Rocco

I double checked with my buddy and he actually doesn't have the rivet gun but just was recommending Milwaukee tools in general. He's been bugging me for years to switch over. If I did't already have too many Dewalt "toys" I'd consider switching to M.

It's a small sign world! This just came up about an hour ago for me as well. I'm in the same boat though mine would be step ladder heights and much smaller signs. A friend of mine did recommend the Milwaukee unit - all of his cordless stuff is M brand. Amazon has a bunch of good reviews on it too. Like you I would need a battery/charger as well. Rocco

It's getting to be really difficult to walk that fine line between keeping customers happy (even the 'good' ones) and being able to get and keep good employees. You need a full time HR person, lawyer, architect, engineer, social media liason, insurance expert, IT person, and more just for the paperwork. The owner of a small company has a hard time wearing all those hats.

It's almost certainly a case of their insurance company wanting to limit their liability "just in case". Say one of your employees was a deep undercover KGB spy (hey, these insurance types actually think of these things) and went into a bank where you were installing signs and... It's nuts. I won't do Walmart work because they want I-9 form (imigration) on all employees. My secretary is my sister and some my kids work part time and I know they are legally here. And by the way, make sure to read any fine print on secondary pages of PO's. Some companies are sneaking in

Thanks! TBH I was wondering because they seem to be blanketing the country with small jobs like MC used to do. Now I won't always turn down small work because you never know where it might lead.

Lately I've been getting a fair amount of RFQ's for installation work from Signs Unlimited USA from Durham NC. Does anyone have any experience with them? So far the quotes aren't for huge jobs but IDK what tomorrow will bring. Thanks!!! Rocco

Nice Paul! i guess I'm really getting old since I don't think of vinyl lettering as "old school".

Nikki, I thought that we were still on the Stratus vendor list. IIRC we recently got an rfq for this. It's probably because our insurance renewed at the end of june and the darn agent didn't get all the coi's sent out. Anyway, the contractor didn't specify anything about being an approved vendor but I'll let them know.

Angel, thanks for the reply. I'm bidding this for a construction company and of course they don't have the info. I'm going to go by local PS signs and be VERY specific in my bid with a an option or two. Also, this is a "historic" town and won't allow 20% of what PS wants and am sure we'll have to revise when we apply. Again, thanks. Rocco

I'm bidding a new Public Storage location near me. The sign package page (for once there is one) states that we have to follow "Public Storage Sign System Design Intent Drawings, dated 1/16/2019 v3.0"." Does anyone happen to have a copy of this they would share? I've looked online and they look to use white face lit letters, but I'm sure it's more involved than that. Thank You Rocco

Hi all, We've done surveys for years and years and I've always had to tight with the customers (usually national companies) over survey costs. Some seem to think that we can examine each and every aspect of the building in twenty minutes and only want to pay accordingly. Others realize that a good survey does take time, plus the office time to scan/email the photos, plus the inevitable call asking about some small detail, plus plus plus. So what amount of time do you allot for a standard (yes I know that there really isn't anything "standard" in the sign business so let's cal

I recently bought a graphtec plotter as well though I bought the CE 6000-120. My first plotter was a Gerber 4B, which was delivered by Fred Flintstone, which I eventually hooked up to a computer. It was so nice to be able to have more than six fonts! And retirement? What's that? I'm sixty and figure I have about another 35-40 years before I can afford to think about retirement.

As usual I'm late to the party. Erik, Happy B-day. And it beats NOT getting older - this from an admitted dinosaur.

We like the plastic clips. I completely agree with the 1-2 click rule. Having that extra travel has saved us a few times. We get the face fairly tight/smooth then go around the whole thing depressing the clips another click or two as needed. The tensioning tool makes short work of that last little bit. Puckering might be a sign of having it too tight as well. Yes, I've done that. Either that or the sign needs additional supports. Its amazing how much tension a flex face puts on a cabinet, especially if it was not designed for a flex face originally.

A good friend of mine almost went under because of Image Point but he was able to get about 75-80% of the monies owed to him. I think he had to go after I.P.'s customers in some cases. And as far as the vast majority of these national service companies are concerned, I echo Paul's sentiments. Do it on my terms or not at all.