Colored Magnetic Sheeting

[47CP]

Does anyone know of a distributor that STOCKS colors* of Magnum Magnetic 24" x 0.030 sheeting, preferably 50' long?

*Besides White, Black and Yellow which Fellers has.

I am desperately trying to keep using Magnum material, but they seem to be requiring dealers to buy in 4 roll lots (or so I am told). So, for each color, it costs me $800. For popular colors like red, this is probably only a 2 year supply which is not bad, but for less popular like orange or blue, it is a 4 year supply.

The Mag-X brand is pretty available in colors, and I could also laminate colored vinyl on top of bare material or white, but I have a certain amount of stock that is already cut in the magnum colors, so a color change makes that worthless.

Any thoughts? I dropped a note to Magnum directly.

DaveW

 

[rcook99]

Why not just buy white and paint them the colors you need at that time. This will minimze your stock and you can usually do 4 12 x 24 inch mags with one can. I would rather use a rattle can and paint it and it holds up very well. We have a local parts store that will mix spray cans of any automotive paint code you bring them. Be sure to have them add some flex agent to the paint, this keeps the paint plyable and will keep it from cracking. Good luck!

 

[Jim Doggett]

I agree with rcook99, paint or vinyl. Magnetic is spendy; vinyl is cheap. Minimize your magnetic inventory.

IMHO,

Jim

 

[47CP]

It needs to be colored magnetic, or I can laminate it with vinyl 1 roll at a time. Paint would not work. Colors need to be consistant over the years as the product we make gets some parts put in inventory that need to match up with new stuff, sometimes years later and the quantities needed are too high to spray 12" at a time. I have been hand laminating a few colors lately 4 feet at a time and it is a pain in the butt.

Jim,

SW lists colored material on your web site. I ordered some in OCTOBER and never heard anything from your company as to whether you can get it or not. Do you know if you actually still carry this product? (Red Magnum Magnetic).

DaveW

 

[Jim Doggett]

Hi Dave,

I'll look into it immediately.

Best,

jd

 

[Jim Doggett]

We have it in stock, according to Taffy Delgato. Call 800.699.5514 or send Taffy an email at taffy.delgato@signwarehouse.com.

Best,

Jim

 

[47CP]

Thanks for looking into it. Taffy says you don't.

Trust me, I truly understand backorders, but a little better communication would be very helpful here.

I also asked about the viability of ordering blue?

Rant against Magnum: I truly don't understand the hassle on getting this material. Magnum claims to have it in stock at thier factory at all times, but something they do makes it impossible for dealers to actually get it in. But, they must sell it in some qty if they bother to have it in stock. Truly frustrating, especially when the import companies have the material in stock, ready to go at plenty of dealers.

DaveW

 

[Jim Doggett]

Thanks for looking into it. Taffy says you don't.

Trust me, I truly understand backorders, but a little better communication would be very helpful here.

I also asked about the viability of ordering blue?

Rant against Magnum: I truly don't understand the hassle on getting this material. Magnum claims to have it in stock at thier factory at all times, but something they do makes it impossible for dealers to actually get it in. But, they must sell it in some qty if they bother to have it in stock. Truly frustrating, especially when the import companies have the material in stock, ready to go at plenty of dealers.

DaveW

Agreed Dave,

I'll send your gripe to the very top. (Larry and The Gripps)

Meanwhile, I just got to the bottom of the confusion. We had colors, and scaled back to Red only, in the colored product. Then it sold out. But an error in our ordering system showed we had still had inventory. So our sales people thought we had it; and it sounds as if customer service wasn't thorough in following up and/or were also fooled by the error.

At least that's my sense after looking into it. But we'll correct the problem, whatever it is.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Best,

Jim

 

[J Hill Designs]

does it have to be magnum? advantage carries promag .030 in a range of colors...

 

[47CP]

Agreed Dave,

I'll send your gripe to the very top. (Larry and The Gripps)

Meanwhile, I just got to the bottom of the confusion. We had colors, and scaled back to Red only, in the colored product. Then it sold out. But an error in our ordering system showed we had still had inventory. So our sales people thought we had it; and it sounds as if customer service wasn't thorough in following up and/or were also fooled by the error.

At least that's my sense after looking into it. But we'll correct the problem, whatever it is.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Best,

Jim

Trust me, I understand. Thanks for looking into it for me. If you have any pull/communication with Magnum, I would truly appreciate it.

DaveW

 

[Replicator]

By the way 47CP, you're worried about colors matching years down the road.

Just so you know, whether you use vinyl or colored magnet sheeting . . . Dye lots will change every few weeks and the chances of this weeks red

ever matching another red again are slim to none, no matter what the material or the process.

 

[47CP]

does it have to be magnum? advantage carries promag .030 in a range of colors...

Checking into it now. Magnum is preffered becuase of the color matching, but I am getting somewhat desperate to clear this up before we get busy in February/March.

Replicator: Yes, I know, but we have been using Magnum for a long time (20+ years) and it ends up pretty close. It is a balance for us, our pricing for our magnetic products is really dependant on making them in quantity, but making a sheet at a time then leaves more product on the shelf with the resultant inventory costs and the color issues.

Thanks all,

DaveW

 

[Cadmn]

weather/UV light will also change colors of mag material over time so probably won't match any way

 

[Jim Doggett]

Trust me, I understand. Thanks for looking into it for me. If you have any pull/communication with Magnum, I would truly appreciate it.

DaveW

Nah; I'm just an underling. But Larry and The Gripps do, big time, with probably just about every vendor on the planet. So I'll make a point of adding this to our management meeting agenda. Hopefully we can get a solution.

But pull equates to tension in two directions, almost exclusively like this:

SW: "Hey; you guys need to make [this and that]"
Vendor: "Hey; you need order a truckload."

Fingers crossed.

Also, to the gang: what are your thoughts? Colored Mag, or white with vinyl/paint?

Best,

jd

 

[47CP]

does it have to be magnum? advantage carries promag .030 in a range of colors...

It would appear that MSI/ProMag is now part of Magnum. Thier website (magspec.com) goes to Magnum and they are both located in Marietta, OH.

I think this is a good thing for me.

Jim: My frustration is that Magnum already makes it, I just haven't found a dealer that sells enough to stock it or order it in reasonable quantities.

Not to be closed minded , but painting will not work, period. We machine cut the material after coloring and the final product needs to be extremely durable and flexible. We would need to paint an entire roll at a time, which sounds hard and I also can't envision easy to apply paint surviving the cutting process.

Vinyl laminated on white or blank mag is an option, but is expensive and most importantly, harder for the machine to cut. I am still looking hard at this option, but if ProMag is pretty close to Magnum, that would work pretty well for us.

SW had some EnduraMag in red, but we tried that years ago and that stuff was REALLY hard to cut for the machine, hence my overall reluctance to switch brands.

Thanks again to all,

DaveW