For the first time I had to hire a helper. Right now I'm in a middle of job installing printed graphics on 28 trucks.
Hired a helper to help me clean the trucks and to help me handje big 4x10' decals. He is my buddy, but is paid help.
Due to that job, also had to send two jobs (350 and 50 pieces) across the town to Pierre. Pretty simple prints, but no time to do them.
With being part time (Still have a full time job), I believe it is time to start looking into helpers more often, or looking into making this my only job.
I got pretty good at installing big decals all by myself back in the day.
I once installed a 30 foot decal (30' X 12.977" to be exact) on a billboard in the wind by myself. I should have just hand lettered it....if we hadn't switched from enamel paints over to Latex House Paint. We used to have quite a few highway signs in rural Kansas, and lots of them were enamel painted 1/2" MDO for a couple of decades. (MDO = Medium Density Overlaid plywood. Paper faced plywood for signs, basically.)
If you don't like a hijacked thread, just stop here.
Properly scuffed, primed, and edge sealed MDO painted with Exterior House Paint lasts a RIDICULOUSLY long time. But lettering with latex paint sucks. Multiple coats with a little stiffer brush than you'd use for enamel was the ticket. But after they "season" for a while, you can apply cut decals.
Thing was, with BIG letters, almost ZERO skill is required to hand letter. So we often involved our kids. No Lindberg stuff here.
Now I'm going to hijack my own post.
In my sign company days, I once hung a 1500 pound 6 x 16 electric sign, Lindberg style, in Alva Oklahoma in one day. 30 foot to the top.
I've now forgotten if I dug the holes for the poles on that day or not. But I had an augur rig I had built in High School for the sign company that could dig an 80" deep hole. 7 full foot actually, if you didn't mind digging out a spot for the big drive sprocket to go below grade 4 inches. A 12" round hole, 7 foot deep filled with a cemented 5 1/2" drill casing or 7" or even 8 1/2" absolutely WILL hold your average small town electric sign. I promise. Especially 2 of them, which was the case on this install.
I was so tired at the end of that day, that I vomited.
There. That's my superlative solo job. One guy, one crane truck, one ladder, one welder, ~20 years younger. (Luckily NO wind. Weird for Oklahoma)
The PAINFUL memory of that last solo installation, is a BIG reason I now print tee shirts.
60 Year Olds don't need no steeknin ladders, especially operating a worn out crane from the tippy top of it. I had a wired remote control for my smaller crane truck and could operate it from the top of an extension ladder.
I don't often tell people this story. Probably because, 1) it was stupid and I did it all the time. My wife didn't fully understand how stupid it was. and 2) it is a little hard to believe, and I don't want to be thought a liar. I'm no Brian Williams.
Or Hillary.
