stickerman

Bought the Roland BN-20

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So I just bought the Roland BN-20 and was wondering if anyone could help me with pricing.  Salesman says with ink and media it is $.60 per sq ft.  does this seem right?

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is that with the white ink option - that adds quite a bit to the cost.   personally i never listen to the sales people and figure it myself - not only do you factor in the ink and vinyl cost but also the maint cost on the printer and depreciation - it will only last so long.  do some number crunching for sure.  I usually spend about $1 K a year on maint parts to stay at 100 percent.
part 2 is that price he quoted you for just the cheapest vinyl or something better - it can get quite expensive with some of the cast and specialty vinyls like high adhesive for plastics.  does that cost also include lamination and cost of laminator?   figure that and your time to get your real numbers

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That was based on just the CMYK ink no white or metallic and the cost of the 3mil or 4mil white printable vinyl.   Trying to get a good idea of what price to charge for stickers.  I round my cost up to $1.00 per Sq Ft and then decided to charge $3.00 per Sq Ft.  Does that sound about right?

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if that works for what you need then charge that - just looked up the head on yours - guess I will quit whining about $850 heads - yours is over $2100 each  holy snkikies.  like I said I replace about 1 a year to stay on top of it and no deflections or missing nozzles . . . 

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That was based on just the CMYK ink no white or metallic and the cost of the 3mil or 4mil white printable vinyl.   Trying to get a good idea of what price to charge for stickers.  I round my cost up to $1.00 per Sq Ft and then decided to charge $3.00 per Sq Ft.  Does that sound about right?

if my calculations are close - after paying for the printer, vinyl and ink you only need to  print and sell 5500 sq ft to break even at $2 sq ft profit . . . not counting the supplies for weekly swabs, solvent for cleaning and later main or dampers, wipers, wiper scrapers, sponges and maybe no heads in the first year or 2 . . .  with signs365 etc selling banners at $1 sq ft and decals available from people with used printers using aftermarket inks and less than perfect heads cheap - I have been looking hard at the numbers myself as I figure in a year or two I will need a printer again and wondering if it still makes financial sense to have the "sexy printer".    I only share this as I go thru the struggle myself of if it will still make sense.  i purchased my first printer at a steal and upgraded when the profits were still reasonable . . .  after the sexiness wears off I am looking more at hard numbers and where I want to be in 5.5 years when I will be traveling more and will definitely have to look at getting rid of all printers as they do not sit unused well even for a couple weeks.  I go on vacations a couple times a year now for 10 days to 2 weeks - then I plan on being gone a month or more at a time . . . 

we all have to decide what makes sense to us and what level to maintain our equipment in  - for me at this point I have to keep it at top performance which is costlier - others think good enough is ok

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with so few people on here with the white ink option that is probably a good idea since you have that capability if you can keep the orders going so it doesn't all end up in the waste tank.  we regularly get people wanting printing on clear that needs the spot white background to pop.  you just need those orders using the white at least weekly mixed in with the regular orders to really make it worth it

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The versaworks that comes with the BN-20 tells you how much ink you are using per job before you even print it. It also will break down how much of each color you use per job. It is very good for estimating your cost. Also you waste six to seven inches of material every time you load the machine with material. Just curios what dealer you are using for the machine.

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Former BN-20 Owner

 

Things to consider:

  • When printing, you do not get 20" of printable area. You only have 18.9" max.
  • Account for 4" added onto the front and back of a job so the pinch rollers have something to grab if you printed with reg. marks for print-lam-cut alignment. so a 30" print job will give you a 38" sheet of whatever you just printed.
  • If you're not using Roland Media, a lot of places don't carry 20" material. They will cut it for you but some places charge, others dont. another cost to consider.
  • Even if you don't ever print white ink, you will still have to replace that cartridge every so often. the printer will kick on every couple hours while its in sleep mode and pump a little ink into the waste tank to prevent the heads from clogging. the printer will not run without that cartridge even if you're not using white ink.

The best way to calculate the price of each job is to make up an excel spreadsheet that you can change the variables of material cost and markup to calculate each job. There will always be an exception and a variable with each job. you cant really just come up with a general cost per sq ft, and apply it to everything. You'll be ahead on some jobs, and losing your shirt on others.

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