Button supplies

[archiver]

Posted by Clinton Hamilton at 03/06/2001 10:16 AM EST


Student on team #108, SigmaC@T, from Dillard High School and Motorola.



Well the GIANT box of button supplies is finally
empty. What's the best place to order more button
supplies from? I've found a couple of places that
seem to have decent prices but I can't help
wondering if there are any places that are
sympathetic to FIRST teams (after all that is an
awful lot of buttons at Nationals). The only catch is
that we have to be able to order by phone because
of the crazy school bureaucracy.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[archiver]

Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 03/06/2001 11:21 AM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Button supplies
Posted by Clinton Hamilton on 03/06/2001 10:16 AM EST:



Nothing personal, but why in the world are you making buttons by hand? I've done it before, and it's tedious, annoying, and error prone. Our team, and I suspect many others, goes to a company with the artwork, and has them make up the buttons for us. You get some pretty nice price breaks for making lots of buttons. I think ours are coming out to $0.70 or less each, and we're making about a thousand. Of course, then you can't make lots of different buttons, but it sure is cheaper and easier. Just a thought for next year. I'm not exactly sure what the company would be listed under in the yellow pages. Probably novelty supply or something.
Actually, that's probably where you should look for button making supplies. Call some shops listed in the novelties section. if they don't have them, one of them can probably direct you to the right place.

[archiver]

Posted by Christina Alzona at 03/06/2001 1:33 PM EST


Other on team #271, Mechanical Marauders, from Bay Shore High School and Verizon.


In Reply to: Button Making
Posted by Kevin Sevcik on 03/06/2001 11:21 AM EST:



God...button making. I've done a few of those, talk about tedious work. But, I think our buttons were like $0.20 per button, and I have no idea how many they made. I honestly don't remember where they got their button supplies, but trust me, I have wondered whether the work was worth that extra $0.50. But, when you have no money like us :-) it does add up. Good luck with your buttons.

~Christina ºoº

[archiver]

Posted by Jeff W. at 03/06/2001 2:14 PM EST


Student on team #419, RAMBOTS, from Boston College High School and Don't think we actually have a sponsor.


In Reply to: Re: Button Making
Posted by Christina Alzona on 03/06/2001 1:33 PM EST:



Rambots had some hand made pins that cost nothing. I forgot which team was passing out the "create your own pins", but we use those and wrote "Rambots 419" on it and passed them out and also we cut an empty soda can and wrote "419" on it and passed them out as pins. We had all these pins and cost us: $0. (Rambots lacking fundings)

Jeff

[archiver]

Posted by mike oleary at 03/06/2001 3:08 PM EST


Student on team #419, rambots, from bc high and sponsors are overrated..go pocket-change robots!!!.


In Reply to: Re: Button Making
Posted by Jeff W. on 03/06/2001 2:14 PM EST:



the soda can pins didnt cost us $0...someone had to buy a can of soda, and then we had to use duct tape to make them stickable...shockingly we didnt end up having to spend any money for bandaids cuz no one cut up their hands on the cut up cans or the knife we used to cut them up before some one had the bright idea of using sissors...(good thinking whitey)

: Rambots had some hand made pins that cost nothing. I forgot which team was passing out the "create your own pins", but we use those and wrote "Rambots 419" on it and passed them out and also we cut an empty soda can and wrote "419" on it and passed them out as pins. We had all these pins and cost us: $0. (Rambots lacking fundings)

: Jeff

[archiver]

Posted by Clinton Hamilton at 03/06/2001 6:20 PM EST


Student on team #108, SigmaC@T, from Dillard High School and Motorola.


In Reply to: Button Making
Posted by Kevin Sevcik on 03/06/2001 11:21 AM EST:



A) It costs ALOT less (about $0.12 per button) plus
manpower
B) if you have a good machine you can really crank
them out. 2 people can produce about 5-10
buttons per minute (sound about right Robbie)
C) allows me to change designs as often as I want
to.
D) I can make great looking buttons with smooth
gradients (tried doing that when you have to pay
per color)
And the #1 reason is that I already tried talking
them into doing that but kids are cheap labor, feed
them and they're happy (for awhile), and we're
barely within our promotional budget as is.


: Nothing personal, but why in the world are you
making buttons by hand? I've done it before, and
it's tedious, annoying, and error prone. Our team,
and I suspect many others, goes to a company
with the artwork, and has them make up the
buttons for us. You get some pretty nice price
breaks for making lots of buttons. I think ours are
coming out to $0.70 or less each, and we're
making about a thousand. Of course, then you
can't make lots of different buttons, but it sure is
cheaper and easier. Just a thought for next year.
I'm not exactly sure what the company would be
listed under in the yellow pages. Probably novelty
supply or something.
: Actually, that's probably where you should look for
button making supplies. Call some shops listed
in the novelties section. if they don't have them,
one of them can probably direct you to the right
place.

[archiver]

Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 03/07/2001 1:11 AM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Re: Button Making
Posted by Clinton Hamilton on 03/06/2001 6:20 PM EST:



Hey now. I'm not the logo/promotions guy, so I could've gotten those numbers wrong. I probably did, in fact. I think .70 was for the antenna balls. But anyways, I can list a couple advantages to having someone else make your buttons.
1. Less Hassle. You don't have to co-ordinate printing, button making, etc.
2. More professional artwork. Say what you will, but I've seen some really busy and hard to read buttons at nationals.
3. Yes you CAN get gradients. One of our buttons this year is gonna be a facny multicolor one, and we don't have to pay by the color.
4. Nifty shapes. Unless my memory fails me completely, you an only hand make round buttons, while we're gonna have a triangular one.
5. Buttons come out straight. I dunno why, but I just hate crooked buttons...

Plus, I think multiple designs are overrated anyways. Sure, they increase the trading value of your buttons, but our philosophy has always been to put out a consistent image of the team. Atleast it has been after our rookie year when we were the Insomniacs, had a motto from the simpsons, a robot named the dream machine, and were giving out tiger tails... ::shudder::

[archiver]

Posted by william swanson at 03/06/2001 3:29 PM EST


Coach on team #353, p. o. b. bots, from mattlin middle school.


In Reply to: Button supplies
Posted by Clinton Hamilton on 03/06/2001 10:16 AM EST:



we used S&S supplies in conn.