• 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 ...

Ugh....WHY!?!?!

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

New Member
I ordered 118 12" x 6" x .080" pre-painted sign blanks for some parking lot signs that will have a number and letter combination applied in 4" tall blue vinyl letters. This should be a pretty easy straightforward job. Then I saw the blanks Grimco sent me. Apparently, they must be CNC machining these blanks now and would you just look at the mess the CNC leaves behind? It should take me about 2-3 hours to mount decals on all of these signs, but now it's gonna take a whole lot longer just to peel the plastic off the back of each one and dust them off before I can even work with them. And that still doesn't guarantee that I won't have to contend with tiny particles of plastic getting under my decals and all over our shop.

Before I even started the job, the customer requested a sample of one sign before they would okay the estimate. The blank Grimco had sent about one week ago had pink plastic and was sheared like what I would typically see. Then when I placed the order for 117 more, this is what they sent me.

Anyone else seen these or is it likely that Grimco just CNC'd these from sheet stock to fulfill my large order?

20210119_143408.jpg 20210119_143527.jpg
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
So, if it takes you 2-3 hours to clean it..... do you think it would be cheaper to have them clean them, then yourself ?? Someone hasta do it.

And yes, just about anything that comes in pre-cut is gonna be like that.
 
Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

New Member
Gino said:
So, if it takes you 2-3 hours to clean it..... do you think it would be cheaper to have them clean them, then yourself ?? Someone hasta do it.

And yes, just about anything that comes in pre-cut is gonna be like that.
Click to expand...

In nine years in this business I have never once received sign blanks that weren't sheared. Normally, no cleaning is required. These are a stock item, not custom.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
We recently received some very unacceptable blanks from Grimco... they had these black spots all over them - it looked like mold, but they were rough feeling. like whatever enamel they are coated with got bubbles or something. I was pretty annoyed - as I had planned to run them through our FB. But instead I had to do it old-skool: print on vinyl and mount.
It wasn't all of them, so even more annoying that I had to print all vinyl signs when 4 out of 12 blanks were bad.
 
Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

New Member
Boudica said:
We recently received some very unacceptable blanks from Grimco... they had these black spots all over them - it looked like mold, but they were rough feeling. like whatever enamel they are coated with got bubbles or something. I was pretty annoyed - as I had planned to run them through our FB. But instead I had to do it old-skool: print on vinyl and mount.
It wasn't all of them, so even more annoying that I had to print all vinyl signs when 4 out of 12 blanks were bad.
Click to expand...

Due to an almost constant lack of satisfaction with Grimco, we made the switch to Wensco recently. Unfortunately, Wensco doesn't sell these blanks, so I had to use Grimco. We would get so much damaged product from Grimco, it was crazy. Some were the shipper's fault, but most of it came out of the warehouse that way.
 
Z SIGNS

Z SIGNS

New Member
Doesn't seem like a problem to me. Peel the plastic off wipe it with a dust cloth or a brush. 5 seconds for each blank.
If this is a big problem in your shop consider yourself lucky.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Perhaps call a local street sign company and get blanks such as these, there. Maybe they'll clean them for ya.
 
Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

New Member
Z SIGNS said:
Doesn't seem like a problem to me. Peel the plastic off wipe it with a dust cloth or a brush. 5 seconds for each blank.
If this is a big problem in your shop consider yourself lucky.
Click to expand...

I get that. I mean we get polycarbonate sheets with sawdust stuck to them and whatnot, but this was a surprise to me, especially after the sample I ordered had the typical pink plastic covering and no plastic fuzz. I would obviously prefer the sheared and punched blanks that we normally always get. These tiny pieces of plastic are getting everywhere and they take longer than a few seconds to peel because there are fragments that are being left around the holes and where the bit starts the cut at the top of each blank, too. It's not the end of the world, but it's still a PITA and a surprise to see them cut this way.
 
Last edited:
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
SignMeUpGraphics said:
Perhaps invest in one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Manual-Removal-Anti-static-Cleaner/dp/B07KS914XV

We do picture framing and these things can pick up the tiniest bits of dust on the glass just before we mount it.
I think it would do well collecting all of the blue plastic debris.
Click to expand...
Think this would work on sintra "crumbs"? When we get projects back from our CNC guy, even though they blow them off, there are still lots of little sintra crumbs all over the place. impossible to get out of carpet lol
 
Last edited:
U

unclebun

Active Member
I just called my Grimco rep to ask if they've changed the way they make blanks. She was not aware of any change. She did suggest it might mean they came from a different manufacturing plant. They have two, one in Owensville, MO, which is where my product always comes from. They are the original Grimco plant, and they use shears. The other plant is in Ohio, and the rep didn't know what they used there to make the blanks.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
signheremd said:
have you considered taking to a work area and using your air compessor to blow the worst off before taking them back to your assembly area
Click to expand...
We have, and that is what we do. We have an air compressor in the vehicle bay, and we'll take them back there and blow them off, but it never get's quite all of it. :(
 
WYLDGFI

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
unclebun said:
I just called my Grimco rep to ask if they've changed the way they make blanks. She was not aware of any change. She did suggest it might mean they came from a different manufacturing plant. They have two, one in Owensville, MO, which is where my product always comes from. They are the original Grimco plant, and they use shears. The other plant is in Ohio, and the rep didn't know what they used there to make the blanks.
Click to expand...
Its funny...I actually sent a link to this thread to my Grimco rep. We typically have excellent service from our Grimco warehouses in NJ & PA. Ive never seen anything like that from them ever. That does suck though.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
If I was selling blanks to someone I would absolutely not let them go out like that. Sure it’s a minor inconvenience but it’s definitely unprofessional sending that mess to a customer.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I don't even get that much dust when I cut mine. Are the edges smooth or do you have to sand them?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top