Poor man's rowmark / DIY rowmark

[Dan Hollis]

Priced out some rowmark, holy crap that stuff is expensive.

Decided to try some DIY and it worked out extremely well.

1) spray painted colored acrylic. worked great. you definitely want to wait for the paint to completely dry or you'll easily imprint fingerprints on it. any color combination you want, including ones rowmark doesn't provide.
2) spray painted HIPS. worked even better. paint seemed to slightly melt the surface of the HIPS and fuse to it. downside - only white hips sheets available so only white for engraving.

[Mike Null]

The other downside is that the paint mars or scratches quite readily so it is of no use for many sign and label applications.

[Tim Bateson]

When pricing plastic such as Rowmark, be sure to check the size of the sheet. Most vendors default to Full sheets & yes that can be expensive. However if you find the appropriate size such as 24x12 its usually $11-$20 per sheet. With discounts for larger orders.

[Kev Williams]

Yeah, engraving laminates don't come cheap, but it's simply another cost of doing business.

And speaking of CODB, what is your time worth? Mine is worth at a bare minimum $60 an hour. The time it would take at $1 per minute to prep and paint the materials would totally wipe out any savings I created, since I'd be spray painting and NOT be making $60 an hour doing something else! :)

[Gary Hair]

Rowmark is expensive just like Cermark is expensive - unless you price it right then it's pretty inexpensive! There have been lots of threads with people trying to figure out ways to make black marks as cheap as possible - the cheapest way I found is to charge an appropriate price for the mark and stop wasting time chasing windmills...

[Tim Bateson]

Agree with Gary - A $17 (average) sheet of Rowmark will make me at minimum $100+. A $70 rattle can of Cermark will make $400-$700, even over $1,000 if you are conservative with it. Switching to the more "expensive" paste has an even better return on the $.

[Dan Hollis]

Agree with Gary - A $17 (average) sheet of Rowmark will make me at minimum $100+. A $70 rattle can of Cermark will make $400-$700, even over $1,000 if you are conservative with it. Switching to the more "expensive" paste has an even better return on the $.

i'm doing this as a hobby for myself, not as a business. so a $5 rattle can of moly/galvanizing spray instead of mega expensive cermark is totally acceptable when i'm marking my own stuff.

same for the rowmark. doing this for myself and others, not as a business. so again DIY is totally acceptable for me and probably other hobbyists not doing this as a business for profit.

[Mike Null]

That makes a big difference.

It would be good to know what kind of equipment you have and where you're located.

[Dan Hollis]

seattle, I use the epilog helix 24 and the universal vls4.60 in the local maker space.

since it's all hobbyist and makers using these lasers, diy rowmark and diy cermark makes a lot of sense. nobody using these lasers wants to spend $70 on cermark to mark a one-off trinket for their kids. same for how rowmark is likely to be used here.

[Brian Leavitt]

Wow I haven't looked at the price of Rowmark material in a while! In my opinion, the price is outrageous for your standard LaserMark material. I switched to another brand of material a few years ago which is manufactured and sold by a company in South Carolina. I like the material better as it's actually .062 thick (every sheet of Rowmark I've ever gotten has been more like .050) and doesn't warp as easy, the colors are exactly the same, it engraves and cuts the same, and it costs almost half of what Rowmark is selling for. The selection isn't as wide, but they have all of the colors I use.

[Tim Bateson]

...I switched to another brand of material a few years ago which is manufactured and sold by a company in South Carolina. I like the material better as it's actually .062 thick (every sheet of Rowmark I've ever gotten has been more like .050) and doesn't warp as easy, the colors are exactly the same, it engraves and cuts the same, and it costs almost half of what Rowmark is selling for. The selection isn't as wide, but they have all of the colors I use.

...and the product is called?

[Tony Lenkic]

Cost of engraving stock is fine if you 're pricing your work accordingly. 24x48 sheet costs me $50.00 and I can get minimum of 500.00 in sales per sheet.

If you would like to test Chinese products at little less cost check out ASC365.com ( $8.00 for 12x24 sheet).

[Brian Leavitt]

...and the product is called?
I didn't want to put the name of the company since Rowmark is a sponsor here.

[Gary Hair]

I didn't want to put the name of the company since Rowmark is a sponsor here.

Rowmark being a sponsor/advertiser doesn't mean you have to censor posts. I did get flack from a moderator for mentioning that a sponsor had higher prices than a competitor but if that turned into a deleted post, blatant censorship, then I'm outa here!

[Dan Hollis]

Cost of engraving stock is fine if you 're pricing your work accordingly. 24x48 sheet costs me $50.00 and I can get minimum of 500.00 in sales per sheet.

If you would like to test Chinese products at little less cost check out ASC365.com ( $8.00 for 12x24 sheet).

this DIY rowmark is mainly intended for non commercial hobbyists / makers and gifts, where the work is priced $0 and the cost of stock is obnoxious.

[John Lifer]

I expect this is who he is talking about.

http://www.southeastplastics.com/

A couple of minutes with a search function. And there is a link for getting catalog. Prices seem to be pretty cheap, unless you get good discount on Romark.

[Joe Pelonio]

I really only use Rowmark for one customer now, for name badges. Not counting what I charge for the magnetic and labor, the return on a 12x24" sheet is about $400. For a hobbyist doin fun things around the home, and for friends and relatives, I don't see a problem with DIY material, since it doesn't require the same durability expected by commercial customers. Colored acrylic is not that much cheaper than Rowmark, but you have more color choices with paint.

[Kev Williams]

I pay $17 for a quarter sheet of Rowmark. 1x3" is a very common size, for customers, friends, foes, whoever. At 96 per sheet, cost is 17.8 cents each. Cheap...

Now, if you start using it for flooring... ;)

[Mike Null]

I use a lot of grained laminate so I have some waste. The items I cut have rounded corners so, a little more waste. Even with that I get 77 pieces to a quarter sheet. Adding magnets, my cost per piece is 51 cents. My income per quarter sheet is $462. I buy from Johnson Plastics because their selection and inventory is broader than anybody else I've found. That is important because my customers want the same look on their product every time they order.

They have 9 locations around the country which improves response time and reduces shipping costs versus a supplier with just one location.

[Brian Leavitt]

Yes, Southeast is who I use. I do buy Rowmark occasionally, when I need a color I can't get from Southeast. I do a lot of plastic so the savings add up - for me at least. Plus I like supporting small business.

[Henri Sallinen]

It's undestandable if you are a hobbyist, but as a company, you just have to price things right. No material is expensive if you can yeld the right ammount of money out off it. We use plywood that's priced 40 euros per square meter when we could get the same thickness material for about under 10€/square. The material we buy works better for us and is locally made in our country. Also it's a bit better quality and more laser friendly. Our customers have to understand why our material is more expensive and usually they are willing to pay enough for it to be a reasonable material to stock/use.