Truckntran Bill
New Member
Hey guys, I finally joined up here after finding the Signs 101 website in almost every Google search I did trying to find answers about my setup...
I am located in a little town near Abilene , Texas...Coleman. It is a sleepy little town that has not been hit by the oil boom in West Texas yet. We have a main street, bypassed by the main highway thru town, and the Cattle auction barn and hardware stores along with the usual small town places make up our business sector. There is already one sign shop in town, who I really don't compete with.
I started out when I was a kid, trying to letter by hand. I never got any gold stars in penmanship as a kid, but I tried and tried to make signs with a brush and paint, but as you can imagine, my poor penmanship transferred over to the signs I tried to make. Eventually I gave up and went on to other interests...but still loved to look at the old signs the artists back then were making...
Fast forward to the early 2000's....Vinyl cutters had been out for a while, and when I needed signs for my new pilot truck business, I spent most of a day masking and cutting out the letters for new painted truck signs. (Yes, I was BROKE)...The signs actually came out pretty good, not quite professional looking but pretty close. It sparked the old interest and I started to look into getting set up for making new signs for fellow pilot car operators.
Ebay also was coming into its own, and I searched and searched for a used cutter to make the job quicker and neater.. Finally picked up a used 15 inch Stika for a price I could afford. Tracking wasn't great with the Stika, so the 5 foot long signs I made had to be adjusted to keep the letters in line most of the time. Dr.Stika couldn't arc text, ended up laying a pinstripe down the middle of text that needed arcing, and laid down the letters by eye using the pinstripe as a handle.
Eventually the Stika started to have serious drive roller problems and I started to look for a new cutter. I picked up a nice old Graphtec FC 3100- 60 from a guy who brought it to flea markets and did quick signs, and entered the modern age of quality professional cutters just when everyone was starting to get into print and cut systems. I found Signblazer at the US cutter websites, and found out it was a huge step up from the DR Stika program I was using. Too bad the originator passed away and nobody has picked up the ball to keep it current.
Signs are a part time job for me while i am out on the road doing my pilot car work. I developed one specialty sign related product for wind tower haulers that has done well, with almost no promotion. I seem to have production spurts, normally the day before I am scheduled to go somewhere I have three or four jobs that show up. I don't know how people know I am about to go on the road but it never fails I get the calls right before I leave. I have a couple of truckers that have me letter all their trucks and trailers. Nothing like seeing your own sign work going down the road....
I have what would have been a state of the art small vinyl shop back a decade or two ago.. Graphtec, with a desktop running it, large 4 by 8 layout table with a glass top over the cutting mat, a rack of Oracal, and a stack of the 10 mm Coro for the Oversize Load signs. I do a lot of quick window signs for my fellow pilot car operators as they seem to prefer a window sign to a set of blow off magnetics. (I don't care whose magnetic ya use, they WILL blow off in some conditions we encounter in the pilot car biz)..
I've bought as many of the classic sign books as I could, even got a copy of the good old Atkinsons book I have been tempted to sell for capital a time or two. Mastering Layout, Some EC Matthews books, and a couple of the modern guides and dvds round out my study collection. I see a lot of signage when i am out on the road, especially on the buildings of small town America. Misplaced apo'strphes'drive me nut's.
.as do misspelled signs. So do tiny , intricate letter designs and Olde English as truck lettering. Call me biased or the sign police.. lol. Don't ask how I feel about most wraps. My business card says....Signs you can read!! , as I like clean, neat design with plenty of negative space to offset the lettering and logos..
Anyhow, I think that's enough about me.. Gotta go ask a question about my Vinyl Master Pro software I am trying to use.
I am located in a little town near Abilene , Texas...Coleman. It is a sleepy little town that has not been hit by the oil boom in West Texas yet. We have a main street, bypassed by the main highway thru town, and the Cattle auction barn and hardware stores along with the usual small town places make up our business sector. There is already one sign shop in town, who I really don't compete with.
I started out when I was a kid, trying to letter by hand. I never got any gold stars in penmanship as a kid, but I tried and tried to make signs with a brush and paint, but as you can imagine, my poor penmanship transferred over to the signs I tried to make. Eventually I gave up and went on to other interests...but still loved to look at the old signs the artists back then were making...
Fast forward to the early 2000's....Vinyl cutters had been out for a while, and when I needed signs for my new pilot truck business, I spent most of a day masking and cutting out the letters for new painted truck signs. (Yes, I was BROKE)...The signs actually came out pretty good, not quite professional looking but pretty close. It sparked the old interest and I started to look into getting set up for making new signs for fellow pilot car operators.
Ebay also was coming into its own, and I searched and searched for a used cutter to make the job quicker and neater.. Finally picked up a used 15 inch Stika for a price I could afford. Tracking wasn't great with the Stika, so the 5 foot long signs I made had to be adjusted to keep the letters in line most of the time. Dr.Stika couldn't arc text, ended up laying a pinstripe down the middle of text that needed arcing, and laid down the letters by eye using the pinstripe as a handle.
Eventually the Stika started to have serious drive roller problems and I started to look for a new cutter. I picked up a nice old Graphtec FC 3100- 60 from a guy who brought it to flea markets and did quick signs, and entered the modern age of quality professional cutters just when everyone was starting to get into print and cut systems. I found Signblazer at the US cutter websites, and found out it was a huge step up from the DR Stika program I was using. Too bad the originator passed away and nobody has picked up the ball to keep it current.
Signs are a part time job for me while i am out on the road doing my pilot car work. I developed one specialty sign related product for wind tower haulers that has done well, with almost no promotion. I seem to have production spurts, normally the day before I am scheduled to go somewhere I have three or four jobs that show up. I don't know how people know I am about to go on the road but it never fails I get the calls right before I leave. I have a couple of truckers that have me letter all their trucks and trailers. Nothing like seeing your own sign work going down the road....
I have what would have been a state of the art small vinyl shop back a decade or two ago.. Graphtec, with a desktop running it, large 4 by 8 layout table with a glass top over the cutting mat, a rack of Oracal, and a stack of the 10 mm Coro for the Oversize Load signs. I do a lot of quick window signs for my fellow pilot car operators as they seem to prefer a window sign to a set of blow off magnetics. (I don't care whose magnetic ya use, they WILL blow off in some conditions we encounter in the pilot car biz)..
I've bought as many of the classic sign books as I could, even got a copy of the good old Atkinsons book I have been tempted to sell for capital a time or two. Mastering Layout, Some EC Matthews books, and a couple of the modern guides and dvds round out my study collection. I see a lot of signage when i am out on the road, especially on the buildings of small town America. Misplaced apo'strphes'drive me nut's.
.as do misspelled signs. So do tiny , intricate letter designs and Olde English as truck lettering. Call me biased or the sign police.. lol. Don't ask how I feel about most wraps. My business card says....Signs you can read!! , as I like clean, neat design with plenty of negative space to offset the lettering and logos.. Anyhow, I think that's enough about me.. Gotta go ask a question about my Vinyl Master Pro software I am trying to use.
