posted
well first let me start off by saying...yeah i'm ****ed, tired of the crappy products out there, sick of the demands and just overall negative...sorry. just being honest! the past few months have been very tiring for me...i'm just getting really discouraged by the whole industry of manufacturing signs. there are just too many things that can and do go wrong...yet driven by an industry that constantly undersells themselves. today was just the last straw of my many meltdowns in the last week...i even hurled my faceshield across the shop breaking it into several pieces...surprisingly enough none of which flew back and gouged out an eye...so i guess i should be happy for that. anyhoo...i have these signs due tomorrow for a ski area. 2 sheets worth of red alumilite...12- 2ftx2ft signs...no biggie..crank them out and be done right? WRONG!!!! has anyone experienced this shyt???? wtf did they use for glue? that paste you could eat in grammar school? i give up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [/IMG]
[ December 12, 2005, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: KARYN BUSH ]
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow. That is incredible! I hope you can get this resolved! Whatever you do, DON'T stick Avery to it! Gonna be real skeered of Alumalite now. Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
meanwhile, I'm really glad you broke your face sheild on the floor rather than having somethin' heavy wham you in the face and it breaking there! . . .I'm not sure who you should call first . . . the mask maker, or the substrate maker . . . lol
I'm not familiar with that brand name. We have a product here called alumicore (I think) It's a fluted plastic with aluminum glued on.
Is this 'Alumilite' a fluted core product?
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:tired of the crappy products out there, sick of the demands and just overall negative...sorry. just being honest! the past few months have been very tiring for me...i'm just getting really discouraged by the whole industry of manufacturing signs. there are just too many things that can and do go wrong...yet driven by an industry that constantly undersells themselves.
Sweety, you gots too much talent to be talking like that. We have all been there (here lately alot!) Don't be throwin that towel just yet. PLAN for the crap the suppliers are dishin' out now...been there, done that, bla bla (hell, I just put in a new order to Gemini this morning...fingers crossed)
And by the way..Damn the price cutters! they will get theres in the end. (Ya right in the end)
-------------------- Snow's Sign Works 865-908-0076 snowman@planetc.com www.snowsigns.com
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message... Posts: 1640 | From: Sevierville, TN | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
yes james that's exactly what it is. this manufacturer is laminators, inc...they make alumalite, lusterboard, omega signboard and ecoNO(glue)lite.
i think i take things way too personally...i mean really,,,IOAFS right? but the responsible business person in me that wants to deliver quality on time has to stop by the customers place tomorrow and show them first hand. it makes me look bad even though i know its not my fault.
i'm just really really tired and stressed....think i'll go do a dry cocktail and take a bubble tubby...then go to sleep early!
am i the only one that lets this crap get to me enough to have me in tears and hurling things across the room? DANGER DANGER will rogers! STEP AWAY FROM THE LUNATIC SIGNCHICK! shyt man i don't even have pms.
thanks for letting me rant!!!!
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
I too had a bad expierence with their product on white 4x10 panels. I called my distributor, and was asked to email photos. I was willing to accept that this was a one time mistake. They replaced the faulty products and offered to give me 2 new ones. I'm wondering if they run into trouble with everything BUT standard 4x8 white.
I wish Dibond would be able to make a durable .25" product......
Hope you have a better day.
-------------------- Matthew Rolli AdCraft Sign&Design Hudson, WI Posts: 280 | From: Hudson, WI | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Karyn - Had the same problem several years ago except I had used the white - had to replace two signs & all I got was replacement material - haven't used it since. I guess it has it's place but I haven't found it. I can buy .080 Aluminum for roughly the same price & not worry 'bout it. I do use a lot of their Omega Board & have been generally satisfied, but have noticed the quality varies - some warps after 2 months & others have been up several years with no problems.
-------------------- Carl Wood Olive Branch, Ms Posts: 1392 | From: Olive Branch,MS USA | Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Karyn, the pics are fuzzy on my puter. Can you spell out what's wrong with the stuff? Not red? warped? Hard to make out over here and having never bought the stuff before...
posted
Karyn, how can you NOT let it "get to you"?
What's the alternative? Running a sign shop requires a lot of determination, continually. I think I might know what the alternative is: no scheduling. Having seen some of the same, interuption after delay after equipment problems, I got to the point where I thought hey, maybe I should surrender to the interuptions. No more schedule, everything floats, I get to it as soon as I can.
