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Over the years we all accumulate drop materials and scraps...they lay around stacked here there and everywhere it seems.
Well today was the day I couldn't take it anymore. I rounded it all up and went thru materials rack.
I threw nearly a dumpsters worth away...Cleaned and salvaged all the good stock mostly Dura ply...plexiglass...komatex...sheetmetal... some redwood and odds and ends of alot of other hardware and such.
Then I set up the table saw in front of the back door with the 36" fan blowing the dirt out side and cut everything down to standard sizes 4'x4' 2'x4' 2'x3' 18"x24" and so forth...
When I got all thru I sorted it all out and stored it neatly in the materials rack(after I cleaned it) and then I vaccuummed the entire shop (2000 sqare feet)had to get rid of the "sign dirt".
Here's the scary part ...I found (at least) $800. worth of materials laying on the shelf that I had could have used in the last 2 weeks ...Instead I bought more of what I already had.
The moral of this story..."Next time your looking for a discount, clean your materials rack"!
Oh...did I mention thisonly took me from 7 am this morning til 7 tonite...with 2 breaks for a beef stick and some peanuts (make a note here, stop to eat when you do it)
I also located about 200 pounds of aluminum scraps that will go to the recycler...that will pay me back enuff for the peanuts anyway!
And how was your day?
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
Monte Jumper SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla. jumpers@itlnet.net
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Hey Monte.......my day yesterday was about like yours. I cleaned out all my sign materials. I kinda had to tho. A dead rat was left laying by my Intecel pieces. So I moved all my MDO..Intecel...plexi...etc. and cleaned it all out. Threw away old corex and arranged all my substrates in order. Feels good to be organized eh? (and to be rid of that rat) Whew
Posts: 3729 | From: Seattle | Registered: Sep 1999
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An idea I had was to type out a list of e.g. the sheet metal sizes I had lying around, 3@ 2' x 4'; 2@ 8' x 4' etc. I then placed my list into the DayTimer for reference, so when I have a job that requires that material I just look at my list instead of searching thru layers of materials leaning against the wall to know whether I have the right size.
-------------------- Graham Hodge Cam River Signs Somerset, Tasmania. Posts: 441 | From: Somerset, Tasmania | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hi Monte, We have been there and done that, when we enlarged our shop it was unbelieveable how much stuff you can accumulate over the years. You also find things you forgot you had and finally got rid of the things that would never be used. A big dumpster filled up very quickly. Now you have more room. Good luck with your new shop.
-------------------- Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. 15 Warren Street Little Ferry, N.J. 07643 billsr@riedelsignco.com Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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We went into the shelves with all the cans of colors we have had mixed at the paint stores. The shelves are sorted first by whether they are water based or oil. Then we opened evey can and applied a finger smear of the color on the lid and a finger print on a page of paper. We now go to the shelf and there is a list showing samples of all the colors.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6745 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I like to paint my shop floor every Spring. That is when I close for two days and get rid of JUNK and salvage usable stuff and discard or give away the rest. Now, that I have the Spring Fling, A Gathering of Craftsmen coming up March 22-24, 2002, I am getting an early start on the cleaning process and boy O boy does my shop look much better now !!! My assistant just came in and said,,,, where did that work table come from ??? (( a 4'x 8'x 30" tall on 4" castors )).... was funny..... Yep, everyone should do this arduous task at least yearly !!!
-------------------- John Smith Kings Bay Signs (Retired) Kissimmee, Florida Posts: 817 | From: Central Florida - The Sunshine State | Registered: Jan 2000
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As most of you know, I've been moving from a home location to a business park locaion. Everyday I take a load of stuff that I realized I needed the previous day.
Most of the stuff is moved and organized, and my old 2.5 car gararge /shop is still full of JUNK! Junk I'll never use. Didn't realize I had so much because I pride my self at taking a small space and utilizing every bit of it.
monte, you have inspired me to clean up my shop and organize.
(ask terry teague, he attended the first "dixie letterheads" meet back in 1999, hey terry tell monte how you can eat off of the floor in my shop. everything is in it's place and everything is "spic and span". LOL)
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Yeah, me too. The weather here has been heavenly in the 70s. Did the leaves last week and yeasterday ran thru the garage where I only found ten gallons of misc. oil paint. Four odd gallons of blues for some weird reason. Hmmmmm. Maybe it is time to paint the garage floor blue?
-------------------- Preston McCall 112 Rim Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 text: 5056607370 Posts: 1561 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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Monte, another hopefully helpfol hint for your new shop. FLOOR PLUGS. Both 220 and 110. In our wood shop we did a floor plug right near where the table saw would live. Other tools go along walls, so they don't need the floor plug. The absence of cords to step over is a luxury that needs to be built in usually. Around a table saw often is this center island with a large table at saw top height and sanders and routers often work there. Most of our dream come true table saws are 220 and the sanders and routers are 110.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6745 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hi Monte and Pat, I recently moved and the biggest suprise I had was in my vinyl stocks...several part rolls of the same colour. Took most of a day to re-organise my vinyl racks and don't think I will have to buy much vinyl for some time now..!!
-------------------- Norman Biss aka KiwiNorm Living and working in one of the best countries on earth... Papamoa Beach, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand norman.biss@gmail.com Posts: 141 | From: Papamoa Beach, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand | Registered: Nov 1998
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