Niche Market

Sam and Will took a truckload of our latest niche product, the Wagatha dog treat rack, to town today. There were 75 of the bag racks, 25 more to go, and Trevor made 10 of the bulk biscuit racks below. The client thinks he can get us more work like this if we're interested and he actually has a third compact counter top display design in mind. We're working on that ... It's interesting work from a design and engineering standpoint but I would hate to burn Trevor out with the mass production thing ... Once you figure it out, it's time for a new challenge ... The racks assemble with hooks and by sliding, the tolerances being crucial to the process. but, once they're together, they are amazingly strong and rigid ... I don't have a picture of a rack fully loaded with bags and graphics yet, but I think it will look sharp ... Lots of pieces ...click the photos to enlarge them ...
75 rack times 4 = 300 shelves right off the cnc
Only half the backs
Ten of the bulk racks, ready to go ... we'll be posting an assembly video online shortly ... Trevor really got the intricate joinery worked out perfectly ... He gets a gold star ...
The original prototype.

Wagatha's Organic Vermont Made Dog Biscuits

We've got a new client we're working with, Wagatha's Vermont Baked Organic Dog Biscuits, 'extraordinary biscuits for dogs'. ... I toured the factory in Manchester earlier this week and learned that they make and ship approximately 100,000 food grade dog biscuits a day. Dogs love em. Right here in town .... Who knew? ... Anyway, after they saw our display racks that we made for Vew-Do Balance Boards, they contacted us to develop new racks for their dog biscuits. We built the prototype for their bags last week and yesterday Trevor did some work on the first prototype for the 'bulk display' ... We need to work the graphics in still, but retail display work seems to be presenting an interesting new field of possibilities for us.
Arm waving to develop a concept for the bulk rack
Jim, presenting the first prototype ... we've still got some work to do but the concept seems viable ... More later ....

Another Week Goes By

Well, after Labor Day, it was only a four day week, but still it seemed to go by unusually quickly ... What happened? It's Sunday night already ... Back to work tomorrow ... Oh well ... good things are happening, and it seems there's always a little time for a little golf ... Click the photos to enlarge them .... There's a flag out there 87 yards away .... There are tree hazards, but the pond is dry, for now anyway .... click the photos to enlarge them ...
Will will finish construction this coming week on a mahogany vanity he's been working on off an on for a while now. It has real, solid wood raised panels, for heaven's sake....We haven't done any of them in years and I had to scratch my head for a minute to refresh my feeble memory. It will be a nice dark finish with a Danby marble top from Johnson's Marble ... It''l be real nice in its new home.
The front face frame is glued on and we'll glue the mitered sides to it first thing in the morning .. Hang the doors and bang out a couple of drawers and it will be ready to finish ...
We made another thirty display racks for Vew-Do Balance Boards last week and the week before ... I thought I had a picture of them, but since we have made many of them in the past, I might have missed them this time. They are totally CNC produced with only a little bevel edge hand routing. As a result of the Vew-Do project, we were introduced to the owners of Wagatha's Vermont Made Organic Dog Biscuits, made right her in Manchester, Vermont. They are sold all over America and Canada, and when I was touring the factory last week, they told me they make about 100,000 human food grade dog biscuits A DAY !!!! Right here; in a space about the size of my shop ... Verrry impressive. Anyway, we spent a couple hours brainstorming and whipped out our first prototype of a display rack for them ... It will ship flat and 'key' together on site ... They liked it and now we're working on the graphics and another prototype with open, lidded compartments for bulk, unbagged sales. A fun project, particularly for the dogs around the shop.
The mirrors are done ... we're thinking of shipping them to their home in Aspen unmirrored ... safer that way ... Beautiful cherry, beautiful abalone ... Wait til the curly cherry gets a couple years of age on it and they will be really sharp looking...
Ah ... Vermont Wood Manufacturers Design Contest coming up at the Woodstock Vermont Fine Furniture Show in two weeks ... (Why wait til the last minute?) ... We were kind of joking around with some cutoffs from the center of the elm oval table ... But now, maybe it's not so funny ... I think it will actually be a cool piece with potential spots in many a home ...
I think we'll add a little more flare to the legs at the bottom. With a metal base though, we're thinking it could be quite stable.
On another note, in this month's Woodshop News, I wrote a "Pro Shop" column (wow, I see they even put my smiling face in there) on the pros and cons of CNC in the really small shop, and out of the blue we received a gift from the Center/Edge Finder folks ... Thank you, Thank you ... We'll try it out next time we have some inlay work to do ... Looks like it will be cool for that, and maybe some other stuff too. We'll write a little review once we have tried it out a couple of times ... 'Used on the space shuttle and other US Government Projects' ... should be good ...
And, after a what seems like a forever and a half of dinking around with wires, swivels and various connectors, I finally got my sculpture prototype to hang up, swivel, and make it through a couple of wind/rain storms. I thought for a minute I was going to have to burn it before I got to the steel version. You would think a 350 lb test stainless steel deep sea swivel from Cabela's would hold 15 pounds of painted luan, but I'll tell you, it won't ... I'm not sure where I'm gonna shop before my next blue fin tuna trip ...
Anyway ... it's kind of nice I think ... Painted one side .. Inspired by Sam Ogden ...the original
Plain the other ...
And, we're still working on the big table. We're picking up the steel base pieces tomorrow at Melanson's and Trevor is ready to do the inlays to stabilize the drying cracks. .
He is also in the process of gluing up the chairs tomorrow and they will go off to Sandy Sherman Chair Caning to have the Danish cord seats woven on to them ... 140 nail holes per chair ... now that is where a cnc is REALLY handy ...
And .... Hot off the press on Friday, we got a little concert from Banjo #2 by Will ... Due to a switch in the tone ring wood from walnut to bubinga, even I can hear the difference .. It's brighter, louder, and warmer all at the same time. Want to build your own banjo ?? ... click this link for the one we made last year ...
Same apple and walnut pot. Rosewood fretboard and peg end with gold abalone inlays
Very fine detailing on the inlays (click this one)
A nice original peg head design ... Take a bow Will .. Love the 'W' at the top ... Short video clip coming soon... it's a different banjo, but here's a link to a 45 sec video clip
All for now ... I'm outta here ...