Viable Alternatives to SIGNS365?

[Texas_Signmaker]

I got some contour cut from them this week and it was normal. It's never easy to weed laminated vinyl, let alone air release. Combine it with serifs and I'd rather just do layered cut vinyl.

 

[Stacey K]

Sometimes I just created a rectangle of color behind the contour cut, that way I'm ensured no white will show through...perhaps it's being lazy but it's sometimes just quicker too.

 

[Boudica]

Sometimes I just created a rectangle of color behind the contour cut, that way I'm ensured no white will show through...perhaps it's being lazy but it's sometimes just quicker too.

Your not lazy, it's a thing. I always try to have a bleed of color outside my cut lines.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

big rectangles are fine. Gnubler, I do at least 1/4" or more. 1/8" is too small... it's all getting cut off anyway so go big.

 

[gnubler]

Are you saying size matters? I've done that too, but the design was too tight in this instance.

And had to print/lam this one, the color of cut vinyl doesn't exist.

 

[Stacey K]

Another thing you can do is print out a rectangle of your PMS color and cut the letters out on your own plotter.

I did that with a snowmobile because I knew he would be back for more and I wanted to make sure the purple was exactly the same or it would have looked bad. Then you also have some extra if you mess up.

 

[10sacer]

Hey all, long time lurker, seldom poster, but I have a question. I order a ton of stuff from Signs365, and have for years, but have had a issue with them that has me wanting to find an alternative. Basically, long story short, I ordered a little 2x2 piece of vinyl with some various sized decals for a customer. They were to be contour cut and the whole thing was less than $11 worth of vinyl. When it came, the contour cutting wasn't deep enough and they would not weed. Chunks of vinyl stuck to the sides of a bunch of the decals... contacted them and let them know. They said to go ahead and weed the rest and count the different sized decals that were messed up and let them know and they'd reprint those. I do, and over half of the decals are unusable. Email back the numbers with pictures, etc. She calls me back and says to set up a new file with the just the ones I need replaced, make a new cut file, and they'll print them and send them. I tell her I don't have the time to do all that just to save them $5 in vinyl, I should have just reordered it and paid for it myself, would have been cheaper than all the time I've spent on it already. She says okay, she'll reprint them, but I need to send back the first print, and she'll send me a label. I'm like never mind, I'll just reorder the whole dang thing, pay for it and move on, and did that in about 2 minutes.

Ok, maybe I'm not being patient enough with them, but that said, as cheap as they are being and much of a hassle as it was to try to get a $11 reprint that was messed up, I'd hate to know what trouble I'd have if it was something big. I order tons of banners, coro signs, wrap prints, printed vinyl, etc. Is there another trade-only printer that compares to their offering, prices and speed?

I do use Sinalite and 4over for other types of printing, but I'm looking for a vinyl/coro printer...

Did you order the IJ35, IJ180 or the General Formulations vinyl?

 

[FireSprint.com]

365 is an amazing company. So are the other trade printers mentioned here. All of us trade printer mess up. Probably more than any of us would like to admit.

They seem to be good about making it right. I know we try to be.

When I started FireSprint back in 2007, there weren't alot of great trade printers. 365 and 4ovr were just getting started as trade sign printers. Today there are alot of great options. I know some will disagree with me, but it think it's a great time to get into the sign business.

 

[kheebl]

I've been using Sign Team Inc for years.