ec2-3-144-104-29.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com | ToothyWiki | RecentChanges | Login | Webcomic TheInquisitor: It occurs to me that we have a badge making machine lying around at home. It's manual, but a run of 20 or so is still perfectly feasible to knock up.
Given either an appropriate design (I could supply templates (in some machine-readable form) to SunKitten or others, I think - although I'd have to dig them out), or just printed pages with the pictures on, I ought to be able to make badges.
They're nice quality metal ones (plastic backs, fixed angle pin fastenings, not just safety pins flapping around), and the result is indistinguishable from 'professional' badges (modulo image quality). Cost-wise, we normally charge 50p per badge (except for blatantly good causes, which this isn't).
Anyone interested? I'll happily do the legwork, (and possibly even the layout,) if there is a sane amount of interest. No minimum run, although it wastes less paper if about 6 are done at a time. Printing technology wise, we have a decent inkjet (photo-quality paper costs about a pound a sheet), or a colour laser printer.
A pound a sheet? *boggle* PC World do 180gsm glossy photo paper for 12 quid or so per 50 sheets of A4; [MX2] do 270gsm photo glossy A4 (about as good as photo paper gets) at 13 quid per 40 sheets.. FWIW, BTW, we have a photo printer also. - MoonShadow
Erm... In which case, my knowledge of prices is very out of date. It takes the standard paper. And our printer has the advantage of being here, which is why I suggested it. -- TI
What sort of cause were you thinking of? InspiredGuess? #1: something for the RinFanClub? It would also be possible for something MtG-related to be quite cool. It would depend what images we could get hold of, and designs we could make from them. The RinFanClub I suspect would have no problem there ;) --AlexChurchill
I was reminded by SunKitten talking about 'print your own' t-shirts, so initial thoughts were RinFanClub, or possibly just a whole set of characters. Anything you care to name is feasible, though. Oh, and 50p is more than the cost of consumables, but not by all that much, and we did buy the thing in the first place. Fundamentally, I wasn't thinking of a cause - I just remembered WeHadTheTechnology, and thought I'd see if there was interest. -- TI
I like fiddling with stuff like this so if you could put a template or instructions on layout somewhere web-reachable, this could be fun :) --Kazuhiko (pondering the slogan "How to BAIT a Phoenix")
It turns out that 'machine readable' means Microsoft/PowerPoint? format, or alternatively digging out an older computer. However, dimensions follow:
The sheet should have printed on it a circle of diameter 85mm - this is used for alignment of the cutter, so it need not be complete, and may overlap with other such circles.
The cutter produces circles of diameter 70mm. While it is not necessary to put a circle here, if you do so, I'll know I've gotten the right bit. Clearly all of this should be present, and nothing should be drawn on it that you don't wish to appear.
The visible area is about 60mm in diameter, although this includes well over a millimeter of overlap around all edges, and a little distance before that loses visibility, owing to the curve of the badge surface - I'd suggest keeping all text within a 55mm diameter circle, at most. Neither of these circles need be drawn on, and indeed they should not be, unless you want them to appear. For coloured backgrounds, going right up to the 60mm line produces a nice finish, although carrying on to the 70mm line would, too.
My tmg27 address should be fine for sending things to, since I use POP3, and hence keep my Hermes space free.
Any particular digital format by preference? Illustrator? Photoshop? Just a jpeg/bitmap? If a pixel format, what dpi / res is your printer best at? --Kazuhiko
Photoshop is safe. Illustrator we can cope with, less conveniently. The colour laser is comfortable at 600dpi, I'm told the inkjet does '2000, or something', if there's a need. -- TI
Colour inkjets are better than colour lasers - I'd definitely prefer the colour inkjet to be used, if I were buying a badge. I don't think I am, since I don't really wear badges, but thought I'd add my 2p anyway :) - SunKitten
Just done a simple template for a badge... MoonShadow? Is there currently anyway of me uploading this to the wiki for download but not display? It's not too bad in terms of file size (100k) but is about 3 times the height and width of the screen...
TI? Do you happen to know the printable area of the inkjet? Also, how much of the outer guide circle do you need and how much gap is safe between the cutter circles and the cutter circle and the edge? I can just about fit 8 on a page, but I can't help thinking I might be squeezing them too close. --Kazuhiko
I don't. Assume it's fairly standard, since they seem to be pretty much mass produced these days. Minimum gap between cutter circle and anything else is a couple of millimeters, for cutting purposes (it's a circular 'pizza cutter' effect, really doesn't need any width) - and so long as you draw all of the guide circle you can, there will be more than enough to align with. All of that said, paper isn't that expensive - stick with 6 to a sheet, and save yourself the trouble? -- TI
Requiem misread this page as "BadgerMachine?". Too much Coffee must be bad for him. CategoryWikiService?? CategoryProfitMakingScheme?? :D
![[Home]](/img/text_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
BadgeMachine