Scrap Storage

[banditsigns]

Just curious to know what anyone does with the scrap substrates. I need to get organized better in my shop and have scrap pieces (1'-3' extra that has been cut from full sheets. Right now they are leaning up against a wall in my shop. Thought about shelves, but with the many sizes, what is the best way you have found to store them....Thanks

 

[ddarlak]

the garbage can....

i used to be a scrap hoarder - it is nice finding a piece that fits your need.

but, it's also nice not having years of crap cluttering up the shop.

 

[njshorts]

the garbage can....

i used to be a scrap hoarder - it is nice finding a piece that fits your need.

but, it's also nice not having years of crap cluttering up the shop.

we're close... we budget the full board into retail jobs and if less than half of the board is left, we chuck it or give it away.

 

[SightLine]

I'm fighting this very demon right now.... on foam/pvc/acrylic/etc substrates we probably have a hundred or more oddball size peices taking up space. Due to all the different size it's tough to even dig through. They range from 8" x 48" to 20" x 96" to smaller to larger. Been debating on just giving the whole lot to a school down the road.

Then we move onto scrap vinyl. Anything from banner stock to print vinyl to laminate to solid color scraps. Literally hundreds. Some bits are really usable sizes (banner stock cutoff 18 inches by 20 feet, etc) but I'm really asking myself "when" will I use it?

 

[banditsigns]

Agreed....I just know that there has been several times (this week) where someone has placed an order for 6 1'x2' alumalite signs....worked out perfect having the extra from a job last week. Just hard to trow out potential $ but like you guys say....having a wall full of odd sizes can get frustrating........thanks

 

[Locals Find!]

I would suggest making a spreadsheet with an inventory of your scrap. Then run a special on using those pieces from time to time. Email blast it out to all your clients. Limit the time that the special will run i.e. 7 days 30 days etc...Then when the time has passed anything left either dump it, or you will find it greatly reduced and not need to.

When I ran my screenprinting shop I would do this every two months with all my odd ball shirts left over from making sure I had enough to cover mistakes on jobs. Worked out well and kept our inventory manageable. Usually made enough money to take the guys out for a few beers for employee recognition day. Helped a lot with morale.

 

[banditsigns]

Good idea!!!!!! Thanks

 

[ddarlak]

I would suggest making a spreadsheet with an inventory of your scrap. Then run a special on using those pieces from time to time. Email blast it out to all your clients. Limit the time that the special will run i.e. 7 days 30 days etc...Then when the time has passed anything left either dump it, or you will find it greatly reduced and not need to.

that gives me an idea...

i'll make a spreadsheet for my bathroom usage to try and make my day a little more efficient by tracking my crap......

hoarding is one thing, cataloging it... oh my... couldn't think of more of a waste of time...

in years of work, i have found that time is the most costly commodity....

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

If I don't have a personal use for it, it gets chucked. We used to save all the scrap it became more of a pain in the ass to try and find one little piece than just pulling a fresh roll out.

 

[Locals Find!]

that gives me an idea...

i'll make a spreadsheet for my bathroom usage to try and make my day a little more efficient by tracking my crap......

hoarding is one thing, cataloging it... oh my... couldn't think of more of a waste of time...

in years of work, i have found that time is the most costly commodity....

Seriously the 30 seconds it would take you to enter in to a spreadsheet that you had a 4x2 piece of coroplast left over is not going to cost you your business.

Now, I wouldn't suggest doing it for every single piece only those that are large enough or good enough that you could actually produce something from it worth selling.

Any good business should be doing an inventory at least once a month anyway. If for no other reason than to keep updated records for any insurance claims. If a disaster happens.

 

[wildside]

we try to dice everything to common sizes when we can, dibond and omegabond make great "no parking" signs etc, so we dice as many as we can to 12x18 and 18x24 and even 6x24, then trash the rest, space is more valuable then scrap

i worked at a shop once that inventoried the scrap, was a decent idea, but realistically was never accurate, someone would just grab a piece not record it and then was off forever again.....

 

[petepaz]

this is just the nature of the business and you always think something will come up that you can use it for but when it does great big profit on that scrap that another customer paid for.
every couple of months i weed through the pile and throw out some stuff if need be to keep it to a manageable size
same thing with the ends of the rolls of vinyl i keep a few scraps for samples and when it doesn't fit in the 30" roll box any more i start chucking in to the dumpster

 

[Gino]

Seriously the 30 seconds it would take you to enter in to a spreadsheet that you had a 4x2 piece of coroplast left over is not going to cost you your business.

Now, I wouldn't suggest doing it for every single piece only those that are large enough or good enough that you could actually produce something from it worth selling.

Any good business should be doing an inventory at least once a month anyway. If for no other reason than to keep updated records for any insurance claims. If a disaster happens.

So, not only are you wasting time cataloging it, but you have to stop and determine if it's worth saving or not, enter it into your spreadsheet and then find a place to store it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.


We have several areas in the shop designated for this stuff.

We have a section for pvc and acrylics, one for MDO, alumalite and dibond and one for Cor-X. If things are under a certain size, we immediately toss it. Otherwise it goes into it's designated area and gets used eventually.

