• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

New guy

D

D K

New Member
Hi there......I'm new to this site. I was a signmaker from 1976 to 1996. My shop was in Seattle and shared space with a screenprinter. I did the usual stuff....banners, showcards, plywood signs, sandblasted redwood and cedar, gold leaf, truck and boat:software lettering, lighted awnings, windows etc. I'm just curious about the modern sign shop and what equipment is the standard these days. I was thinking I might snap a few signs when I retire to keep me out of trouble.
 
P

PGSigns

New Member
Welcome to Signs 101. Well as far as modern equipment goes plotters, printers, and cnc routers seem to be the must haves.
Jimmy
 
signage

signage

New Member
Wecome to the forums from PA....

Equipment is basically the same, except now some is controlled by computers;)
 
Red Ball

Red Ball

Seasoned Citizen
Welcome from the Kingdom of Texas.
Well, let's see.
Electro-pounce, sock filled with charcoal powder, Stabilo grease pencils, yardsticks and the #10 Quill. Oh, and a church key for opening beers, I mean paint cans. :)
 
Wildpony

Wildpony

New Member
Welcome from Minnesota.
Today in the sign business you need to be comfortable around a computer, and all the machines it runs (Printer, plotter)
 
D

D K

New Member
Thanks for the welcome

Wow.....I can see that I've missed a lot in the last 13 years. When I left the trade I was using a Gerber 4b, Mac SE30 loaded with SEE MacSignmaker. I'm curious about how far the software has progressed. I remember that scanning in artwork and cleaning it up to cut took countless hours.
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
HO HO HO

You are in for a treat.
I also started on the Gerber 4B but have been in the UK Sign Industry for nearly 25 years now.
The software (Signlab, Flexi, etc etc) can virtually put the design out of your head into a reality.
Goto Cadlink and download there demo of Signlab 8 you are not going to believe it.

I remember a cartoon of an 80s US sign magazine and there is 2 guys (both signmakers) One is holding a block of wood and a computer and he is asking were can he plug his rs232 interface cable into it to make it into a sign!

This is a reality (well almost)

Plotters are unbelievably fast now what took days on a Gerber 4B will take 10 minutes on a new one (I can remember setting a job of on a 4B on Friday Evening and it was still cutting on the following Tuesday!).
Digital Printers that print onto any substrate are a reality too.

Wow I wish I could watch you when you find out what advances there have been

Enjoy
SC
 
Edserv

Edserv

New Member
Welcome from another newbie! Good luck with your business! We have a Mutoh VJ1204, Q60 cutter, Ricoh Digital Printer/Copier and all the other normal tools. We've managed to be able to avoid buying a cold lam (until we start doing wraps next month,) we use a Big Squeegee for most of our overlam needs. We've also found that the eco-solvent inks really do stand up to the sun (especially being in Hawaii, on the west side of the Big Island- hard core sunlight everyday.) We have signs and car vinyl that show almost no fading after 18 months (knock on wood!)
Chris
 
BobM

BobM

New Member
Sign software, cutter and a fleet of Signs 101 merchant members to outsource to whileil you find your maket nitch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top