Any sign company with a flatbed printer could do it. We print directly to sintra all the time. Any particular reason why you need an online printer?

Sintra is basically a PVC. The other guy is saying he'll print the design directly to vinyl and apply it to the sintra. I don't know why he's insisting on a gloss lam. Printing directly to sintra will give you a matte finish, but a gloss lam can be applied to the sintra.

Right, any local sign shop with a flatbed can do that for you. Usually the product is Komatex rather than sintra. Both are expanded PVC.

If the sign board has to have an erasable surface, you can have that lam applied to the direct print.

Usually a print on vinyl applied to a board costs more due to the extra labor involved.

The reason I asked for an online printer, was for two reasons. The first being that the few printers locally either said they couldn't, and the one that could was way over priced. The second and main reason is... most of my clients are not local, so an online printer usually drop ships(with a UPS house account) which is not only less work for me, but is also, less money than if I ship myself.

As for the "gloss laminate"... When you see these signs at a car show they are usually glossy. I'm not insisting it needs to be, but the option would be nice.

I'm just not that familliar with this type of product, and was looking for some advice. I do a lot of print work, and use 4over, but they don't offer anything like this. I ordered something on foam core once and the print quality looks great from 5 feet away, but close, not so much. When I see these signs at car shows they print quality, is great, and I don't want to sell a product that I personally am not happy with.

Oh, car shows. For some reason I was hung up on the race scene.

Whereabouts are you located? There are alternatives besides sign shops but the main problem is quantity. If you don't order quantity, you don't get the good pricing. Value added services such as distribution are also based on quantity.

Also, you would have to undersize your sign slightly to get a really good yield out of a 4x8 or 5x10 board.

I don't use online-only gang print vendors simply because I don't trust their color integrity, so can't help you there.

I'm located 45 min from Philadelphia.

As for "undersizing" I think you are thinking much bigger than I am. These are traditionally 18" x 24". I had one printed on "photo paper" from 4over for about $10 looked amazing(at least I thought so), but it needs a frame. For some this option is fine, but traditionally they are on the PVC/Sintra/etc type board.

ZooPrinting can print it for $11, but 1/8 is too thin. And I don't see anything on the site for the UV coating on the front. An option I would like.

For reference this site shows an example of what I'm referring to...
http://www.mac-ink.com/showcardisplays/

Would you be able to do another print from 4over on the photo paper and get it mounted and laminated locally?

Mounting and laminating will be far more expensive than direct printing. Double trip through the press is labor intensive.

As for the size. You can get 10 pieces 18" x 24" from a 4x8 board only if one of those dimensions can be about 1/8" short. Probably doesn't matter for this use. Still a lot of waste. Those of us who do this are trying to get designers to think in terms of yield out of a 4x8 or 5x10 board including the diameter of the router bit or the kerf of the saw used to cut them apart. The 3mm can be scored and snapped fairly easily but not so much 6mm.

Not a lot of places offer a UV coating as direct print. Not a lot of machines do that. A press mounted lamination on a direct print can be problematic as the ink actually has a thickness and you may get some embossing or some tiny bubbles called 'silvering' around some objects, depending on the machine or inks used.

As for only offering 3mm, have you called them and asked if they'll do a special order on 6mm?
Of course, a special order might cost you more. Cheap places are cheap only if you can live with what they offer.

Virgo... I though about that, but 2 issues...

1) Back to my shipping issue, not to mention these are not high dollar items. So eliminating some of the work is essential to making money.
2) The photo paper printing at 4over is good, but is fragile(not scratch proof). Needs to be put behind glass, for any real use for this purpose.

I guess what amazes me is that If I do a search for "custom show boards" LOTS of company come up offering the service. For the most part they are all about the same price, and almost all selling the same product(material). So someone out there is printing it, and printing it reasonably priced, I just cant find it.

The 'fragile' paper is why Virgo suggested an overlam.

I don't have anyone that can come close to $11 per.
And certainly not on 6mm PVC board with an overlam.

Good luck.

A vendor charged me $15 to mount and lam a piece (including trimming it to a hexagon) about 18" wide. (I printed at the office for free). Not sure if that helps your cost search at all, but thought I'd throw that price out there.

We do. Though, this is the only place I've worked at that offers it, so I don't know how rare it is.

It's still pretty rare. None of my local guys do it. A few in NY do. One in Ohio. One in California...
Shipping sucks though.

PrintDriver... Can you PM me the places that do it, so I can get all them and get a quote?

I guess nobody has any suggestions(or some are keeping the info to themselves), so if anyone reads this, and needs 1/4 sintra printed with UV coating for cheap let me know. I found a place, and WILL PM you the info.