jheyne

Hi all, I've got a customer who wants to get some vinyl put on colorplast signs. He says he found somewhere to get the blanks for like .99 and wants me to quote putting vinyl on them. Size is 24" X 18" each. I'm not sure how to quote this one. I'd like to give him a qty discount on larger orders, so if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated. breakdowns on like 12, 24, 50, 100 pcs. Thanks in advance

I thought about screen printing them if he wants a lot, I do textile (t-shirts & such) printing, but i'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of learning how to print and cure other substrates right now. If he wants a lot, I'll consider printing them.

please email me with info on your vinyl as well. alheyne@hotmail.com

We've done it this way for years. Order the shirts on an as needed basis. When you get an order, order a few extra's of each size. (your bound to mess some up anyway (especially on large orders... I'm in the middle of a 1000 piece order right now)). After a while you don't make as many mistakes and your inventory grows. Just my 2 cents.

Plastisol ink must reach a temp of at least 320degrees to fully cure. Not too sure about using a heat press as I generally run them through a conveyor dryer after direct print. Your problem may not be under curing but might be "over" curing If plastisol over cured, it has a tendency to crack. Try varying the heat and pressure on your press a bit and see if you can get a good transfer. I'd definately contact whoever sold you the transfers and ask for help.

I've never been a fan of table top type presses. You may want to keep your eyes peeled for some used equipment. I'd suggest looking for a 4 color 1 station or 4 color 4 station press. Believe it or not, you can occasionally find them for a couple hundred bucks and with a little finess, you can do great quality work with them and tackle larger jobs easily. Just my .02 Peace All

Here's a chance for a good deal on a used dryer. The guy's in chicago and basicly just wants to unload it. check out http://forums.screenprinters.net/ and look at the private classified's section. You could probably offer him a couple hundred bucks and have a nice dryer if you able to pick it up. Peace

It depends on the type of printing you want to do. We normally use plastisol ink. You'll need a some sort of dryer to heat the ink to 320 degrees to allow it to "cure" to the shirt. I would suggest a dual cure photo sensitive emulsion. There are many brands, your best bet is to call a distributor and let them know the kind of printing that you will be doing. They will be more than happy to suggest the types of ink and emulsion that you will need. If you can't locate any distributors, let me know and I'll pm you with a couple.

Hi all, I've got a client who's looking for some bumper stickers, I've got a cutter, but I don't have anything that prints on vinyl. I think in remember seeing that someone on here does bumper stickers, but I don't remember who. Anyhow, they're looking for pricing on (100 ,200, 250 pcs. respectively). bumper stickers depending on the price. White with black lettering. 6.25 inches wide x 4 1/8 inch tall. I can do the artwork however it needs to be done (camera ready, vector, whatever you need). Please PM Me with your quote including terms and also include shipping to Elyria, OH 44035. I just glanced at the artwork, and it may need to be cut in oval shape. Thanks in advance.

If the shop has been in business for a while, it might be a good learning experience, I agree with the above though that you need to be careful about what you "sign" (no pun intended) you DO NOT want to get into a situation where you are unable to compete in your area for a number of years. Good Luck!

mine's not as extravagant as everyone else's. jheyne = JULIUS HEYNE alway's hated the name julius.... thanks mom & dad for giving me a name that I would be torutured with my entire childhood. Got sick of being called various forms of the first name and had all my friends call me by my middle name. Allen, but everyone calls me "big al" used that as a moniker for a while, until someone pointed out to me that bigal kinda looks like i'm a chick that can swing both ways.

There are a lot of good responses here, but take a minute and put yourself in the customer's shoes and try to ask yourself a couple of questions before you make the decision. You gave the customer a proof, does the sign look like the proof? Take a look at the sign, are her claims that sign is unreadable from a distance valid? How much do you have invested in the job? (INCLUDING TIME) How much do you stand to lose if you "do" or "don't" make this particular customer happy? (INCLUDING TIME) (also include the fact that if you make her happy, she may or may not come back for other things) Just a few things to ponder. On a side note, what are most peoples payment arrangements for vinyl job? I'm mainly a screen printer and we do 50% down, 50% on delivery. Seems like a decent way to approach the vinyl thing, half down, half on installation-any thoughts? First & foremost, don't let these things bother you too much, you'll experience them over the years, and honestly, we're not doing brain surgery here, if something gets messed up nobody's going to die. Unless of course you put a 1 way sign going the wrong way.... that would be bad

If your serious about printing, I'd recommend getting a decent flash unit at the very least to cure your shirts. If you look around a bit, you'll be able to find one relatively cheaply. Our first conveyor dryer was something I picked up from a guy who had just rented out a garage and just wanted the darn thing outta his way. Was a $3000 dryer and I got it for $100. Just keep your eyes and ears open.