But I can't say it works. Just one of those wierd (philisophical?) experiments. There weren't less interuptions, more if anything. I think the best thing is to schedule gaps, that will of couse, be filled. Easier said than done. Sorry I'm not more helpful, but I've got my own "irons in the fire".
How about this: most folks probably saw those neat sign kits that Sal was selling? How about somebody screening and selling a sign something like this:
Dear People: If you see me here, it doesn't mean I'm not working. If I had a job at an office , I could be fired by interuptions. Please treat my time here the same way. Thank you.
Ahhh, dream on, that sign would cost me more than money
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
There was some bad alumalite around last year at this time. My supplier is Harbor Sales in Baltimore. I got a call on Christmas eve. last year about the problem. They wanted to make sure that I didn't have any of the problem material (I did) and change it out right away if I did. Harbor was great and the alumalite people were great. They had a problem and fixed it right away. I was freaked out for a couple of weeks because I just made over $9000 worth of alumalite signs, but they were OK after all.
Both manufacturer and supplier went above and beyoud to solve the problem. I didn't go to them, they came to me. I use their product with confidence.
-------------------- Carper's Signs 594 Union School Rd. Mount Joy, PA 17552 carpersign@earthlink.net Posts: 157 | From: Lancaster, PA, USA | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
yeah that avacado, tomatoe and lettuce didn't put a smile on my face like a nice 14oz toberlone bar would have..lol!
donna...the piece you see is the aluminum peeling right off the coro...like they glued it with that paste we used in grammar school. i went to peel the protective masking off and the aluminum came off instead leaving just a black piece of coro....lovely huh?
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
On the bright side, at least the failure was totally obvious as soon as you laid hands on the material. Much better than investing time and materials making a sign with it and THEN having it delaminate like that
-------------------- Ryan Long Magic Light Neon Sign Co. Crawfordsville, IN Posts: 132 | From: Crawfordsville, IN | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think Karyn summed up (rather nicely) one of my biggest complaints about the sign industry.
This happens all the time. Today, it's Alumalite in Karyn's shop, yesterday it was defective metallic vinyl in mine. Today we finished printing an 8 foor print for a trade show display and found the last two feet of material wall kinked; throw it away.
Most of the manufacturers "make good". But they can't replace our time, and they don't replace the inks and other things that go into the trash along with their defective product.
Our cost estimator is set for a default of 30% waste. I swear its not enough. And when you estimate your time on a project, do you ever estimate the time to do it two or three times?
I don't mind when I mess up. But printing or laminating large prints to find a film defect, or paying someone for sixteen hours to find out the vinyl "wasn't shiny" until the second roll came in, really fries me.
-------------------- Paul Luszcz Zebra Visuals 27 Water Street Plymouth, MA 02360 508 746-9200 paul@zebravisuals.com Posts: 483 | From: 27 Water Street, Plymouth, MA 02360 | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Stuck in a corner, heh, Karen? What a lousy thing to happen, and I'd be going bonkers. Listen, I was in the auto parts store tonight getting a new battery and just found out the hour before the cv joints were going out of my car, etc. Like I have a list, so I'm looking around and I see they carry gorilla glue on the freestanding display. Nicest thought I had all night...hmmmm. Maybe that's what holds the world together? What have we got to lose at this point?! Good luck and don't let the bastuff get ya down. And I was just thinking of changing to alumalite since it's too cold to paint here!
-------------------- Deb Fowler
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney (1901-1966) Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
no laura, 14oz is not enough...hence the reason i bought 7! monte...they do make dibond in colors...its just hard trying to find a distributor that stocks more than white and black....i may have found one in manchester, nh.
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Laminators Inc. products just suck. Remember the rant I posted about the aluminum-faced plywood that came apart like cardboard? I finally got the word from my supplier that it was from Laminators. Never again!
Laminators market is selling cheap, cut-corners crap to cheap, cut-corners sticky shops; with nothing designed to last any serious amount of time. About the only composite aluminum product I still trust is Di-bond.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think we recently had a post about MDO VS Aluminum products. I stopped using alumacore stuff after a butterfly flew into a sheet and dented it. I hate that stuff.
-------------------- Mike Duncan Lettercraft Signs Posts: 1328 | From: Centreville, VA | Registered: Oct 2000
| IP: Logged |
[/IMG]
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
. . .I'm not sure who you should call first . . . the mask maker, or the substrate maker . . . lol
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Bash]](graemlins/bash.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic