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View Full Version : Making production runs



genek
04-23-2013, 08:12 PM
Most put their wood on the shop bot and then watch it cut.. That is not managing your time wisely.

Let start as if you just got your shop bot, and have played with it enough to make basic cuts.

First day.. You get all of your wood ready stacked in piles by sizes 2 inch thick in one pile 1 inch in another. I try to stay with six and eight inch wide rough boards. This you do the first hour.
You get all of your patterns arranged in aspire to fit the board that you are going to cut with the shop bot. Break for lunch, after lunch you start cutting the two inch thick boards first, lets say you are running the following, oven rack pull, you want say 100, one 2 x 8 x 96 cheery board will make 105. That is about 45 minutes on the cnc. You cut that while you are setting up the band saw to rip the blanks into 9/32 slabs.. When that one is cut you re-load the cnc with another 2 x 8 x 96 and start cutting stirring spoons. While the cnc is cutting the stirring spoons you start slicing the oven rack pulls and getting them ready to sand. This pattern of work repeats till the end of day

2nd day you start cutting the 1 inch x 6 inch x 96 poplar boards into rubber band guns. While the rubber band guns are cutting you finish band sawing the blanks, and start sanding the individual oven rack pulls and other products you have cut and sliced the day before. Finished product normally will be a few days after i have cut them into blanks.

But the man goal is to always be doing work while your machines are working. I keep boxes of blanks ready to slice, blanks ready to sand. This way no matter what i have going on in the day with the machines i am keeping my self busy.

All the patterns that i make i used to do them by hand, i cut the shapes out on a band saw, sliced them, sanded them etc with the shop bot the work that used to take me all week 12 hours a day doing i now do it in three 12 hour days. That leave me two days to catch up on any sanding that i am behind on.

You need product in stock ready to send out. Build up some inventory before you start to sale your product. Customers do not like an order be late or taking a long time getting to them.
At first i kept 20 or 30 of each in stock, now to just keep from killing my self each week i keep 100 of each in stock. My computer system (quick books keeps track of my inventory. As i take out it removes it from my inventory, it lets me know when i am running low, ( i have minimums set ) when i reach that point i do a production run of the products that i am low of. By the time orders for that part is needed i normally have the inventory built back up.. Never wait on orders to cut product. Have it ready to ship. Normally all order that come in by Thursday, I ship Friday... I do all of my shipping on Friday. I normally use the u.s. Post office priority mail. It is cheaper than UPS or Fedex, I get free tracking and it arrives at most of my customers place on Monday... I do not ship on any day but Friday... Post office is a hour away for me.
I hope this has helped on production.. If you have questions just e-mail me....
Check the list of patterns we have for sale.
Thanks

Brian Harnett
04-23-2013, 08:58 PM
Intelligent scheduling, I have it stuck in my head from my old job of designing and making jigs we did not have CNC almost until I left. we measured cycle times by the part.

It got stressful for a lot of employees with the time measuring but the company I worked for went a bit extreme.

Simple things as machine placement can improve efficiency and work flow, in my shop I keep time improvement and flow in mind but I make sure I still enjoy what I do and not become a production machine myself.

Good things to think about, we get in a rut on doing things sometimes it is best to rethink familiar tasks.

An interesting book to read is "Lean Thinking" it goes in depth on lean manufacturing.

gene
04-23-2013, 09:29 PM
what about joke tellin' smoke breaks lunck , snacks . phone calls and facebook updates?:eek:

genek
04-23-2013, 09:38 PM
what about joke tellin' smoke breaks lunck , snacks . Phone calls and facebook updates?:eek: that has to be limited... I quit smoking when i realized how much time i was wasting and money i was burning up. These things can be a problem... While i have been working on the patterns etc. I have hired a high school student to do sanding... Even i spend to much time on the computer... But i do a lot of designing and i monitor the e-mails.

TODAY I MADE OVER 100 BISCUIT CUTTERS AND 200 CRUIDITES

genek
04-23-2013, 10:08 PM
Here is the biscuit cutters i did TODAY.. They are in my oil sink ( mop sink rigged so I can soak my kitchen items in and be able to drain the mineral oil back into my five gallon bucket. Also here is what the cnc was working on today. Tasting spoons.
This week i have turned out over $1500.00 in inventory. The tasting spoons wholesale at $7.50 each did 100 TODAY AND TOMORROW THEY WILL GO INTO THE OIL BATH , the biscuit cutter wholesale at $4.50 did 150 today plus worked on the crudites in two days i have produced $1425.00 in inventory... My busy season does not start until next month... When the state parks and gift shops go into full swing.. Then it is dead run till august then I get a small break and Christmas season sets in.. Then after Christmas till May again.. I run product and build my inventory back up..

Simops
04-23-2013, 11:29 PM
Eugene......you are definitely a well oiled machine.........no pun intended:)

Good on ya mate!

Cheers

genek
04-23-2013, 11:51 PM
Most of my products goes into mineral oil.. It is child safe and food safe. The way i have the shops lay out makes it easy to be working on one thing and the cnc doing another. In front of the shop bot i have a duplicating lathe, on the right side i have the planner, the a walk way then a work bench with the table top drill, 4 inch belt sander and the 1 inch belt sander. Then in behind the shop bot i have a belt feed jet sander which is a 16-32 plus, also in the conner of the room i have a large glue up rack. I probably do more glue up in a month than most do in a year.. I glue up cutting boards etc. All the time... I run multi cutting board both on the cnc and on the table saw. The ones i run on the cnc have some sort of shape, apple, state outline etc... The ones i run on the table saw are of different sizes. Generally i will rip the width and at the chop saw chop up the board to my length, that way i can leave the table saw set for that width and run the glue ups and have the chop saw set to chop that length, that way just one set up that day.

coryatjohn
04-24-2013, 10:27 AM
Eugene,

I like that clamp thingy you have in the first picture. Where did you get that and how much did it cost?

