UFB Fabrication

Ask the paint reps if they will warranty their product for that use and the answer will tell you all you need to know.

Turn that shit inside out or see ya tomorrow. Safety begins with the company and employees not lawyers. The only prey off those suffering.

The Tri States was a success. More vendors than ever as well as attendees. They had folks from TX, MO AR, OK, KS and I would guess others. One thing I dont understand is that within a 2 -5 hour drive 1000's of sign shops and so few companies attend. I am on here and FB and other groups and evryday people are looking for products sign and info on a consistent basis. These regional shows are free and just mini ISA shows and I think the attendance should be 10 x what it is.

Wow that is terrible news. Our thoughts go out to the family and friends.

Hi guys hope a bunch from here are going to the Tri State Sign Expo August 8th - 10th. We will have a booth #125 . Be sure to come to the Auction and Banquet on Friday and always a great time at the pool party after the show. https://tristatesignexpo.com/

1st of all while its great to use as an excuse. I am not sure as what I would like to consider myself a legitimate business that excuse to not pay does not fly. I cant use that excuse with Grimco, Glantz aluminum suppliers , Ford , the bank. Hmmm I will just have to put on my big boy pants and get into the line of credit. Our large signs we are using our money for 60-90 days by the time the project starts through delivery then getting paid. Besides what if they never get paid. Nope sorry thats not how this works.

Haha we hired a Fab guy a few years back like that. It sucks that you wasted the time effort and money but it will be funny after a bit.

Thanks a bunch for the kind words.

BTW this is a nationwide epidemic getting skilled labor and people that will work.

We rarely hire from within the industry, unless we poach them from another shop.

Hey All, Just finished a video for UFB. What do you think. https://vimeo.com/336168038

Years ago when I had a full service sign co. I did a sign for a city that was a welcome to.... I had to get sign permits but the public works dept was going to install the sign. I had to go before a sign/design review board. I only provided eng and shop drawings. They rejected it even though the city was going to install and do the planting. I laughed at them and said fine and to the cities purchasing dept they can handle it from here and will deliver the sign in a few weeks. Government at its finest

So are your guys going directly to the jobsite in personal vehicles ? Are not all company/work vehicles insured? For example my personal truck may be on a jobsite with the purpose of hauling my ass only. I cant imagine they want to have the company to insure that. I would call your carrier to get clarification. Back when it was only me and my truck I had personal and a rider on delivered goods from the company. I would bet your agent and carrier can find a quick fix for this. If they cant I would also use this as a opportunity to shop my Ins carriers which includes Liability and workcomp. My agent shops EVERY renewal.

So here is where I stand on this. I have to follow all City, County, State and Federal laws. I pay for workers comp and liability Ins. I pay Sales, Realestate, Corporate, Personal Property, Sales, Fuel, Utility and Other taxes. I am under the thumb of UL, OSHA, EPA, MODNR, DOT, IFTA and bunches of state and local regulatory agencies. We also have Business licenses, State Registration and other fees to "allow" us to be able to do business. We are also at the threshold of going over 50 employees which ads another layer of costs and Bureaucracy. We have all kinds of internal safety programs, HR stuff and on and on and on. The sign business as a whole IMHO is in 4 groups : 1 The Big boys with a bunch of National work and hundreds on employees. 2 Medium size companies that have all the responsibilities of Group 1. 3 small shops who really struggle to meet all the requirements to be legit. Lastly Group 4 These are folks who skirt every rule and regulation they can. They are plain and simple HACKS. The have no business doing what they do. They cost everyone else more in everything that legit companies do correctly, yet still compete at the bottom keeping a great percentage of the retail jobs bid to cheap. I feel the Sign associations need to step up pushing local code enforcement and others to either make these folks play by the rules or go away. The sign game is a serious business. With public safety concerns and the skills and talent to design, build and install a decent product. Nobody like a RAT and wants to turn someone in to OSHA, EPA or the local AHJ, but the Rat is stealing your cheese by allowing him in your yard.

As a wholesaler we here it almost every day.....So and so used to sell it to us for..... Yes and thats why they are out of business. I am so glad I dont do retail work as the asshole customers will drop you for 20 bucks for the bucket truck guy above. I wish he would have just been another lawn mowing company. In a few months he will be gone and a real shop will have to go back a fix his fix.

Wow, thats terrible. I see this all the time that "volunteers" or business owners ,at the church, lodge or even city get involved with doing stuff that they were not qualified to do. Heck many sign companies do stuff they should not. Really sucks that the guy was only trying to help.

I will say that get a bunch of old timers BSing and you will here tales that makes this look osha approved, cant do anything like that now.

This is the perfect illustration of why this business is in the shape that its in

Sorry I forgot to mention, we bought a very high end older machine ( multicam) used. That particular machine had a lot of parts that were not available along with operating system that went obsolete. We ended up with a ton of money wasted in service and parts when we finally sent it to Multicam for a complete rebuild. Between original cost, service, parts and our time along with multicams rebuild it was above the cost of new. We have had issues with other used equipment as well. We will NEVER buy another used smart machine ever again.

I guess it depends on use, as in hours a day. Our 1st machine has a 4 HP spindle non tool changer. the other 3 all have tool changer set up. #3&4 have water cooled spindles. 4 HP is the min IMO, Router heads are very LOUD!!!!! ALL have vacuum hold down and are set up in sections. 2 have dust collector set up with a pneumatic controlled foot. All have misters for bit coolant. If you are doing HDU stuff you need dust collection as it gets everywhere. Also look at a gantry with more clearance. All are run remotely. Our small machines are 5x10 and biggest is 7x12. I think anything smaller than a 4x8 is a hobby machine. Our machines are running 8+ hours a day everyday and are not pushing them hard at all. Our older machines are stepper motor movement but the two new are servo. The servo machine cuts the 20% faster then the stepper using the exact same material and router bit. Lastly these do breakdown ever so often. Think about spare parts and god forbid you need to have a service guy come to the shop if you cant fix it. All of our machines are Multicam and in 15+ years we have only paid for 6 or 8 service calls and maybe less than that for warranty. Multicam service guys are good but I have heard horror stories from other companies service guys burning thru buckets O cash to fix a problem. As far as costs goes our last machine was a tad over 100k. I have never heard anyone complain that the had to much horsepower. Meaning if you buy a machine that is not duty rated eventually it will wear out, replaced by a machine that is capable. That said if you are only doing a couple jobs every now and then I think a Shopbot or similar would fit the bill. On a different note we route stuff for other shops all the time. They cant justify even the cheapest machine.

We Normally send out all of our letters with paper patterns. We have had customers ask for various rigid patterns (coroplast and foamcore) . Does anyone ask for them to bedone in tyvek? Thinking about adding that as a option.

We hardly ever use them any more. I have a old (75 years) freestanding monster about 4-500 lbs that I would sell. 100 bucks and its yours. We got it from a company thats had it 20-40 years previous. So well built we have never changed or sharpened the dies

It may different with us, as we are wholesale to the trade only. If its for a friend or relative fine, but thats the extent of it in regards to signs. I will do charity work on the clock. If its other stuff like fix a trailer weld a ______ for themselves or friends they are welcome. Most of the time give the material away within reason. Now if they are getting paid for it then I want to be reimbursed for electric and everything. If it a big project I want a cut as its my overhead and machinery they are getting use of. I gave 2 qts of paint away 3 minutes ago FWIW. But if you do business on your project on my time which I consider theft , steal from me or sell signs you are fired.