Cake Pans question

[Tom Bull]

I have heard about people engraving cake pan lids and I have found a guy who will sell 400 pans with lids for $2200.00. Anyone have any experience with the cake pan biz? What does one look for in an egravable cake pan lid? Any info will be much appreciated.

[Cliff Patrick]

Tom,

Our high school did a fundraiser about 3 years ago selling cake pans. They had different colored lids on them that engraved very well. As a matter of fact, we have thought about getting the pans again ourselves and doing the fundraiser ourselves. Do you know where the pans came from? Are there different colored lids? It doesn't sound like a bad price if they are the same quality as what we had in the past.

Cliff

[Dee Gallo]

I did a few Doughmaker pans and they are excellent quality, but a lot more expensive than $5.50 each! I've done baking pans and brownie pan, they are impressive and people really like them. That's a great price, but you'd have to see them to know what the quality is like. Actually, it almost doesn't matter what the baking quality is, what's the lid like? That's where the engraving goes! People who are using these are taking things to potlucks and luncheons, so they love to show off their custom pan lids, plus you can put their name on there so they don't lose it.

cheers, dee

[Tom Bull]

They are made in China, haven't seen them, are supposed to be laser engravable. What were they selling for with the engraving? I guess this would have to be one of each type work so there would be a lot of time spent getting each job set up. We do that sort of stuff, and people always ask "how long does it take to do an engraving?". The answer is confusing to many in that the engraving isn't what takes so long, it is figuring out what the people want done.

[Larry Bratton]

Dee:
What is the pan made of? Is it stainless or ceramic? Did you use Cermark? Nice job for sure.

[Paul Franklin]

Larry

Looks like that is the lid and looks like plastic

Paul

[Dee Gallo]

It's a metal pan and metal lid. The pan is not coated, but the lid is coated with something like anodized on the outside. It lasers off beautifully. The blue, green and red worked well for me.

I have a few cheaper ones made by another company, Mirro, that are just silver/aluminum, both pan and cover, which I plan to try with cermark, but of course it's only black.

I've seen some plastic lids, but have not tried them. Several others on this forum have more experience with these than I do, maybe they will offer their 2 cents.

cheers, dee

[nancy barry]

Ask them for a couple of samples or offer to purchase a few to try. I would be interested in getting a few but not an entire order until quality and laserability of the lid is known.

nancyB

[Carl Sewell]

Larry,

I received a sample and was told that it is powder coating (simply put, high temperature 400F paint that sort of melts to the surface). Based on the my results and experience with other powder coating parts, I'm pretty sure they are powder coating. Powder coating may require two laser passes to completely remove the coating.

[Tim Bateson]

...powder coating (simply put, high temperature 400F paint that sort of melts to the surface). Based on the my results and experience with other powder coating parts, I'm pretty sure they are powder coating. Powder coating may require two laser passes to completely remove the coating.


I've tried Powder Coated tags & if that was any indication then it isn't worth it. Like you said at least 2 passes and it doesn't look near as good as anodized aluminum.

[Dee Gallo]

Tom -

I don't know - at $5.50 each and average selling price of $25-40, that's a pretty good markup if you have a market. A simple name, phrase and/or clipart image would take only a minute to laser even twice. There's no taping or cleanup involved. I'd aim at cooking clubs or classes, firehall/police auxiliary clubs, college bookstores, tech schools and cooking colleges, wedding gift stores.

They would make good gifts, fundraisers or prizes - more and more people are getting back into cooking now that they can't afford to eat out as much and in rural Amercia the potluck has never gone out of style. It makes sense to buy a gift that is also useful these days.

Can you get a sample from them?

:) dee

[Dan Hintz]

I have a few cheaper ones made by another company, Mirro, that are just silver/aluminum, both pan and cover, which I plan to try with cermark, but of course it's only black.
Dee,

Don't forget about Cermark's new Bronze and Pearl White colors. Still not a rainbow, but the bronze may look really sweet against a silver backdrop with the right design.

[Larry Bratton]

It's a metal pan and metal lid. The pan is not coated, but the lid is coated with something like anodized on the outside. It lasers off beautifully. The blue, green and red worked well for me.

I have a few cheaper ones made by another company, Mirro, that are just silver/aluminum, both pan and cover, which I plan to try with cermark, but of course it's only black.

I've seen some plastic lids, but have not tried them. Several others on this forum have more experience with these than I do, maybe they will offer their 2 cents.

cheers, dee
I thought it looked like metal or possibly ceramic. That sure looks nice. Do you know who the manufacturer is of that particular pan?

[Dan Hintz]

Larry,

I believe that was a DoughMaker pan... they've flip-flopped a couple of times on actually having stock to sell, but I believe they no longer carry them (until next time, that is).

[Dee Gallo]

Yes the one I showed is Doughmaker, and the lid is probably not anodized, since it's not smooth. It has a pebbly finish, very fine but still there. So maybe it is powder coated? I bought a bunch and am on my last 4 - haven't checked to see if they are still selling them, but they are an on/off company, sometimes you get them sometimes you don't.

I have seen NordicWare has some.

