NBM Charlotte

[Martin Boekers]

So who went and how was the show!

[Scott Shepherd]

I was there Thursday and Friday. I thought it was so-so. Lasers were everywhere, Epilog, GCC, Universal, Trotec. Suppliers, not so much. JDS was there, Rowmark was there, Johnson wasn't, Conde wasn't. I thought the apparel side of things was larger than normal. I went to 1 seminar. Schedule said it was 90 minutes, 40 minutes into it, they wrapped it up. I normally walk out with a bag of stuff and some good ideas. This time around, the bag was empty, literally, and no new ideas.

[Dennis Watson]

Hello everyone. I was at the NBM for 3 days looking at sublimation and embroidery. And Saturday was the first time I got interested in lasers and I had to leave earlier than expected so I dint get a chance to talk to anyone. I did see the GCC and Epilogs.

BTW, Conde was there.

[Martin Boekers]

I guess some vendors just do certain shows, I'll have to see if JP will be at INDY as they have been coming up with some neat items....

[Scott Shepherd]

Interesting Dennis saw Conde. After the first day, we ended up at dinner and said "I didn't see Conde, did you?", and they didn't see them either. The next day, I went in, specifically looking for them and didn't see them then either. It's not that large of a show, so I'm not sure how I missed them a number of times. I know David Gross was doing a seminar upstairs, but I didn't see them.

I think it was about 4 rows of vendors that were related to things we do.

[Martin Boekers]

The one reason why I like this show, albiet a smaller one is they do signage and printwear, both are things I dabble with but am looking for expansion to.

[Dennis Watson]

Conde's booth was there. I didnt bother to stop and talk. Booth 701.
Here is the booths www.expocad.com/host/fx/nbm/13nc/default.html

[Scott Shepherd]

Conde's booth was there. I didnt bother to stop and talk. Booth 701.
Here is the booths www.expocad.com/host/fx/nbm/13nc/default.html (http://www.expocad.com/host/fx/nbm/13nc/default.html)

I'm not doubting you Dennis, I just didn't see them, but wanted to. They were one vendor we specifically went to see! I see all the names around their booth and I saw them, but I didn't see Conde :(

[Dennis Watson]

I would have had a reason to talk to them had I decided to buy a sublimation combo but after seeing the lasers the wife and I have decided to go that route.
The thing that bothers me about sublimation is if you press something and it comes out bad, it goes in the trash. Not a cheap way to test before you ruin a good plaque.
To me the laser can do a lot of stuff, except color of course. :)

[Martin Boekers]

The thing that bothers me about sublimation is if you press something and it comes out bad, it goes in the trash. Not a cheap way to test before you ruin a good plaque.


I hate to tell you Dennis, if you engrave something and it turns out bad, it goes in the trash too. :D

Good luck with your future laser, they truly are amazing!

[Dennis Watson]

True, I guess its the thought of losing the sawgrass ink, special paper and the coated material. Im thinking I can do a test on a piece of scrap acrylic before you commit to a nice acrylic award, no?

Sublimation requires specific things............. unlike burning onto a pine 2x4, :)

[Martin Boekers]

True, I guess its the thought of losing the sawgrass ink, special paper and the coated material. Im thinking I can do a test on a piece of scrap acrylic before you commit to a nice acrylic award, no?

Sublimation requires specific things............. unlike burning onto a pine 2x4, :)

Good luck with the pine, :) if you want to test on Pine for a Cherry plaque, each will react different.
Once you get comfortable with any process you "unusable factor" should go down.

Dye Sub has come a long way with the development of gel inks (Ricoh) I swore off of it with my Epson printers
then Ricoh came along and it has been a great money maker. Each shop is different and some focus on different
process to make it work. Depending upon you focus for what type of work you want to do will define the processes
you will need.

I do "recycle" unsalable" wood plaques for testing, or discount them by putting a plate over the flaws. :) You can always use the backside
for testing. Many things you won't need to test as text and line art are pretty standard, now photos may require some testing. :)

[Ross Moshinsky]

The "oops" cost factor with sublimation vs laser is worse on the laser typically. If you're talking about sheet goods (aluminum stock for instance), the cost would be pretty similar. The time, paper, ink, and material would be pretty similar to the time and material on a laser. The issue with lasers vs sublimation is the time on the laser. It could take 15+ minutes to run a job just to find out you made a mistake. That means 15+ minutes to fix it. Sublimation is the minute it takes to print, minute it takes to tape, and the 1.5-3.5 minutes it takes to press. The paper and ink is typically a drop in the bucket. The benefit of the laser is that you can work while it works. Sublimation requires you to do all the work.

I don't think you can be in the awards industry without both pieces of equipment but personally, I'd rather let the engraver do the work. Plus it's far more versatile. Sublimation is a very good bang for your buck though. It's not all that tricky to make your money back while with a laser, it takes a lot more doing.

[Wes Mitchell]

JP was there, too :)

[John Frazee]

I visited JP and talked to my old friend Don Shaw. Great guy. I also visited Conde. The small booths ran about $5,000 plus rentals for simple things like carpet in your booth! $275.00 for small booth carpet. You HAD to pay a service to take your display in, you could'nt just take it with your pickup truck. The show was smaller and most suppliers had smaller displays than usual. Marco, CAT and PDU had small booths but JDS had quite a spread. They had so much more sublimation displayed than Conde. I wanted to check out printer/plotters and there were slim pickings than at previous shows. There were less catalogs and samples out for the taking this go around. NBM went cheaper with the vendor/customer info swipe. In the past they used a card to swipe their little card reader on each booth for more info. This time your nametag was a full sheet of paper folded up with a QR barcode that the vendor had to scan with their phone. It was slow going and if the vendor was busy talking, you could'nt just scan for more info and keep walking.

[Scott Shepherd]

Clearly I need glasses, I didn't see Conde or Johnson! How I missed them in such a small area is beyond me. I guess I'll pay attention in Philly, in September!

[John J Wang]

What are the laser engraver prices like at the show? I am looking to upgrade an older ULS M300 35W but the price quotes I got seems a bit higher than the prices I've seen at the past shows. To be fair, it has been a couple years since I've been to the last trade show.