One year ago today: May 29, 2024, ha, faith in MicroSoft.
Five years ago today: May 29, 2020, I like that tree.
Nine years ago today: May 29, 2016, WIP
Random years ago today: May 29, 2007, terrible textbooks.
Go get yourself another coffee, we are putting in some shed time in around twenty minutes. I’ve reviewed what has happened with the box production and I can only build around another twenty units before have to seriously address the facility shortcomings. The shed has leaked since day one, though I could always plan any rainy-day projects around where the tools are placed. Can’t do that with boxes, which are a linear workflow that cannot be efficiently altered. Not without knocking down a wall.
Let’s take a look at some costs that are looming. Here is the chosen glue, Titebond Ultimate, and it is $1 per ounce. Ouch! It also needs to be clamped a bit longer, but that spot will be rapidly filled by other tasks. The best I can do to make the work flow is to add a 12-foot work bench outside, but under the old table saw lean-to. I would position two tools there, but have not decided which. Sawdust continues to pile up unabated.
So far the operation is $136 in the hole because there have been no sales. Indirect expenses add another $42 no including vehicle expense, which begins June 1. I’m serious with this. Tomorrow morning we clear a storage space for inventory.
This photo is the production run, as always there is one final piece in the box at the top back that did not fit. Otherwise, I consider this a good production run. I’ve calculated I can store 24 boxes as inventory, at which point I will produce only to replace sales, if any. People like these boxes, but will they pay $15 each for them? We shall soon find out.
The boxes today took extra time. I discovered the boxes are best cut one by one due to the thickness variation. Unless I devise some new method, the frame of the box is assembled first. The sides are cut to exterior dimensions, so any difference it thickness causes double that amount to need compensating on the interior measurements. I custom cut those pieces until I find a solution. There is some manner of mistake every sixth or seventh box and no pattern to these errors has emerged.
I’ve also used up nearly a full tray of staples, the one’s that are hard to find. There are 1,000 per tray, and at 40 staples per box, I used them up mighty fast. Something else to consider, when there are six boxes in production, nothing else can be built, stored, repaired, or moved around in the shed.
Tbilisi, Georgia.
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Here is a typical reject box. It is not yagasukied and has a splotch of red paint to keep if from getting mixed with good production. This will be turned into a utility box for the shop. Thre is a bottom panel still to be fitted. As the process continues, there are some errors that can be fixed and others, like this one, are destined for storage around here. What is wrong with this box? The staples were not parallel to the grain and poked through on the insides. This can be fixed if noticed early enough. On this one, the glue had already dried.
The music scene. Roberto has that inside with the Legion/VFW, I circuit I do not know so well. He lacks stage confidence, but he learns fast and soaks up every lesson. Thus, I am confident he has been chatting about our music with people at these clubs and it is only a matter of time until they ask, then insist. Folks, this is a valid marketing strategy and ensures I don’t push anyone beyond their own abilities. He’s still new enough to have expressed anxiety over mistakes. He’s rapidly catching on as long as it has a dance beat, it works find. People don’t want to be educated, they want to be entertained.
So how does the music. Very well and also very different from the Prez and I. Because Roberto is a singer, it means I can learn more challenging tunes. Not being a vocalist limits me to music in my own key that I can play at the same time. This was always a barrier with the old duo but they were also some of the most fun gigs I’ve had in Florida. For that matter, the best was the time the power went out and we played an acoustic show. Note, the Prez often remembers these events differently than I do.
I will make up the song list before dawn tomorrow. Of all the strange affairs, I have a sore throat. I have not been near anybody except for light shopping and I invented social distancing long before COVID was invented. As I said fifty years ago, unless you look like Taylor, my social distance is a foot out of arm’s reach.
ADDENDUM
In other news, I have contacted a website about electronics that I found impressive, with a view to publishing some of my articles. I write them anyway so this might give them some exposure. I find the site author went through the same frustrations I did. Electronics is so unlike other types of engineering that somebody with 5% knowledge can old himself out an expert. Writing books and giving lectures because until somebody sifts through his nonsense, nobody can contradict him.
