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old equipment

wannabe

New Member
Well we've made the deal to buy an operating sign shop. I think we're buying out the "Sanford & Son" of the sign business. Our purchase comes with 5 plotters/printers one of which is actually in the production of cutting vinyl. According to the label on it it's a 'Classic Ioline'. It's the only one I've actually worked with. The seller says a 'Gerber GSB Sprint IIB' functions and was most recently used to cut sandblast vinyl, however the letters were usable but all the artwork I had to recut by hand with an exacto. He used contact cement to stick it to the cedar, which is what he chose to build it out of. I'm thinking this must have been his first sandblasted sign?? He had doweled and glued together six cedar boards about 5/8" thick by 6 ft and reinforced the back with a couple of furring strips or so it looked like to me. After having it blasted the contact cement was extremely difficult to remove. That's when he told me there was another glue that should have been used but he's famous for doing everything with the cheapest materials and supplies possible! (This has infuriated me!!) I might need to post this thread in book form somewhere! I love the idea of sandblasted signs and want MY shop to learn more about doing them. I've read about the different sign foam and materials to blast with and the painting processes so far but I'd really like to know more about the glue to use at this point. I'm hoping to actually sandblast my own sign for my business, "Professional Graffiti, LLC" and let that one be part of my learning the RIGHT way to do it. On top of all that he had us (the sons of Sanford &...) use latex paint to finish it. I'm just an old sign painter and am spoiled by 1 Shot, Chromatic, and Ronan, I guess. As I am learning in this crash course to bring my skills up to date, vinyl shouldn't be stuck to latex painted surfaces and 'Sanford' paints EVERYTHING with latex house paint. AAARRRGGHH! I'm putting a clause in our contract that he pays for the labor and materials for anything my business has to RE-do/repair that was done before the purchase date. ...but I digress.
The POINT of this post, and I think I have one, was to list my plotters/door stops that are not connected to anything to find out if I should trash them or invest the time and cost of trying to see if they work. So here's the list:
The Ioline that does all the work right now.
The Gerber
a Vinyl Express Trax
an Artisan Plus 1026
a HUGE Graphtec jx1130
'Sanford' has bought these others and doesn't know anything about them. Neither do I and they come with my purchase. Can anyone shed any light on these, please?
Sorry for the long winded post.
 

steve b

New Member
I would change the name of the shop, and put a big sign out front "Under New Ownership" I would not want to warranty any of the previous owners half a$$ work.

steveb
 

OldPaint

New Member
so your basically buy a BUSINESS......WITH OUT ANY EQUIPMENT...........smart move......after you there you need to spend more money......hummmmmmmm you would be better to rent a space next door...and start fresh.
 

imaSIGNr

New Member
so your basically buy a BUSINESS......WITH OUT ANY EQUIPMENT...........smart move......after you there you need to spend more money......hummmmmmmm you would be better to rent a space next door...and start fresh.
Took the words out of my mouth OP...
 

Ken

New Member
Other than Ioline, Gerber and Graphtec are well known machines and perhaps bringing them up to grade may be feasible, I can't really comment on those item specifically.
Is the building part of the deal and in a good location?
I'm with OP on this one. I would start fresh and give them a run for the money. If the previous owners reputation is "shadowy", it could take quite a while to live that down.
Good luck.
Ken
 

Pro Image

New Member
The Jx1130 is a printer cutter..........the only problem is that it is NOT a solvent printer...........That means your outdoor life is around 1 to 1.5 years (if that)if you use the highest quality material and lamination you can buy $$$$$$.........

The printer prints on coated material and use Pigment Ink to last outdoors, It will also contour cut the images but you need Flexi to run it and most likely "Sanford" doesn't have a copy does he???????

As for the rest I haven't a friggen clue about...........

I think Replicator is right...............
 

jagsouthern

New Member
I see that you are in Shreveport. I talked with someone there a few months ago who was selling their VersaCamm 540V. She wanted too much for it at the time but if it is still available and she wants less it would be a good idea to get a cutter/printer like the VersaCamm. If you want to start with only vinyl there are plenty of good cutters out there at budget prices.
 

wannabe

New Member
In spite of 'Sanford's' self, he continues to make money and has been established for as long as his vinyl equipment is old. (I've seen the REAL books) In addition to this old stuff we're getting 4 computers 2 of which are plenty new enough, a bucket truck, van, and pickup truck, an eight station 5 color automatic screen printing machine as well as a 6 station 5 color manual, huge dryer, exposure table, hundreds of screens, lots of inks; plastisol and air dry and we work the crap out of all that! We knew we would be in for a vinyl equipment upgrade real soon but for now it's working. What we were most interested in is his customer data base and it's substantial with lots of repeat business (and for the life of me I don't get that) We stay busy and behind schedule and turn out tons of work. A web design guy comes with it who maintains the website and does minor computer repair in exchange for his office space. 'Sanford' has lots of advertising already in place. There are really a lot of plusses to balance out the minuses. With Dustin's reply, I think I'll throw a little money at a low end Flexi software for beginners to learn the graphtec. I have to learn this old stuff long enough to know what I want to replace it with but in the meantime it's turning out a lot of work. I plan on doing immediate reputation and quality upgrade first.
Thank you all for your advice! If I fall on my face or other anatomical parts with this venture I can never say ya'll didn't warn me.
 

Ken

New Member
Ok, well I think your going into this with your eyes wide open and I wish you every success!
Cheers!
Ken
 
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