Making Plastic

Written by: synmaster
Edited by: T Shark

To make plastics here's what you need to get started.


1. Embosser. $800 (punch the numbers on front of card) - Get a manual one health care format.

2. Tipper. (make the numbers on front of card silver or gold) You dont need a tipper because a lot of cards aren't even tipped. You can print a gold/silver outline in the area where the numbers are if you have the alignment real good for a cheap tipped effect.

3. Hologram (dove or world) $10 each, depending on your vendor.

4. Card printer. (a good ID printer will do) $2-5k depending on brand and quality.

5. Heat press $1k-5 depending on if you want to buy use or new. Used ones work just as well.(if you don't have the sticker type hologram you can use a heat press to press the holo into the card to make it fell smoother to the card)

6. Signature stripe. again, you will need to find a vendor, or just print the signature stripe with your card printer and use a sharpie for signature. Also you can buy pvc cards with sig strips already on them.

7. M and V embosser characters for front of card. These are little harder to get. You can try to get custom keys made locally, or you can use a rapid protype deal, or make hte molds with acrylic.

8. PVC Blanks, Make sure to get 30mil Hi-co (Cost around $15 for 100)

9. A CC scan