Good Morning All! Hope the weather is all great for you all. Last year at this time I was in Mexico soaking in all the sunshine, Corona, and "Takillya". At least here today we are not getting snow.
Anyway...I was approached by a person yesterday wanting to know if I wanted to join him in a business partnership producing magnets for cars and such. Just like you might see those freedom ribbon magnets. His idea was to mass produce magnets of different types for school, and other business along with individual sales. It looks like I would be doing most of the work in the production aspect of this and he would contact and get the designs needed for the business. It's sounds like I would be doing the work and he would reap some the benifits. But I was thinking of doing something extra for the business anyway.
My main question is: What type of printing equipment and cutting equipment is used in this type of business? and where would one go to look for this?
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Magnetic signs are usually done (at least at my shop) with the standard magnetic media that most all sign supply places carry and plotter cut vinyl. Rowmark makes a product now called Lasermag, it's black and engraves gold with the laser. It also comes in a couple of other colors.It could also be cut with the laser. I cut and engraved some with the laser the other day for a sign on a steel door. Worked good.

I'm not sure if you could cut the regular magnetic media with a laser. I doubt it, due to it's chemical makeup. However, it's really easy to cut it. You can just score it and it will break at the scoreline. To apply letters though, you could probably use an adhesive back laserable material. I'm sure their is some out there.

Johnson Plastics would be a good source of supply for these products. Their may be cheaper out there, but their service is very good.
Good luck with your new venture.

I know what you mean, but this is a good friend and he's good at his BS.
If you know what I mean. He could sell a bucket of" you know what" if he found the right person. I look at it this way, let him do the leg work and I'll just sit there and print and cut. I'll take a %. I might have to buy the equipment but you never know. If it takes off and he wants to go out on his own I'll sell my portion and move on.

Gary,

I think big dollar equipment investment. 100,000's +

Take a look at this site.

http://www.stouse.com/Products/Magnets/MagneticSigns.html

Ed

We sometimes used to cut custom magnet shapes in the laser. It was a pain, though, because it turns the edges to charcoal, leading to a lot of cleaning. Sometimes, though, it was the only way to get a special shape (unfortunately someone brilliantly decided it's only worth $10 for a custom shape per pair of magnetics).

A friend of mine managed to get his vinyl plotter to work with magnetic material. He set it up so that it would cut about 80% through. This kept the sheet together, but allowed him to snap the pieces out very easily. Made a few hundred pieces about 2/4 for a stainless steel leader board this way.

Unfortunately I'm out of contact with him, otherwise I'd try to get the specifics of what he did to make it work.

Sei

Here's what I would do. First of all, I really doubt that I could produce a high-quality, high volume product that can compete with the big shops that produce nothing but magnets. So I would sub it out.

Set your friend up as a customer of yours. Let him order the product and pay you. Then he can deal with the headaches of getting paid.

If this doesn't work, get him in touch with the distributor and walk away. It sounds like you are skeptical anyway.

High volume would require a large rotary die-cut machine and dies. It would be preprinted then run through the die-cut machine. Volumes for this equipment would need to be in the 100,000 per each item.

Smaller job runs will be more expensive per piece but can be done with the advice in the posts above.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.