Hi there! I have been away from the asylum for a few months and I missed your thread about cigar rolling - it's very intriguing!
When I was in college (2002-2006) I rolled cigars. I acquired the various molds, tuck cutter, chaveta, rolling table, cigar glue, etc ever a period of about a year. I made roughly 3000 cigars over the 4 years, selling them to friends, a local store, and during promotional events in NC. I really enjoyed myself!
For labels (on the boxes and cigars), I used microsoft publisher to create a design (it was pretty easy to use) and printed a sheet of about 20 cigar bands at a time, cut them out by hand, and banded them onto the finished cigars with non-toxic glue sticks. The box labels were done in a similiar manner - created on MS publisher, printed, cut, and afixed to the box with a glue stick. I went to a cigar band printer with a design, but he wanted upwards of $1000 for the first printing of bands and they looked pretty bland. THe MS Publisher stuff looked better in the end.
All of my equipment was purchased second hand. The molds were purchased online through a variety of sources, most often through ebay for about $20.00 a piece. The tuck cutter (end cutter) came from ebay too for maybe $15.00. A friend who is a carpenter build me a collapseable rolling table that he modeled off of a rolling table at the Selma, NC JR Store. The chaveta was a repurposed Ulu knife from walmart. The "cigar glue" came from the local grocery store; liquid pectin. If I purchased all of my uqipment new, it would've cost me about $2000. I paid around $200.
The tobacco came from
http://otoaocigars.com/main.htm.
Fast foward to 2012 and I am in the Army, married with 2 little boys, and pressed for time. I'd love to get back in the hobby, but now may not be the time.
I may have some MS Publisher templates for cigar bands on my PC if that interests you. Please keep at it, it looks like you are doing excellent with your latest creations. Thanks for sharing.
-Paul