Thanks.

Keyco Wood
04-24-2013, 10:59 AM
I love the Vega duplicator on your lathe... Great tool from Decatur, IL

jTr
04-24-2013, 11:04 AM
John - good question, as I'm looking into a clamp/rack station as well. This is best I could find in online searching so far - looks like an 8' version is just under $3k, but these are likely overkill for a one man shop like myself:

http://www.quickmachinerycompany.com/products/CR/index.html

jeff

gene
04-24-2013, 11:34 AM
the clamp is made by j l taylor products and they work great. check with redmond tool in atlanta

myxpykalix
04-24-2013, 11:42 AM
Eugene...you're just way too organized!:eek:

kartracer63
04-24-2013, 12:14 PM
John,

I came across this clamp system and thought it had potential for smaller shops like mine.

http://www.advmachinery.com/p-24-plano-vertical-glue-press.aspx

Here's a short video showing how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2knWdkGh7M

Cheers!

kartracer63
04-24-2013, 12:31 PM
This video explains the Plano Glue System much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=aXDJ29o2U0c&feature=endscreen

gc3
04-24-2013, 01:32 PM
John - good question, as I'm looking into a clamp/rack station as well. This is best I could find in online searching so far - looks like an 8' version is just under $3k, but these are likely overkill for a one man shop like myself:

http://www.quickmachinerycompany.com/products/CR/index.html

jeff

I have that rack with 40" and 55" clamps. Having a dedicated station for glue ups is a must even in a one man shop. Panels and doors glue up flat and square. This rack is well worth the cost. I hardly ever use pipe clamps anymore.

jTr
04-24-2013, 02:54 PM
I have that rack with 40" and 55" clamps. Having a dedicated station for glue ups is a must even in a one man shop. Panels and doors glue up flat and square. This rack is well worth the cost. I hardly ever use pipe clamps anymore.

Sorry Gene - didn't mean to discount the value of having one (which is why I'm looking) - I'm just being cheap :o- thought that super - HD tubular frame might be overkill, but then again....

Have been trying to come up with a way to utilize my Jorgensen Cabinetmasters in a rack config. - Love them, but agree, too much time and space consumed managing large batches. In the end, I probably should be saving for one of these rather than wheel spinning trying to DIY it.

As my wise old cabinetmaker landlord always says:
"If you need a tool, you're already paying for it"

jeff

genek
04-24-2013, 02:59 PM
eugene,

i like that clamp thingy you have in the first picture. Where did you get that and how much did it cost?

Thanks.
i think i paid around $3,000.00 for it.. I am out of the office for the rest of the week on sales calls SEND ME A E-MAIL AT eking1953@yahoo.com AND I WILL SEND YOU THE PHONE NUMBER ETC... THEY HAVE DIFFERENT SET UPS.
LARGE OR SMALL SHOP THIS IS THE BEST I HAVE FOUND.. KEEPS EVERYTHING RIGHT IN PLACE AND NO HAVING TO FOOL WITH STORAGE OR A PLACE TO PUT THE CLAMPS.

genek
04-24-2013, 03:14 PM
Mr. Crain is right.. Best thing for small or large shops.. You can even get this set up as a air clamp.. I have over 25 pipe clamps that now just sit and collect dust... Would not go back to them... Too much work getting them out, setting up saw horse, letting the product sit there for three hours then putting the clamps back up.. Just in time savings it is well worth the expense. They have rotating ones also someone told the name of the company... With all station clamped up with even 3 inch thick wood it does not bend or move at all. I do not have it bolted to the floor, this way if i want to take it out side or move it for cleanning i can.

genek
04-24-2013, 03:28 PM
When i retired from the navy and needed something to do and to offset my income (i had never owned a home or shop before.) in 2003 I started my shop with tools that I bought at lowe's, sears, and home depot, in my two car garage using the patterns that i am offering for sale, i set 20% of my profit aside to replace tools with and to buy new tools with. I had seen the shop bot at a show. And in 2008 i had saved up enough money to buy the shop bot buddy with the 8 foot stick and the 4 foot stick. I now have a shop that is seperate from the house and has high end equipment in it. I now have lasers to engrave on the products that we make. I paid cash for all of the equipment that i have bought since 2007. If you set you mind to make good money, get out and get customers you will make your shop pay for it's self.. 100 wholesale customers just buying $50.00 per month is $5,000.00 month. But it takes hard work on your part, making products that will sale, getting the retail customers that sale your product. But mainly have fun and enjoy it while you earn a good living.

gene
04-24-2013, 08:28 PM
I dont have the logosol glue clamps but i do have a 4 side molder made by logosol and it is a very good machine as are all of their products i have used:)

coryatjohn
04-24-2013, 10:40 PM
I ordered the Plano system today. I am a bit space limited and having the system tied to a wall would be perfect for me. I really like the system Eugene is using but I just couldn't find a good place for it in my shop. I'm not a volume or production oriented person so something a little less but still capable would work for me. I'll report back on how well the Plano clamps work after I give them a try.

gene
04-24-2013, 11:45 PM
if it is like their other products you will like them very much