I think quantity might be the big factor here. If you decorating 300 garments, it will definately be more efficient and cost effective to screen print them. If it's a relatively small quantity and needs to be personalized, you are probably better off with vinyl or heat transfers. Sometimes people want a combination of both, screen printed design on the front (for say a softball team) and names and numbers on the back of the jerzee's (genreally done with vinyl and a heat press). I've been screen printing for a number of years and we have done transfers (got started with just a heat press and and a computer and and an epson printer) and this may be bias, but I feel you get better quality product with screen printing, tends to hold up longer than transfers. Still new to the vinyl end other than applying lettering on a few shirts, i avoided the vinyl for a long time, something I now wish I hadn't done . Just my 2 cents.

hey ff, I just posted a nice long rant about screen printing pricing in this section http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,14767.15.html and it may be more beneficial than the short answer I gave here, sorry for any confusion.

I tend to "lurk" the boards, but I've been here practically every day since I discovered them. I think the numbers may be a bit deceptive if your looking at posting as being active (just my 2 pennies)

here, here.... excellent post. Helps us keep life in perspective!

I've been screenprinting for quite some time, and I don't why they can't work with the image. It just needs the rough edges cleaned up a bit. (although it will probably look better if you thicken it up a bit). I would have just taken a second to fix it up for you if i was printing these.

Dude, that mailbox is fantastic. You should design some others and sell 'em. very cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with firemalt. If you can avoid getting a loan to get started, it would be very helpful to you in the future. I wouldn't recommend starting out in any type of store front to begin with because the expenses can quickly outweigh the income of a startup. Take your time, do your homework and read everything you can on the subject. These boards are a great place to start. I've been printing t-shirts for years from my garage and I make a pretty good living. I just recently decided to get into cutting and was able to get into a 36" laserpoint (seems like a good startup machine) and all kinds of supplies and vinyl for less than $1000. At this point, the 36" even seems like overkill in the size, but it's been my experience that having the capabilities to do more than you need is always better than not being able to do what you need to in the future. Good luck on your venture, and keep us posted on how things are going. Peace. Al

I'd approach it this way. 20 pcs. 2 hits (1 front, 1 back). Assuming you get the shirts for about 2.50 each. charge them $10 each for the shirts $25 for each screen (1 time charge don't apply it to reorders of the same design) If you have good art, maybe waive the artwork set up fee. (not the screen charge, you need to recoupe that investment) tell them if they order 50 pcs, you'll drop the price to 8.00 each. All of this is assuming that your just getting started in screen printing and haven't figured out all of your costs for the year so you can accurately figure out all of the variables involved in your production over time. Pricing screen printing can be a pretty indepth subject. You ultimately need to make sure your making a decent return on your time, work, and all expenses and materials involved. Hope this helps

is there a slot for extra memory in the laserpoint? I haven't been too eager to pull mine apart yet considering that I just bought it a few weeks ago

if you go with a wireless usb adapter, let me know how it works.... I'd love to put mine in the next room over

for broder bros. I've been doing business with them forever and am very satisfied with both the products and the service.

Hi LipstikinNY and welcome to the forum. You may want to take a bit of time to learn about "VECTOR" art before you even pick up a cutter. You don't necessarily need Adobe illustrator to create vector images ( however it is a great program and if you can learn how to use it and it's in your budget, I highly recommend it). There are several different vector programs out there (some are free) that will aid you in creating vector art. The software that comes with a cutter purchased from US Cutter can accept artwork created in a variety of programs and allows you to create artwork in it as well. Vector images provide smooth and straight or curved edges depending on the image. The cutter is then able to render these images with a blade onto the vinyl that you use. Think of the cutter software as kind of like a driver for a printer, it tells the cutter how to move it's head allowing it to cut the vinyl. After you feel comfortable with using and creating vector art, then by all means I suggest buying a cutter from U.S. Cutter. I've only had mine for about a month, but I love it and I'm able to create designs and cut them very easily using illustrator and the software provided with the cutter. You don't have to be an expert at graphic design to use a cutter, however, it helps to have a little experience designing things. I would suggest looking at all of the cutters that they sell and figure out which one gives you the most bang for your buck. Your going to need some vinyl as well as the cutter, and you'll need some good xacto knifes, a couple of hard plastic squeegees, as well as a decent size cutting matt. Other than that, you just need time and practice to get the hang of cutting vinyl. I went with a 36" cutter because it's been my experience to overbuy when it comes to equipment for my business. (been printing t-shirts for almost 12 years). Hope this was some help. Peace. Al