are good for hundreds of uses and the cut quality is very good.

 

[James Burke]

Thanks,

I remember somebody here was responsible for the Scrappy, but I couldn't remember who it was.

I may have to resort to using the thicker sandblast mask (Anchor) due to the PITA factor of having to tape the thinner mask to a carrier sheet. We have an extremely large order and the extra cost for materials would be considered marginal when compared to the extra labor of the aforementioned.

Much appreciated....


Jim

 

[Billct2]

" I love friction"

 

[Fred Weiss]

" I love friction"

Yes. We had a few complaints about that slogan.

Sung to the tune of Rawhide in our booth at the NESA (now ISA) Sign Expo in Phoenix April 1990:

Keep feedin', feedin' feedin'
I'm so tired of weedin'
Keep them Scrappies feedin' Allied.
I'm anticipatin'
My improved credit ratin'
With Scrappy on my plotter Allied.

So feed 'em in, feed 'em out
Feed 'em in, feed 'em out
Feed 'em in, Allied.
Feed 'em in, Allied.

:dog42

 

[gabagoo]

I bought one for my 4b way back in 87

 

[Fred Weiss]

I bought one for my 4b way back in 87

You did better than anyone else then. The first showing and sale of a Scrappy was in 1988. :ROFLMAO:

Thanks for your business though. Did you buy it from us or Acme Sign Supply?

 

[gabagoo]

You did better than anyone else then. The first showing and sale of a Scrappy was in 1988. :ROFLMAO:

Thanks for your business though. Did you buy it from us or Acme Sign Supply?

87 88 what ever...just before friction feed cutters were coming out. Loved it!!! I bought it from Allied, so you. I probably called you as well to thank you. I'm sure I saw a black and white add in Signcraft.

 

[GMS Product Manager]

Wow Fred. I remember that contraption. So you were the guy
Thanks for the memory jolt. I started selling Gerber for Hyatt's back in 89.

Doug Goodloe

 

[player]

The Scrappy™ Friction Feed Adapter was my product. We sold the last one in 1993 and discontinued manufacturing the product.

How did you do with the Scrappy?

How many did you sell?

Was it a profitable venture?

 

[Fred Weiss]

How did you do with the Scrappy?

We saved a lot of buyers some money and we learned a lot about the differences between the North American and overseas markets. More than half our sales were in Europe. We sold more Scrappies in New Zealand than in California, Texas, Florida and New York combined. Australia was about double that amount. In the U.S. and Canada, cast vinyl was an average of 70¢ a running foot while in Europe and the South Pacific, because Gerber had received patents on their modified punch pattern, it averaged over $3.00 a running foot. As such, it was a no brainer for overseas Gerber customers and was less important to North American owners.

How many did you sell?

Roughly $600K in four years after distributor discounts.

Was it a profitable venture?

Actually, it was not. Gerber forbade their distributors from selling it after some sales monitoring produced an estimate of a 20% drop in vinyl sales where a Scrappy was installed. Then most of the non-U.S. Gerber distributors adopted a policy of warranty voiding and complete withholding of service if a Scrappy was installed. This was serious money when you consider that Gerber's 1990 vinyl sales to their distributors was $160 million according to their financial statements. We pretty much broke even over the life of the product with the trade journals and sign expo operators being the only ones that profited from our advertising expenditures.

We also developed a measuring device for our own use to determine within an inch or two how much foil remained in an Edge cartridge. We polled several distributors and a couple of dozen Edge owners as to their interest and found none ... so we never brought that product to market. We use ours to this day.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Wow Fred. I remember that contraption. So you were the guy
Thanks for the memory jolt. I started selling Gerber for Hyatt's back in 89.

Doug Goodloe

Yes. I think Hyatt's was a distributor for a short time. You may remember that Gerber changed from bronze oilite bushings to roller bearings for the platens around that time. The reason was the Scrappy and Gerber's claim that using one would cause their bearings to fail.