Plastic tags and plates...

[Mike Null]

I supply and apply the tape. It takes a little time and you should use good stuff so your customer doesn't have to worry about it.

You can buy the plastic with the tape applied; just ask Johnson Plastics ro JDS to do it for you.

There is an outdoor version of the plastic available at a slightly higher price so if your customer will be using these labels outside be sure to get the right stuff for them.

By the way, my customers are factories or companies who build control panels rather than contractors. If you have boat builders or ship builders in your area they use thousands of these items.

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

I still have'nt seen any comments on how to price these tags.
Carol, maybe you can help.
abdul

[Mike Null]

Abdul

My 1/2" x 1 3/4" is $1.75 with one line of copy. 3/4" x 2 1/4" is 2.25 with one line of copy, my legend plates are $2.75. All with adhesive. I charge $0.20 extra for beveling.

I just received a rather large order and will buy pre-applied adhesive just to save time. It costs .02 per sq. inch.

I will be able to import all copy using a macro.

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

thanks mike
abdul

[Carol VanArnam]

I just missed out on a $4500 plastic tag sale. The electrician had just placed the order with another guy in town. He said he would have asked me but didn't know I was in town.... I will be sending more samples and flyers ASAP to all of the electrical companies in town.

Since posting this I've had several big sales $200-$300 but $4500 would have been very nice....

Abdul- email me with your email address and I'll send you my price list....

[Keith Outten]

For what its worth...

Our states power company has announced that they expect to have a permit for the construction of North Anna 3 Nuclear Power Station by the end of this year. Other states are rumored to also be considering nuclear power plant construction projects.

This is pertinent because nuclear plants require massive numbers of tags and signs. The equipment for each plant is generally made all over the country so you can expect to see a huge spike in work requests from manufacturers in your area starting the middle of next year.

Do some homework, some tags will need to be made from special plastic that is resistant to neutron radiation, various chemicals and there will be lots of anodized aluminum and stainless steel tags required for equipment. I spent many years working at various power plants and never saw a plant construction project that had its own sign shop, they were using outside vendors.

A ten to twelve year construction project with a budget of ten billion dollars means a lot of sign work folks

Ed Lang...NA3 is right in your back yard you lucky dog

.

[George Elston]

Thank you Carol, I too used your flyer and still need to take it to more companies, but I have gotten a bit of work and more is coming in. I have a job today for 250 plaques for a local artist, with 250 more in a month or two. I finally worked out a pricing matrix that seems to work, and fits close to the prices you mentioned for the sizes listed on the flyer. I figure the square inches multiply by .8 and add 1. So a 2x3 tag would be 6 square inches, 6x.8=4.8 add 1 and the price is $5.80. This is retail and I can give a 30% discount to jobbers and still make a profit. One other point I have found is that if the tags are for exterior use, (UV resistant) I should add a little more. They take 2 light cuts with my 30 W laser, to get a nice clean image.

One other thing I do is pick up cheap juice glasses and engrave some info with our company name and drop it off with the samples etc. They never loose my "Business Card".

This is a great market, and good luck to all.

[Chuck Mitchell]

Carol...how is this end of the business going...I have often wanted to jump into the is avenue...but can never find the time among all the other irons in the fire!!!

[AL Ursich]

Fire Dept Accountability Tags could be a market for you. I am just finishing a tag order today.

This picture shows 2 colors of green tags due to a printer problem. Printed the 89 replacements last night and drilled and dipped them in poly finishing at 3 AM. Put grommets in today and they are ready for delivery tomorrow.

Sublimated them. Green you are qualified to go into a burning building and white and red still training. They clip one on a Chief's Clipboard at the fire and as they go into a burning building they put another tag on another clipboard.

I have done them in metal and plastic. All the signs were done in Sublimation but could be done in Laser too.

Going to put some signs out like Carrol.

AL

[AL Ursich]

Some more sign ideas.... The small silver tags are sink and bathroom number tags to assist maintenance. Coded with floor and fixture #

AL

[AL Ursich]

Some other ideas. Go after the Tourist Market....

AL

[Tony Lenkic]

Al,

How are you doing those plates on XOT912 machine?
Looks that you pre cut and bevel them before engraving.
There is simpler way of doing miltiple plates on full bed size of machine and with grid cutout option you will cut and bevel in one shot.
Let me know if you need more info on how to. It can speed up your process quiet a bit.

[Gregg Vaughn]

Carol,

Very nice work and presented very nicely! What have you done for the customers who want adhesive tags? Is there a double faced product out there that allows the tags to be a peel-and-stick? Can you vector cut the double faced product (if there is one) on the Rowmark?

Have you found LaserMax to be your product of choice, or something else?

Again, very nice work and thanks for sharing it with us!

[Scott Shepherd]

Gregg, some places offer the same materials with the adhesive backing already on. You just have to ask. I know GravoGraph products are available like that.

I don't use their material, but I do use their adhesive sheets. They come in 12" squares, a pack of 10 or 12. You just peel it back, put it on, squeegie and put it in the laser.

When you're done, you have the finished product with the adhesive back already on it. You can order it online, but I think there is a $50 minimum on web orders. I do think you can phone the order in and get around that. I'm not positive about that, but I seem to recall something stupid like that going on.

[AL Ursich]

Tony,

I only have about 2 hours of engrave time with the 912, a very underutilized machine in my shop. I would love to pick your brain for tips using the 912. The tags I did were 2 sided reflective vinyl on a plastic carrier. Was trying a version of the Fire Accountability Tags. They scuffed and scratched too easy. A coating of Poly would have helped.

I cut them on my table saw with a tripple cut 60 tooth blade and a sled.

The other tags I did were Sublimation dipped in poly, delivered last night.

Thanks for the offer, mastering the 912 is on my list of things to do.

AL