Pad Printing Services?

[aesir911]

Does anyone know where I can pay to have my face, torso, and leg designs printed? I know there are a couple sites who do it for an outrageous laughable price. I would be putting in a medium sized order, and repeating the orders too. Let me know if you are willing to do this, or know of someone! I would provide all of the parts and designs!

[JopieK]

The machines are very expansive (at least if they use UV machines), so they need to gain it back one way or the other. A sticker printer that we have is already € 16.000, but the same idea in UV costs about € 40.000 so I'm afraid that it will always be quite costly.

[Robianco]

I don't think there are any pad printers who frequent this forum so you probably won't get any takers on here.

With regards to pad printing you're going to be looking at around 100 as a minimum order... anything less will make it prohibitively expensive. Pad printing is going to be expensive anyway and the cost will grow depending on how many colours etc but I'm sure you're aware of that. You'll also need to ensure that your artwork is set up in vector format with each colour separated as that's how it's printed.... again, I'm sure you're probably aware of the artwork guidelines for printing.

The one thing you might be able to negotiate is the fact that the plates will already be made once you print so the next run may not be as expensive but make sure the printer is aware to keep your printing plates.

You may find that the prices aren't so laughable once you'd had quotes from various people. The benefit of using some of the better known Lego printing people is that they've done MANY lego torsos, heads and legs so they'll be farmer aware of the little tolerances that occur and can guide you through the process.

One final note is you'll need to factor in the blank parts before you do any printing. Buying 100 blank torsos, legs and heads and then shipping them to wherever your printer is is a cost that needs to be factored in. Again... some of the better known Lego printers may be able to source the parts for you eliminating that part of the problem.

[ED-209]

I know there are a couple sites who do it for an outrageous laughable price.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of prices do you consider reasonable? And are you considering UV-cured digital printing as well as pad printing? The reason I ask is that I'm considering buying a digital printer myself I'd be interested in any opinions on pricing.