helpinghand

For those of you in this business, where are you getting your glasses, awards, etc to use? I am in the practice stages of sand etching with my sand blaster but I am clueless where to look online for catalogs to have items to offer customers and figure out pricing...

ok, my husband came home yesterday with a benchtop sandblast cabinet for me after hearing me talk about what everyone on the board was doing lol Now, does anyone have a website or 2 that I can go learn about using this to do glasses, concrete stones etc.... Or, if you'd like to give me some tips from your own experience that would be wonderful. I'm very excited to get started. When doing glass, do I need to cover all surfaces not to be etched, like the inside of the glass?? Also, if my husband uses the sandblaster to clean off rust from parts, would we need to change the sand for me doing my work? Thanks for any help!!

Nice one stunad, thanks for sharing

Hadn't seen that one before, too cute. Thanks

You can use eco film vinyl as it doesn't hurt to press it over. It can even be ironed over after. (not that I do on a regular basis but it does just fine.) I have a small teflon coated pad, insert in the leg. Press down the part that is upright. Rotate the shorts and press the next part. It can be pressed over the seam and everything. I have done around the sides of t's also. Going right over the seam. Just make sure you have good pressure.

I got a banner job and ordered a banner but it was a stitched banner that had "waves" in it from the stitching and was wondering where everyone is getting their banners from so I can check distance and pricing. Thanks!

Thanks Pappy!

Where do I find the readme.txt? I have the dll's, ini and tps files in the download but no readme.txt....

I know what my costs are but I have no clue on what standard markup is. Can you give me what you use so I have an idea of what is going on in the industry? Is it 3 times cost, 5 times or? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm also going to make a couple calls today to the other local vinyl places to try to get a feel for what they're charging but not sure that'll give me much since I can't just come out and say "what are you charging for mark up?" lol

Midwaste, Do they give a discount for resellers or did you just order at the $15 price?

I want to say thanks for the tip. I went to the Signcraft magazine site and did a bit of reading on just the articles posted there and ended up subscribing as it sure seems like it will be well worth it. I'm always looking for more books and such to gain knowledge from.

I've never removed before so wondering what everyone uses. If you could let me know what product you use and how you do it, it would be great. Thanks

Dang if I gotta have lots of fire then I'll need a fireman's assistance, Anyone know of any??? LMAO Thanks all for the posts. I have a chisler and goo gone will get the blow dryer out and try it. It's actually my own vehicle need to change some of my wording.

All your sand blasted items look great. Did you say where you were getting your blank cement pieces from? I'm curious, I think this would be a great add on.

If the offer is open to anyone Pappy, I'd be interested.

the first 7 calculators on that site don't work for me. No clickable link. Anyone else have that happening?

ok so what i'm getting here is I need to figure out a $$ per hr I want to make for my work. Whenever I talk to someone looking for a quote I have to figure in my head roughly how long it will take to cut and weed and tape (for the RTA vinyl stuff) and throw them a price for it. You don't even figure in your cost? Here's what's going on. I had a fella call me to get a quote on some RTA vinyl 2 colors 5" high by 40" long. would be qty of 6, I have no clue on how to figure this for him. By what you guys say, it should only take me a couple min apiece(guessing here) So say if I figured 5 min each times 6 would be 1/2 hr. If I set my hrly rate at $45 that would make it so I should charge $22.50?? I know he said he got another quote for about $40.00. So mine would be wayyy cheaper. Can anyone figure out what I'm looking at wrong here?

well I'm really stumped as I don't have know how on how long it will take me since I'm pretty new in the vinyl industry. Any starting tips?

you're right Josh, there is a clear backer on it. Had to work at it to get my fingernail to seperate anything. Thanks for the light bulb! lol

I got this roll also. No backer, just a roll of clear lustre over laminate. Does it need to be heated or how is it suppose to be used? Call me blonde if this is something I should know lol

Well I did it. Wasn't near as easy as putting them on a smooth wall but... I've attached pics. I used the oracle 631. When I put on the wall I took a cloth and bunched it up and went over the design several times to get it to go into and around the bumps. I started using my finger but that got sore lol. Had to be a bit careful pulling off the tape and then went over it again with my finger and rag. Looks great on the wall. Hope the pics due it justice. You can't see the bumps in it unless you're very close.

Thanks for sharing bayshore!

here's one. has them both ways angel 4.eps angel 4.eps

Thanks for the info John!!

do they only have certain sizes? I looked on the page and they wouldn't even have had a 2' x 10'. also, do you know where they're located? I can't see any info on them. Maybe i'm blind today lol