:) dee

[Phil Salvati]

I think they would go over well in my neck of the woods too!

I don't know if I would be willing to lay out over 2 grand to find out if they will engrave well though.
`
Maybe we should get a pool together like the corian and flame polisher groups did! ? :rolleyes:

[Tom Bull]

Been away from the computer for a while so wasn't keeping up with the thread.
They are powder coated so the lasering would be slow, at least for me.
The guy will sell 40 for $220.00. If they retail at $25.00 then you would get less than $20.00 for all the contact time with the customer and laser time to do each job. Unless it is multiples with little selling time sounds not too profitable to me.
Not long ago I would have thought that people would be willing to go 30.00 - 40.00 for something like this. Even though 90% of the folks are still in the same employment situation (or at least close to it) the attitude has change dramatically. People just don't want to do the discretionary spending the way they did.
Might work out if it could be done on line or some other way with little "face time" with the customer. I have a bad habit of burning up all the profit with chat time. The pans are on Craigs list Kansas City and other cities as well.

[Paul Franklin]

Tom

I just checked craigslist and they did not turn up. can you send me a link?

Thanks

Paul

[Amanda Shughart]

Dee, out of curiosity, how did you get the different colors on the lid?

~Amanda


It's a metal pan and metal lid. The pan is not coated, but the lid is coated with something like anodized on the outside. It lasers off beautifully. The blue, green and red worked well for me.

I have a few cheaper ones made by another company, Mirro, that are just silver/aluminum, both pan and cover, which I plan to try with cermark, but of course it's only black.

I've seen some plastic lids, but have not tried them. Several others on this forum have more experience with these than I do, maybe they will offer their 2 cents.

cheers, dee

[Dan Hintz]

Amanda,

I think that's an artifact of the photo process. I remember Dee saying way back when she couldn't get the flash to not show up (stripe through the middle of the photo), and reflective metals are never the easiest to photograph. You should only see two colors, the main anodized color and the silver underneath.

[Dee Gallo]

Amanda,

The lids come coated already - when you can get them! The regular Doughmakers lids are just plain metal, but sometimes they offer the colored ones.

Looks to me (from pictures) that the Nordic ones are smoother/shinier than the Doughmakers. I like the "no fingerprints" rougher/duller finish.

cheers, dee

oh -duh - I was not reading your post correctly - Dan is (as usual) correct. The flash made that light stripe in the photo.

[Tim Bateson]

Did anyone ever find a source for these pan lids? I've searched and not found them.

[Tom Bull]

Can anyone else see Tim's post from yesterday, or is it a personal problem for me?

[AL Ursich]

You need to look in the middle of the pack as it was responded to a middle of the pack post.... It does not show up at the end. I see it...

AL

[Chuck Patterson]

How ironic, I was going to post some recent issues I had engraving a cake pan. (see second paragraph for those issues)

For cake pans, I called Doughmakers (http://www.doughmakers.com/newmain.htm) last October and asked them to send me a 9" x 13" pan and lid. Told them I was experimenting. They asked me to purchase the pan and they would send a lid at no charge. I also asked if they still had the colored lids and they said they do not carry them any more, so I settled for what they had.

I used Cermark on the product. Using a Universal m360 with 50w, I set the power at 100 and speed at 50 for the first run. When I went to clean it up it did not stick. They entire image washed away. I put Cermark back on it and re-ran it at 100 power and 25 speed. It seemed to stick this time but I still have my concerns. If you rub the design with enough pressure, it seems to be coming off. I engraved it for my Mom for Christmas and she was so exited. Asked her to use the hell out of to see how it holds up. I still have my concerns, I do not think it is going to uphold after a few washings.

Do not mean to hi-jack a post, but I hope that sharing my experience will allow the others to maybe share with you what I may have done incorrectly with my engraving so that your first test run will be successful. In the meantime, I will also gain that knowledge.

PS: That cake pan was in my shop for 3 weeks and I shared it with everyone that came in. Darn near everyone that saw it thought it would make a wonderful gift and they want to purchase one for someone in their family. I have a list of people wanting one once I figure out the errors of my ways.

[James Rambo]

I have a 60 watt Epilog and my print files is set to use 25 speed and 100 power. Lately I have been lowering the speed, for the laser power seems to be lessening.

[Dan Hintz]

Chuck,

I'm measured at 70W+, and I know my speed was somewhere in the 15-25 area... 50S was waaaay too fast.

[Jim Dow]

Another source for cake pans is Northland Aluminum in St. Louis Park, MN also know for the Nordicware brand. These mostly sell for $7-10.00 and and come in different colors. Several of my customers use them. They rotary engrave nicely and laser ok. The metal is not polished and when lasered, it is a dull silver. I see most people charge around $25 to $30.00.

http://www.nordicware.com/store/categories/browse/naturals-uncoated-commercial-aluminum-bakeware/EFCC92A4-4975-102A-B382-0002B3267AD7/page/2

In order to get wholesale pricing, you need to get into the Kitchen products for retailers area...

Jim Dow

[Mike Null]

I laser powder coated products regularly with great success and income. It may take 2 or more passes due to the varying thickness of the paint but price accordingly.