Saturday... time to clean the kit

[Jillbeans]

Dupont Hot Hues may be worth a try for the serious striper. I have seen it used at shows by Dewayne Connot. It's kind of scientific for me though, but it looks as if it works well.

My kit gets cleaned after every time I do a big job, but in the between times it's just a kit. I know where everything is in it. I paint whenever I can, and when it is the best option for a job. I get to paint some corn signs and school signs this week but everything else on the rather full plate is vinyl.

I always wanted a wooden kit but I have used a toolbox for years. I also prefer one on which I can stand or sit as needed. The one I have now is wheeled. I have been building up my kit since two kits were stolen about 2002.
Love....Jill
PS
One thing I always keep in it is a quarter. You can use it to open a can of paint, or if you have to pay for parking it will buy you 15 minutes.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

One thing I always keep in it is a quarter. You can use it to open a can of paint, or if you have to pay for parking it will buy you 15 minutes.

I can't tell ya how many painted edge quarters are layin' around here. My brother always used to complain about me using shop screwdrivers to stir paint and not cleaning them off. I called 'em plastic handled paint stirrers. Another thing that was in this kit was a supply of old double edge razor blades I haven't seen since my dad used them when I was a kid. There's a handle to make razor knife with them I think it's a museum piece. Cool thing to me is lots of these brushes haven't been used in 40 years. Several are irreplaceable.

 

[omgsideburns]

i wish i could do that stuff.. my handwriting is so sloppy, i'm pretty sure it would be fruitless to try and learn.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

i wish i could do that stuff.. my handwriting is so sloppy, i'm pretty sure it would be fruitless to try and learn.

Far as I know, handwriting is no indicator of possibility of learning to hand paint. The desire to learn coupled with the drive to practice like you've never practiced before is what will get you there. I'd say go for it. Being able to create a sign with a brush can be as satisfying as another favorite adult activity in my experience.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Surely agrees on Arlo handwriting & drawing ability's has nothing to with hand lettering or pinstriping or drawing & painting a picture using air brush or brush...

It's just learning the proper steps and practice .. then the desire to continue.
Knows this cause when I started stick people was hard to do or anything to draw up, my lettering was very hard to read and no former art class... till I went to sign school Mike Le hen at St Paul Voc. Tech. was the teacher that got me going in the right direction..just by telling me I could do better ,after I thought I had done my very best and to push through that mental block I had ...
I did push harder and realized that I really wanted to be a sign painter.

When I came down from Minnesota in 1985 I had already seen the Gerber 4 do it's thing and thought that would be great for the smaller stuff but at $10,000 it way out of the park, but Florida had sign shops by the dozens with Gerber's 4 and then 4b hit then Roland jumped into the market with the PCs and desktops for everybody sign shops opened everywhere and prices dropped like rocks in water.

For several years I was depressed by what was happening even I got replaced at the shop I was working at because I knew nothing about computers, barely had even seen them, much less flip a switch.

Well I'm still hand lettering an 95% of it my vinyl cutter I've had working since Jan. has not done 10 jobs since customers I get do not want vinyl.

Arlo Thank you Sat will be clean sign kit day for me now.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

I did push harder and realized that I really wanted to be a sign painter.



For several years I was depressed by what was happening even I got replaced at the shop I was working at because I knew nothing about computers, barely had even seen them, much less flip a switch.

Well I'm still hand lettering an 95% of it my vinyl cutter I've had working since Jan. has not done 10 jobs since customers I get do not want vinyl.

Arlo Thank you Sat will be clean sign kit day for me now.

I too got extremely depressed with the advent of computers. I can still remember my forehead breaking out in a sweat first time I watched a Signmaker operate. I thought the previous ten years I had spent trying to be as good as my mentors had been a total waste. I remember thinking that soon a sign computer would be on every corner, and I wasn't too far off. Now there in a lot of spare bedrooms too. I bought one and very soon forgot all about hand lettering - with the exception of an occasional wall job.

I got burned out on doing mind numbing vinyl several years ago. I sold my 3rd Gerber setup and swore I'd never do vinyl signs again. I also have an adhesive allergy that was discovered during one of my many surgeries. Weeding any amount of vinyl began to make a rash appear on my wrists and arms. So now, I had a medical excuse to give up on vinyl.

After three years doing nothing but electrical sign design and the occasional pinstriping job, I have a fever to get back into sign painting. It consumes my thinking throughout a lot of each day. I'm working on a design for a sign painting business logo and planning to buy a white cargo van to letter up (they were always my favorite form of self promotion). I'm interested in ideas for promoting sign painting again. What types of customers do you primarily serve? I actually strongly believe I can build up a considerable painting business. I think there is an appeal to a well executed painted sign vinyl can never match, and believe customers will see and want the difference. Plus, the franchise shops have prices high enough now that painted signs will easily be profitable since I expect I will regain my speed at hand lettering quite quickly.

Any suggestions on where to go from here.

 

[artsnletters]

I can't tell ya how many painted edge quarters are layin' around here. My brother always used to complain about me using shop screwdrivers to stir paint and not cleaning them off. I called 'em plastic handled paint stirrers.

I thought i was the only one who did that...my friends think i'm the strangest person alive for having Snap-On® paint stirrers...
Tim