ChannelBender1

Happy Memorial Day weekend Erik! I don't know about you but I'm BIG TIME ready for some R&R! Thankfully, SDS Automation has not been impacted much by COVID. We have been fully operational the entire time and have continued to install and service machines with effectively no interruption throughout Q1 and Q2 2020. But I digress, back to the topic at hand. We just made the decision to pull our advertising from SDG. Just not confident that the ROI is there considering the direction they seem to be headed. We allocated those dollars toward increasing our presence with SOTT instead. Hopefully it proves to be a wise choice. Readers will be seeing some big improvements in our ad presence beginning in June. Looking forward to some positive feedback from the industry. Have a cold one (or ten) for me!

Hey man. Be positive. Its peak hurricane season. That ain't so bad.?

I'm an exhibitor ( Booth 3228). SDS Automation. I served on the ISA Trade Show Advisory Board for 3 years through the end of 2019. Regretting dropping off at the moment but some of those relationships are still coming in handy. Supposedly registrations are up 17% compared to Orlando 2018. Not that registering is a big commitment and people won't bail without thinking twice. I've heard that many exhibitors from China and South Korea have withdrawn from the show. Would be nice to know concrete numbers. I heard today that AgiLight has withdrawn as I'd imagine some other exhibitors have. Tomorrow I'm going to hit my network hard to get a better grasp of what's true and what's unsubstantiated rumor. We elected to wait until the last possible moment to ship our booth structure, machinery, order carpet etc. Ultimately, I have one week left to make a final decision. Once we ship all our crap, if the show gets canceled, we then have to pay to ship it back. Plus it will be in Freeman's possession once it gets to its destination. As soon as Freeman touches our crates the meter starts running..... and running fast! Money is obviously a huge factor in this decision for OCCC, ISA, and exhibitors alike. Our booth footprint alone cost darn close to $60k. Add on top of that shipping costs, material handling, staff salaries, travel expenses etc and SignExpo is a $200-$250k investment for our company. I'm not sure how the contract between ISA and OCCC reads and who's on the hook for what. Regarding ISA and its exhibitors I'd imagine if ISA elects to cancel, exhibitors might be entitled to a refund (full or partial). Thst being said, it's probably a safe assumption that if the exhibitor withdraws they're probably SOL. As an exhibitor this is a big decision and it involves huge dollar amounts in expenses and even more in potential lost exposure / sales. Maybe I'll flip a coin to decide.......

Hello Steve, There has been a serious miscommunication here. I made no comments that were directed toward you, UFB Fab, its size or skill and I apologize if you got that impression. I'm unclear how you made that assumption based on my comment.

In 2016 SDS / Adam's Tech introduced Innovation Award winning LetterForm Trimless channel letter coil to go with our ChannelBender Series channel letter machines. Here is a picture of a very recent job at Yesco using our patented Trimless LetterForm coil with the new Super ChannelBender they bought to replace their AccuBend Model 410. Our customers have seen a dramatic increase in the number of jobs specifying Trimless channel letters due to large commercial property companies like Simon Property Group and others effectively banning trim cap channel letters. I'm curious if others fabricators are seeing this as well.

Thanks for the feedback Don. Employee of Computerized Cutters who just registered and posted at the insistance of Carl Ondrececk who sent me repeated harrassing emails 2 days ago because of my post here calling me an "asshole" Etc. Etc. Etc. In response to which I had to notify our law firm and send Carl a cease and desist otherwise I'd have Carl charged with cyberstalking which by the way is a Federal crime. Just to clarify my use of uneducated I provided a specific context by saying "When I say uneducated I'm simply referring to a lack of fabrication knowledge and experience" Therefore I wasnt calling them stupid as you so implied Don

I certainly won't disagree with you there. Building letters takes a whole lot more skill and talent than simply buying one, or even several machines. For example, our closest competitor introduced that new, cheaply made machine for about $40k. It has very limited capabilities. Heck, it doesnt even bend .063. Equipment like that essentially targets a low budget, uneducated segment of the market. When I say uneducated I'm simply referring to a lack of fabrication knowledge and experience. That type of equipment is intended for people who really aren't sure they're committed to doing fabrication in the long term. It's for those who want to dip a toe in the water and dabble. I suspect there will be a huge secondary market for those cheap, low-end machines once the original purchasers figure out exactly how much effort and experience is required to build a QUALITY, COMPLETE channel letter sign.

Respectfully UFB, it appears you're not well-informed regarding the latest advancements made regarding channel letter machines. Before assuming nothing has changed with channel letter machines give me a call to find out actually how much has changed. Our Super ChannelBender XP is much faster, more accurate, wastes much less material (only 1/4") per letter than any of our competitors, we introduced and patented a Trimless channel letter coil called LetterForm in 2016. In fact we were presented with the ISA Innovation Award at Sign Expo 2016 for this new material. Our machine automatically punches 1/8" pilot holes for screws and rivets, our machine automatically punches 1/4" drain holes, our machine automatically removes the flange on one side of the seam overlap, our software can read the location of holes from the router dxf file used to cut the back panel of a letter and our machine will place a corresponding hole in the flange so rivets no longer require any pre-drilling and lastly our machine will punch rivet holes on both sides of the seam overlap we can bend serifs as small as 3/16" in reverse channel letters. Are those not profound improvements to a channel letter machine? More than 300 sign companies across the country have replaced their gold and green antique channel letter machines in the last 4 years alone. I can't imagine they'd be doing that if we hadn't built a better mouse trap. I beg to differ with your opinion.

Hi Rene, since you decided on the best channel letter bender available. The Super ChannelBender XP from SDS / Adams Tech, it will need a solid router to keep up with it. Based on what I see all over the US and Canada Multicam or AXYZ are the go-to brands. Don't look at anything smaller than 5' x 10'. If you go 4' x 8' you'll regret it. Get a tool changer and vacuum hold down also. You'll need vacuum hold down for cutting faces accurately enough to work with our Trimless LetterForm coil and tool changers just make life so much easier....and faster.

Brian, Thanks very much for your words of praise for our technical support. We try very hard to be head and shoulders above our "competition" in all respects. I appreciate you taking the time to compliment our staff! James Cross VP Sales & Operations 303-956-7959

This is a photo of our very first mock up of the parts that we did for Aerial before they purchased their Super ChannelBender.

Aerial Signs in Chester Twp, PA has the Wawa account. I worked very closely with them before they purchased their Adams Tech Super ChannelBender. They needed a machine that could accurately produce the scallops on the wings of the Goose portion of the logo in .063 aluminum and AccuBend nor CLN could not even come close to fabricating those small details, period. The Super ChannelBender could produce details this small and do so accurately so they chose to purchase our machine in January 2016. Contact Chris Densten. http://www.aerialsignsandawnings.com

This Super T revelation is very recent so you're not behind the curve by any stretch of the imagination.

The adhesive has been tested successfully from zero F to 160 F. I would recommend each shop do their own testing as well just for their own peace of mind. Any warranty is up to the fabricator. We cannot warranty something over which we have no control, for example, any given sign shop's fabrication methods.

Brian, For LetterForm, please look into using Satellite City Super T medium viscosity with activator spray. Several customers have experienced very promising results in exterior environmental testing with this adhesive. There are also some good UV adhesives available for this application but I would recommend contacting an adhesives supplier for more info on UV curables. http://www.caglue.com/HST-8-bSuper-T-4ozb-medium-CA-glue_p_18.html http://www.caglue.com/QA-6-bNCF-Quick-6ozb-aerosol-CA-glue-accelerator_p_28.html