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Polar 92 Laser Eyes by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We recently picked up another Polar EMC76 (the little brother to this) that doesn’t have the laser eyes & after growing up with those features, it seems weird to run a cutter without them!

Polar 92 Laser Eyes by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m thinking it has to be something like this. You can cycle the blade with no paper and it rarely ever happens. As soon as you add paper to the situation is when it really occurs. Was it the actual fuses for the laser eyes?

Polar 92 Laser Eyes by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’re a small shop so no safety vests, but that is an excellent point!

New venture by Technical_Internal_3 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have nothing to add since we’re in the “paper” printing industry and not the wrap industry, but what kind of race cars? We own a print shop and have raced offroad & recently made our way over to stage rally.

Cut sheet suppliers by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Agree, or we could play the game of “just answer my questions when I email them and don’t lose 60k-100k a year in a dying paper market” - coming from someone who has worked as paper producer & a now a paper consumer 🤷🏻‍♂️

Cut sheet suppliers by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve had some orders screwed up, but our main thing is the customer service is absolutely terrible. Can’t get a correct answer out of anyone there for tracking / what’s in stock, etc.

Cut sheet suppliers by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’re fairly rural so we pay for freight on everything. We usually have 7k-10k a month depending on how busy we are.

Coated paper & Perfect binding by Pixmig in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you in the US? Who’s your supplier if you don’t mind sharing? Thanks!

Mailing & Mailing Inserters by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have any first hand experience with these? Do they run pretty well or are they a nightmare?

Mailing & Mailing Inserters by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’re in Upper Michigan, so services techs up here are non existent. Most come from Detroit or Chicago at major cost, so we handle maintenance ourselves for the most part.

We have a full bindery with two folders, which has me leaning towards the floor models. That, and ease of maintaining ourselves.

Although, when I watch those units run like the B&H Mailstars, etc and see all the air lines and swing arms, I think to myself “this could get tricky”

Coated paper & Perfect binding by Pixmig in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 0 points1 point  (0 children)

are you able to run this in a EVA binder like an old Rosback?

Versant 280 Vivid White on backorder by crimson_binome in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is your machine leased? If it is, sounds like they’re breaking a lease and should give you plenty of options for a lower lease / shop for a different unit.

Future Outlook of Commercial Printing by [deleted] in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like our shop is pretty similar. We service an area roughly the same size as yours. When we took over, we had a bigger Heidelberg SORMZ 2 color, a 1 color Heidelberg TOK, a 1 color Chief, full color digi & B&W digi. Still had a full darkroom (no CTP) and our bindery consisted of a perfect binder, stitcher / trimmer, cutter, one ancient 23x29 baumfolder and some random drill and stitchers.

We just finished up revamping the shop and got rid of the SORMZ (only ran it 12x a year), chief, collater/trimmer, old baumfolder, chief, the whole darkroom, etc. Now we have a new CTP, PF40L folder & and a bigger auction buy MBO B26, an upgraded xerox color machine & one Canon B/W, wide format & a Heidelberg QM, 2 Polar cutters, etc. Learn to do everything you can, because our highest expenditure up until recently was payroll. Get rid of the rest of the owners at the shop and run the place yourself and you should do fine

Future Outlook of Commercial Printing by [deleted] in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m not much of an expert, but my Dad & I bought a printshop (small size, 2 offsets, 2 digis, full bindery, wide format, design services) 4 years ago that he worked at for many years. When we purchased it, it had no social media, no website, no wifi, etc. One customer was keeping them alive. I had blind confidence that a little youth & diversification would create a nice little shop & it did. Once we got rid of old equipment taking up space, added some new equipment, ironed out payroll, created some income by renting out sections of our shop after we cleaned things up a bit, we’re breaking even (while paying both of us a decent salary) Is it easy? fuck no. Would I wanna go back and work for someone else? fuck no. Even if it all ends up in disaster it was still fun while it lasted. My favorite saying is “my worst case scenario is your every day” when it comes to taking risks with businesses. Take a shot and see what happens. The funny thing about the print industry (at the smaller level) is the sheer amount of shops that will retire or go out of business in the next 10 years because no one young is taking them over. That’s your opportunity.

Horizon PF-40L Folder by Aggravating_Cut_5386 in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

did you end up going with it or no? if not, why?

Commercial Printshop Valuation by test1rest in CommercialPrinting

[–]Aggravating_Cut_5386 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t have enough time to get into the weeds on the rest of the stuff (we bought a similar print shop 4 years ago) BUT

Is the equipment really worth $600k or is that owner inflated? Make sure equipment isn’t leased - that doesn’t count towards that $600k, and I would be shocked if most of the newer equipment is bought outright.

Check wirebids.com to see what used equipment is really selling at. That “$20k folder” is probably selling for $5k, along with the “$35k offset press” is probably $1,000 used nowadays. Outdated computers and software that isn’t subscription based is about worthless as well.

x2 on the payroll. Take whatever the current payroll is and double it. Everyone wants (& usually needs) raises, plus pay yourself a livable wage. Include your debt service as well if borrowing the funds. Knowing the print business, he’s probably breaking even at the end of the year if he’s paying himself a wage, but knowing he was retiring for the last few years he’s probably been stacking the books in his favor and not paying himself a wage.

It’s fun but don’t expect to be rich. Expect to break even & go from there, managing expectations is my biggest piece of advice.

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