Pauly
Printrade.com.au
I hate when people call a memory stick/thumb drive a "USB" Do you even know what a USB is??? Yes show me your universal serial bus.
-
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 ...
VENT - Things that annoy you in the print industry.
- Thread starter Pauly
- Start date
I hate when people call a memory stick/thumb drive a "USB" Do you even know what a USB is??? Yes show me your universal serial bus.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
Wow!!! 18 years in the sign business and after reading all these posts.....I agree with all of them and thanks everyone, I am now quitting the sign business and going to flip burgers
It's easier to be a watchguard at a tanning salon.
signed off
me
did but there was so many "caller unlisted" it seemed stupid to pay for the service, so now I quess who it might be
All Graphics Calgary
New Member
No, we use smoke signals..from our igloos.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
Ya know, now they have these things called 'tin cans' and if you connect them with simple string or twine, you can talk to each other........
Let's pretend you need to make 10 ACM panels. 48" x 32" with holes in each corner for stand offs. The math says you can get 3 panels per sheet and the order will take 10 sheets. Reality is way different. First you have to hope and pray you get 10 sheets with good edges. Second you have to hope and pray the sheets are square. Then you have to hope the sheet gave you an extra .5-1" so you can cut the panels to actually 32". This is all assuming you're doing this by hand on a panel saw and hand drilling the holes. Now try and do the same job on a CNC router. Guess what, you can't. You need to buy a 5x10 sheet to even consider getting decent yield.
Simply making the panel 46"x30" would result in improved results, better yield, and ultimately better pricing.
On cheap temporary signs where it really doesn't matter if the edge is perfect or the sizing is perfect, it's less of an issue. If you want to mass produce or are going for quality, it's typically wise to not design panels to be 48"
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Redo your math. I would need only 4 sheets to make 10 of these. And yes, I would let the customer know they will probably be 31.5" x 48"
ACM panels isn't a term we use here, I'm assuming you mean composite aluminum similar to Max Metal or Sign-A-Bond, right?
When I order ours, they come on a pallet, and if the edges are fouled up, I reject the shipment.
Also, we cut ours to size using a shear, but if the shear isn't a option, I use a straight edge and a utility knife... score it a few times
and snap the cut on a table edge @ cut the back piece of aluminum by running the utility knife up the snapped edge.
jfiscus
Rap Master
Buy a slitter; it makes life much easier. Now you also have free rolls of edge-seal tape. Took forever to convince them to get one here, then they said "why did we wait so long to buy one?"
Have one you would recommend? It would make my life much easier if I could cut my own mask as well. I've always been under the impression that they were pretty pricey.
Brandon708
New Member
The phone call.
Them: How much is a sign.....pause... (I was waiting for them to finish their question)
Sign guy: what kind of sign? What will it be used for?
Them: You know, A letter sign...
Turned out this guy was looking for a letter sign that didn't light up. He says another shop is supposed to be working on it and is having trouble getting I contact with them. He also mentioned that they have been taking very long with their sign and they want to open next week and need the sign. So at this point I'm thinking. Okay maybe the shop got busy and forgot about this guy or just blew him off for whatever reason. I ask him to send me the file for his sign. He sends me a cropped version of another sign shops proposal. Of course it's a LED channel letters on a raceway (that does light up). I respond back to him this will take about 6 weeks to manufacture and install. So I ask him if the other sign company applied for a permit. He says yes. I look closer at the cropped proposal and see a fax number. I Google it and call this company to see if they are making this guy's sign. Also to give them the heads up that this guy is shopping around after he placed an order with them. Long story short I talked to the guy who was making his sign and he tells me his customer is calling him on the other line.
I guess he finally got in touch with him.
That's how that ended....
Them: How much is a sign.....pause... (I was waiting for them to finish their question)
Sign guy: what kind of sign? What will it be used for?
Them: You know, A letter sign...
Turned out this guy was looking for a letter sign that didn't light up. He says another shop is supposed to be working on it and is having trouble getting I contact with them. He also mentioned that they have been taking very long with their sign and they want to open next week and need the sign. So at this point I'm thinking. Okay maybe the shop got busy and forgot about this guy or just blew him off for whatever reason. I ask him to send me the file for his sign. He sends me a cropped version of another sign shops proposal. Of course it's a LED channel letters on a raceway (that does light up). I respond back to him this will take about 6 weeks to manufacture and install. So I ask him if the other sign company applied for a permit. He says yes. I look closer at the cropped proposal and see a fax number. I Google it and call this company to see if they are making this guy's sign. Also to give them the heads up that this guy is shopping around after he placed an order with them. Long story short I talked to the guy who was making his sign and he tells me his customer is calling him on the other line.
I guess he finally got in touch with him.
That's how that ended....
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Yeah I can't justify that expense just to shave off 1/4"-1/2" off of our laminate rolls.
Although I could see some other uses if it can slit a whole 50m banner roll....I would love to be able to cut down a 54" roll to 2-27" rolls for 2' banners.
jfiscus
Rap Master
We run three 63" printers here and also two 15" edge printers, so we usually are primarily buying a lot of 54/48" material for the wide format, so we just slit the rolls of lam down for the small printers, you can also slit rolls of banner, mask, etc. We also do a decent amount of striping for firetrucks/hydrants/etc and it is much cheaper to slit the rolls into reflective striping. We run a LOT of material through here also on the wide format and saving 15 minutes per laminated roll by pre-trimming it really adds up quick. Even at only 4 rolls per day that is 1 hour per day; 20+ hours per month equates to around $500+/month, and that would be a REAL slow month.
shoresigns
New Member
shoresigns
New Member
there are a lot of things that annoy me, but the only one that I cannot get over is the question "where is the guy that works here, you know, the owner?" Me, I'm the owner, or are you talking about my husband, my partner? the one who has absolutely nothing to do with sales, really won't help you with materials or ideas, and can't give you a price? You want to waste his time and mine, since you'll be standing in my area, talking about a sign that I need to price?
That's a great way for you to pay more for your sign, since its going to take twice as much effort than if you just talked to me in the first place.
That's a great way for you to pay more for your sign, since its going to take twice as much effort than if you just talked to me in the first place.
The one that really irritates me...
Customer is very specific about what they are looking for and what they definitely don't want - you go through the hoops pricing up their requirements and give them the estimate - then you go by and see they've had it done exactly as they said they didn't want it. Oh, and of course when talking to them it's 'cos, you know, it was cheaper...
Customer is very specific about what they are looking for and what they definitely don't want - you go through the hoops pricing up their requirements and give them the estimate - then you go by and see they've had it done exactly as they said they didn't want it. Oh, and of course when talking to them it's 'cos, you know, it was cheaper...