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Most of my headaches come from outsourcing decent sized jobs. Any thoughts on this one? Early fall 2023, a new customer wants a large stainless tile etched (about 2ft x 4ft). I find a new supplier because they'll etch deeper than the usual ones I deal with and I don't think 1/32" is deep...

For the last 20 years, specifically dealing with municipalities, but it generally applies to everyone, the process has been Quote/Estimate -> Receive Purchase Order - > Invoice -> Deliver Goods -> Payment. All of a sudden, several people I do business with are telling me they can't use a...

I have a customer looking to replace a large format tile (47" x 23.5") with a stainless steel etched panel. Thickness would be 1/4" to 3/8" thick. Gemini can do it with no warranty and their etch is only about 1/32" deep. They won't go deeper or use anything more durable to color fill the...

On a rare occasion I run into a problem where a customer will come in to discuss their order, a past order, or a potential order and I'll have my paper work. I may leave it on the counter or in their general proximity and they will just start leafing through it. I've tried to get a lot better...

Long story short, I ordered a sign from a wholesaler. I wasn't supposed to install it, but ended up having to. The supplied brackets didn't fit so I had to rig some 4x4's as cross beams. The angle bracket came glued and screwed to the sign. Personally, I wasn't a big fan of the way the...

I ran it through my normal programs and I can't come up with an exact match. Any help would be appreciated.

One of my customers is a fairly large town in Union County. I had a 4ft x 8ft x2" - 20lbs HDU sign made up for them and a 24x36 bronze plaque. While clarifying ship dates, my customer all of a sudden informed me the DPW / parks department doesn't want to do the install now, which was always...

Long story short, we use a very old version of Illustrator in the shop (CS3) for a variety of reasons. Many not very good reasons, but it is what it is. I'm trying to work with a design service to push some of my overflow work to them as I'm needed more in doing business related tasks. I have...

I have a funny situation I'm in and I'm wondering how others might handle it. Back in April 2021 a county organization's purchasing department reached wanting a Bas Relief plaque. Over the phone, I went over the pros and cons of each photo option and stated very clearly the pitfalls of each...

I'm always of mixed opinions on this one. If you're making an acrylic standoff sign that a customer will mount, do you peel the masking off or not? If I were the one putting it up, I'd rather have masking on it while doing the install and then peel it off at the last minute. That keeps it...

I'm getting REALLY sick of it. I'm not getting enough time to fulfill orders without putting myself out big time. I'm tired of dollars walking out the door because people can't plan ahead even a little bit. Anyone else having this problem?

I'm baffled by how schools and towns don't think following the PO process is important or simply don't know it. I create a quote. You create a requisition order. Finance creates a PO. I receive the PO. Start work. Send an invoice. You pickup / I ship. You release the funds. It's not...

I was working with a local shop for jobs like this, but they've become way too inconsistent to work with, so I'd like to find a solid wholesale vendor to work with on small jobs like this. Most of them are just one-offs or smalls as part of a bigger job. In this case, it's just a 16"x20"x3mm...

I've been going back and forth with a customer for a while now. They're doing iron work for a big project in NYC and they've decided to be a middleman for getting the property line marker signs done. The architect has spec'd :rolleyes: "standblasted and passivated 3/16" thick stainless steel...

Most people walk in semi-prepared. They know 3-4 pieces of information out of 6 and we can either fill in the blanks through a quick conversation or they'll leave and email it later. Some people know very little, but will leave with a list of things to do, and then follow up at a later date...

Working on a project where I'm trying to replicate the look of an etched aluminum sign with using brushed aluminum ACM. The big catch is the etched element needs to be colors other than black. Any tricks or products I can use to paint the black polyethylene?

I have a project in the works and I've tried Modern Masters (hate it) and Nova Color (just satisfactory) gold paints. I'd like to go ahead and use the "industry standard" Matthews Brilliant Gold but I really don't want/need a gallon. Does anyone know where you can buy a pint or a quart?

Our shop deals with a lot of different people from different cultures, races, and creeds. We do our best to treat them as fairly as possible. It's only happened to me twice, but I've gotten bad reviews that bring up race and racism. The first I was able to get deleted by Yelp because the...

I need approximately 90 - 8x10 photos printed on or applied to acrylic. I inherited a job last year mounting paper printed photos under an acrylic cover and it was a nightmare. Just way too time consuming and frustrating. I'd like to see what kind of options are out there. If anyone has any...

I have a potential job to mount a bunch of 2-3" Laser cut letters on a large panel. To give a rough idea, let's say it's 400 letters. The letters will be either 1/4" or 3/8" thick with 3m 468MP tape on the back. It will either be mounted to printed vinyl or a painted surface. My best idea...