Managing Scrap Vinyl

[Jake Howard]

Hi Everyone,

How does everyone manage their scrap vinyl?

Our scrap vinyl just seems to end up in a mess, and I am just seeing if anyone has a way of managing it effectively.

If anyone has an ideas, thoughts or photos of your effective setup, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Jake

IMG_3468

• Jake Howard
• Oct 22, 2017

Scrap Vinyl

 

[Bradley Signs]

I made my own home made rack. 2x4's and Conduit. There is a limit to what we keep. The bigger heavier rolls are on the floor for now.
We just right off the smaller stuff, it's part of the business. We expect to have waste, and that's built into the prices anyway, so anything left over is a bonus.

Waste not, want not, so they say....

 

[Jester1167]

If it's big enough to be on a core it should be on a rack or in a box. We keep oddball colors in the box with a swatch stuck to the outside. That way they are easy to sort through when looking for a specific color. It also protects the rolls and you can stack them under a table or on a shelf out of the way.

There is a balance between the amount and size of scraps you decide to keep. If it takes you 5 minutes to find a $3 piece of scrap, your tripping over dollars to pick up a dime unless your not busy. Take some time and figure out what that 12" x 6" of vinyl is really worth?

In the past we bought sonotubes to sort by colors and when we got slow we would sort through and throw out the smaller pieces. We didn't have a tube for each color, just reds, yellows, browns, blues, metallics... That made it easier to find. We also used the tubes to put finished work ready for installation or pickup in as well. Gets everything off the counters and out of the way so production doesn't have to keep moving stuff around to make space to work.

All the scraps that we threw away would go into a special trash can that school art teachers would come pickup from time to time. Line it with a trash bag. When they show up pull it out and hand it off, or take it to your kids school when it's full.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

My solution is to bin it all! Pennies or dollars?

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Donate or bin.
There's a point where the scraps are too small to worry about during production.

 

[HandsomeBob]

The most important for me is that if you keep the remnants you must keep them in a way that is accessible. Just rolling the remnants up and putting them under a table will never get them used and they will eventually get damaged and you will throw them away. Make it your store policy to look in remnants for production materials before using new roll stock on every job.

If the remnant is too small to warrant a core and being placed on our vinyl tree rack we roll them and place them in a series of boxes under out production table by color. Black and white in one, red and blue in another, etc. Note, that very contrasting colors go in the same box. When the box gets filled we go through and throw the smallest and damaged pieces out. We try and keep the specialty/exotic/rarely used colors. More than once a small piece of one of the rare colors has saved us from having to order more.

Notice I call them remnants and not scraps. We used to regularly get people looking for scraps, on the basis that scraps have no value. We tell them we have no scraps but if they want to buy some remnants, we will be more than happy to sell them some. Strange... they usually don't come back.

If you have a large number of scraps, call your local elementary school. They love them for crafts.

 

[spectrum maine]

i used to give the scraps to the cri-cut folks.....until they became my competition. now i sell them the scraps. couple bucks here & there...not much but it will buy you lunch or a coffee.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We either give it to schools or cut them to 8x10 or 12x18 and sell them on eBay or Craigslist to craft mom's.

Schools love anything they can get!

 

[rickzan]

The best way would be a blue print cabinet with thin drawers. Until you get one make shelf 2'x8'x6' tall and shelves 9-10" apart and lay vinyl flat[. works good for small stuff. I made a rack like in Fellerss book for wall for rolls.

 

[Sandman]

I made my own vinyl rack using vegetable cans. I drill a hole in the can and attach it to a board with a lag bolt and a big washer. The boards with rows of cans get attached to the wall. Large scraps are put back in the appropriate tube. Small scraps go under the weeding bench in the appropriate tube by color.

 

[Cyclynn]

One side of my worktable has slots in which the colors and types are sorted. Periodically I clean out old or bent scraps.

 

[papabud]

i hate clutter. this includes scrape vinyl. i keep some special ones around for a little while. but most of it just gets put in the bin. by the time i get to the point of scrap. that roll has been paid for a few times. so there is no real lost money. just time and clutter.

 

[ikarasu]

I only keep scraps of certain materials... Ones I cut small letters / do lots.of weeding of. Co-worker spends 10 minutes weeding stuff with small letters...

I just grab and yank. 99% of the time it comes off clean... The other 1% o throw a scrap piece in, re it the letter and I'm good to go. Saving scraps allows me to be a bit more reckless and save time weeding.


The rest we usually donate to schools. Anything we haven't used in months gets donated too - lots of jobs requiring a. Ustom color... We buy a roll, or few yards depending on what we need... Then donate the rest, even if it's a few yards. We still manage to have 20-30 different colors on hand at all times... I need to make a rack for the big 48" rolls. Maybe that will be my next project!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

i hate clutter. this includes scrape vinyl. i keep some special ones around for a little while. but most of it just gets put in the bin. by the time i get to the point of scrap. that roll has been paid for a few times. so there is no real lost money. just time and clutter.

Yea clutter makes my head spin. I know I'm wasting a few bucks here and there but the peace of mind I get knowing I have less to keep up with is well worth it. I'm very much into minimalism

 

[Z SIGNS]

If it's taking up space and not making me money I pitch it.

 

[Gino]

If it's taking up space and not making me money I pitch it.

Hahahaaa............. that could apply to soooo many things.