We have a few racks for vinyls, also. We generally will cuts lotsa pinstripes or circles with left over colors.




In addition Addie.... not to bust yur chops, but you're gonna tell me you catalog your cutoffs and off-falls in case of some unforeseen disaster, which indicates you buy a sheet of MDO and only charge the customer for the small portion he bought. So you now have an unpaid piece of substrate in your inventory. How long can you go on doing that and stay afloat ??

 

[Locals Find!]

So, not only are you wasting time cataloging it, but you have to stop and determine if it's worth saving or not, enter it into your spreadsheet and then find a place to store it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.


We have several areas in the shop designated for this stuff.

We have a section for pvc and acrylics, one for MDO, alumalite and dibond and one for Cor-X. If things are under a certain size, we immediately toss it. Otherwise it goes into it's designated area and gets used eventually.

We have a few racks for vinyls, also. We generally will cuts lotsa pinstripes or circles with left over colors.




In addition Addie.... not to bust yur chops, but you're gonna tell me you catalog your cutoffs and off-falls in case of some unforeseen disaster, which indicates you buy a sheet of MDO and only charge the customer for the small portion he bought. So you now have an unpaid piece of substrate in your inventory. How long can you go on doing that and stay afloat ??

No, Gino. I charge the customer for the whole piece. I do an inventory of everything in my office though once a month to keep updated records of whats in here. That way if there is a fire or something. I know for sure every single thing that was there.

I started doing this after hurricane charley when, I lost the roof to my shop and 4,000 t-shirts were sucked clean out of it by the tornado that took the roof. I had no inventory of anything. So, the insurance company wouldn't pay out on all of it.

 

[HulkSmash]

No, Gino. I charge the customer for the whole piece. I do an inventory of everything in my office though once a month to keep updated records of whats in here. That way if there is a fire or something. I know for sure every single thing that was there.

I started doing this after hurricane charley when, I lost the roof to my shop and 4,000 t-shirts were sucked clean out of it by the tornado that took the roof. I had no inventory of anything. So, the insurance company wouldn't pay out on all of it.

um, you didn't know what equipment your company lost? Did you lose your brain in that storm as well?

 

[Billct2]

We have racks with areas for each type of material. One rack for long skinny pieces, one for smaller rectangles.
We save cut offs depending on their worth and size.
Then a few times of year we toss a bunch.

 

[slappy]

anyone have issues with SignCraft? I can't seem to toss those either!

 

[Gino]

No, Gino. I charge the customer for the whole piece. I do an inventory of everything in my office though once a month to keep updated records of whats in here. That way if there is a fire or something. I know for sure every single thing that was there.

I started doing this after hurricane charley when, I lost the roof to my shop and 4,000 t-shirts were sucked clean out of it by the tornado that took the roof. I had no inventory of anything. So, the insurance company wouldn't pay out on all of it.

Ya know, I figured this would be your answer..... because a leopard never changes its spots. That's why I really didn't finish my post as I did and waited for your response.

Therefore, you are admitting to now cheating your insurance company. It's called insurance fraud. You are paid in full from a customer for something and retain a portion of the already paid substrate and you then want to collect on merchandise you've already been reimbursed for by customers and collect again from the insurance company should some disaster come along ??


So, Why did you have 4,000 T-shirts laying around your shop during Charlie without invoices, packing slips or work orders ?? No written quotes, jobs in progress or files to prove why they were supposedly there..... either ?? Seems like someone was trying to make something up and get paid for something which was never in their possession to begin with.

Is that all you do ?? Scheme ??
​

 

[Locals Find!]

Ya know, I figured this would be your answer..... because a leopard never changes its spots. That's why I really didn't finish my post as I did and waited for your response.

Therefore, you are admitting to now cheating your insurance company. It's called insurance fraud. You are paid in full from a customer for something and retain a portion of the already paid substrate and you then want to collect on merchandise you've already been reimbursed for by customers and collect again from the insurance company should some disaster come along ??


So, Why did you have 4,000 T-shirts laying around your shop during Charlie without invoices, packing slips or work orders ?? No written quotes, jobs in progress or files to prove why they were supposedly there..... either ?? Seems like someone was trying to make something up and get paid for something which was never in their possession to begin with.

Is that all you do ?? Scheme ??
​

Gino, I am not scamming anyone. What I said was an aside to the post about scraps. I was saying since, you should already being doing an inventory anyway on your shop at least once a month. How, much more work is it to inventory your useable scrap substrates? Two different inventories. I wasn't suggesting combining the two.

When I lost my roof of the shop all the paperwork was gone either by being sucked out with the shirts & what was left was destroyed by water coming in since the roof no longer existed. (I mean totally 100% gone, not just some pieces missing) I never got paid for the missing shirts because, I didn't have records. I learned my lesson keep better records off-site for just these scenarios.

I had over 4,000 shirts in there because, we used close to 1,500 a week. We would buy in bulk to save money from the distributors & mills. So, we always had on hand inventory to fill orders.

Now, that we have both pirated the OPs thread maybe we can continue this discussion elsewhere?

 

[John Butto]

I know this happens to other people and not just me but if there is something that gets thrown out, I will get a call in the next couple of days that I could have used the thrown out item for.