Mass Production

[NC Scroller]

I am in the process of making 235 of these. I have NEVER attempted anything of this magnitude. They are for a Lutheran organization that will be holding their national convention in Winston-Salem NC next month. They are cut out of 1/8th Baltic Birch and I am spraying with rattle can shellac. Yes I am stack cutting. While not unique the design is mine with some GIMP help from a couple folks at SSV. BTW I am part of the organization so these are being donated.
VDC 2017 fish.JPG

[meflick]

Those are going to look nice Scott. Very nice of you to donate your time and the materials. 235 - whew - that's a lot! You will be seeing them swimming by in your sleep!

[Rolf]

This is when a laser or a cnc router would be very helpful.

[Scrappile]

That is a lot of work. Don't know if I could be so generous.

[Sandy Oaks]

Wow Scott. I can't imagine 235 of anything.

[handibunny]

2 or 3 are my limit! You have a heart of gold. 👍

[NC Scroller]

Typically 5 or 6 is my limit on anything. That is why I am cutting 5 stacks in a sitting. One sitting per day. Takes just under an hour. I have others who are doing the stringing and bagging them.

[Trackman]

What does VDC stand for?

[cwmagee]

Scott,

Happy Cutting!

[hotshot]

VDC = Via De Christo=Way Of Christ

I guess I learned something about the Lutherans. I found this quite interesting: http://www.viadecristo.org/who.php

[RJweb]

Great job, everyone should really appreciate them, RJ

[DaveVanEss]

Instead of spray shellac mix a one part shellac to three parts denatured alcohol. just dip the piece in and you are done.

[will8989]

Very nice design. And I like Dave's idea. Use a Christmas tree hanger to dip them with then hang on a line to dry. Much like I do my angels and birdhouses.

[Bill Wilson]

That's a nice gesture. I've never made nearly that many of something at one time, but I make about 100 Christmas ornaments every year, so I have a little experience with "mass production".

I don't think it will take as long as you might think. That pattern should allow you to stack cut 4-5 pretty easily. I don't like to go much thicker, because it slows cutting time and chews through blades faster. I am limited a little on blade size, because I generally use a pretty small blade, so the lifespan is pretty short in stacks over 1/2". Using a bigger blade, like this pattern should permit, allows you to stack a little thicker.

Depending on the size of the ornament, I usually cut my blanks large enough to get 4-6 stacks out of at a time, keeping the size to something that is easily manageable in the saw. Would you consider using 1/16" BB ply? That would effectively double your cutting capacity.

I spray shellac on most of my ornaments, using a gravity feed, HVLP conversion gun and my compressor. I have a platform mounted to a lazy Susan swivel plate and I'll spray as many as 25-30 at a time. Probably the biggest issue is creating enough arrea to serve as drying space for all the ornaments. I have to commandeer just about every available flat surface in my shop during the finishing process.

Good luck with the project. Hope it goes well.

[NC Scroller]

Thanks for all the tips and comments. At this point I have 180 cut. The finished size is 2" x 5". I had 1/8" BB on hand so that is what I used. I stacked them 5 high and used a #1 reverse tooth blade. As Bill said it goes faster then you think. Being a project manager is another life I broke it up in smaller chunks like large projects are normally managed. Most of these chunks took less then an hour. And no I am not so anal that I created a paper project plan :-).
- Cut all the blanks to roughly 2 1/4" by 5 1/4". BB being 5' x 5' I got 11 pieces out of each 2 1/4" strip.
- Glued all the stacks using a bead of hot glue along all 4 edges. Hot glue is my method of choice.
- Applied the patterns to all the stack. To save paper I printed the patterns 6 to a sheet. Glue of choice is 3M Super 77.
- Drilled all the holes. Found a bit that was a good size for the string and also worked for all my interior holes.
- As I said before I cut 5 stacks (25 pcs) per sitting. This includes pattern removal and any light sanding required. When you cut the same pattern over and over you get in a rhythm and you get a little faster as you go.