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Help with new printer purchase

B

BIG EASY DOES IT

New Member
I would talk to a couple vendors in your area and go look at some models in a showroom. Maybe wait for a trade show in your area and go and see all the equipment. Latex is the way I would go, honestly I don't think you have much of an option. Running a solvent printer only a couple days a week, if even that much, you are going to run into issues with your head after awhile.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
I thought my question wasn't mean or anything. It had nothing to do with printers but I thought it's the most important question.

Do you know how to wrap?? Anyone can buy a printer and print, but the bigger question is can you put it on a vehicle?
 
ddarlak

ddarlak

Go Bills!
Johnny Best said:
There use to be a woman on here named JillBeans. She loved hand painting signs. She always complained about the "hacks" down the street who got into the sign business and made it bad for everyone to eek out a living. It cut into her business so bad she had to get a job outside the sign business to make a living. Last time I saw her on here she was doing Christmas windows for stores in her Pennsylvania town.
Have not seen her on here in some time now.
I try to protect the JillBeans in our business and when I see someone from another field come on and start asking questions to bring things in house, as this poster has done and drain my brain for information, it makes me worry about the future of our trade and which one of us is going to be the next JillBeans story.
I really do not care if the guy is a brain surgeon and wants to get into signs but I will not help him with his mission. Just glad he is not a brain surgeon coming on here to ask us how to take out the frontal lobe of a patient.
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I see your point, but I respect this poster as a business man and he is doing what I probably would do.

As I am a JOATMON myself I appreciate what he is attempting and my advice is freely given...
 
M

MI Bearcat

New Member
Frankp said:
I have looked at those options as well over the last year, some quotes with local guys were in the $5-7.50 per sq ft printing costs depending on media type and lamination options. Some were a little further away and then add shipping on top. I found that to be somewhat attractive at that point. Having all adobe programs and flexisign already as well most design work already completed, some was in house and other work was sub contracted out. Besides slight tweaks based on years of trucks and trailer sizes most of our designs are repetitive so to speak. I respect what your saying but I guess the difference is in my business I have always approached expansion differently then a lot of people. We as a company started out as most, small offering a handful of services and 10 years later we install decks, outdoor kitchens, poolscapes, and large commercial projects. Most people never even consider a landscaping company having electricians, carpenters, irrigation techs, etc on the payroll, we tend to hire qualified people and expand our services as we find value in those markets. You do not need to have hands on experience personally in each field you service in my opinion but you better surround yourself with those who do have experience in those fields and do your due diligence. Hence, why I am not scared to spend some money on printing equipment and utilize it to help improve our branding and self perform these services. Thank you for input though.
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I agree with OhioSigns. Sub out the printing at first and see how well you do with the wrapping. I wouldn't consider this an expansion unless you plan on eventually selling to other customers as well. Your not going to be making money with this equipment. No one on here knows how many trucks you wrap per year. If your doing a lot and have the personnel to handle the wrapping then go for it. Wouldn't take much to figure out your ROI depending upon how many trucks you will be doing per year. In my opinion the Latex is your only option if your not going to be using it often. Keep in mind there most likely will be a lot of waste and your trucks might not look as good with you doing it your self. Not as easy as it looks. Make sure you look into the electrical requirements of the latex also.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Johnny Best said:
There use to be a woman on here named JillBeans. She loved hand painting signs. She always complained about the "hacks" down the street who got into the sign business and made it bad for everyone to eek out a living. It cut into her business so bad she had to get a job outside the sign business to make a living. Last time I saw her on here she was doing Christmas windows for stores in her Pennsylvania town.
Have not seen her on here in some time now.
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last I heard she got pretty heavily into the landscaping business and is doing great. So good that shes thinking about starting a sign shop!
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
You guys look at this all wrong. How many of you go out and cut the grass infront of your business instead of pay a landscaper? If you can do it... go for it.

Yes, printing is different. Wrapping even harder... But if OP wants to spend $20-30,000 on equipment to try... Let him. Worst case... Those printers go on craigslist for 1/3 of their worth, and a real printer gets a good deal.

I bought 2 560's for $6000 USD each. I just got a 54" Laminator, for $300. All three in perfect condition. All from an auction or a forclosure sale... I see it just like I see all the basement dwellers... They think its a good idea, their loss...our gain.

Maybe he'll love it so much he quits landscaping and becomes a printer.... you never know. But spending 5 minutes to reply doesn't hurt. And maybe the next guy who wants to buy one will end up searching and see his options... Likely not, but you never know.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
mcarrigan said:
I agree with OhioSigns. Sub out the printing at first and see how well you do with the wrapping. I wouldn't consider this an expansion unless you plan on eventually selling to other customers as well. Your not going to be making money with this equipment. No one on here knows how many trucks you wrap per year. If your doing a lot and have the personnel to handle the wrapping then go for it. Wouldn't take much to figure out your ROI depending upon how many trucks you will be doing per year. In my opinion the Latex is your only option if your not going to be using it often. Keep in mind there most likely will be a lot of waste and your trucks might not look as good with you doing it your self. Not as easy as it looks. Make sure you look into the electrical requirements of the latex also.
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Isn't the business part of this, he's saving $1,000's upon $1,000s of dollars a year by NOT going to a regular sign shop ?? The very fact that a sign shop...... any sign shop is not getting his business is the whole point of this. He'd be a nice account to have, but like so many people these days, loyalty is a word they don't know. Trust is another word they don't know. In fact, cheapskate comes to mind more so. Foolishness, too. But, I'm just bashing him, so I will let it go for now.
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Hmm after seeing some of their trucks, I'd want to know more about what he is paying to drive him towards the decision of doing it himself.

Frankp, would you share that with us?
 
F

Frankp

New Member
2CT Media said:
Hmm after seeing some of their trucks, I'd want to know more about what he is paying to drive him towards the decision of doing it himself.

Frankp, would you share that with us?
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Not sure who alpnj is or why that was linked by someone but that is an interesting website, not ours though. A few members have reached out with advice on the printers privately which has been helpful. Thanks for those who have answered the questions in this post and not hijacked it into something completely else. I have a demo set up for several printers, those that reached out I will let you know how it goes. Thanks!
 
S

SignMeUpGraphics

Super Active Member
Bly said:
I wouldn't buy an HP latex. Those things never print the same colour twice and panel lengths never match.
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Interesting that you point out your experiences and people disagree.
You actually own a latex machine (although probably not for much longer after the new machine is tuned in) so you know first hand what the deal is.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
I disagree. We print a ton of police vehicles. Every year we have to replace 4-5 sections on different vehicles... And each time all 3 custom colors are a perfect match. Doesn't matter if it's a vehicle we did a year ago, two years ago or a week ago... Everytime they abuse and crash the vehicle and we repair it, you can't tell we replaced a panel.

There's tips and tricks to get constant color 100% of the time.... If you just throw material in without ever color calibrating or you use your heads past their lifetime... Colors will be off. We run a 5 minute color calibration everytime we need to do a job we know is a repeat job. Never had an issue with color since we started that...

It's an extra step and I can see why some don't want to take it. But to me, solvents have more annoyances than a little color calibration every other week.
 
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