Tools, Time & A Great Crew!

August 30, 2024

 

Good Morning, Y'all & Happy Friday!

I'm going to keep this one kind of short. There's a lot (A LOT!!!) going on in the shop this week! Which makes it kind of hard to take an hour off to write a newsletter intro - there's still so much sawdust to be made. But here goes...

 

Last week I talked about organization in the wood shop, and this week I'm going to touch on how Pam (our expert case maker) keeps her sewing room organized.

 

How Pam Keeps Her Sewing Room Organized

Pam has half a dozen different sewing machines, plus the big 16-needle embroidery machine. Each sewing machine is set up for a different purpose: binding attachment permanently installed on one machine, leather sewing set up on another, lightweight material set up on the third machine, and so forth. Just like in the wood shop (where we can jump from one tool to the next, and minimize having to make setup changes to the tool) Pam does the same thing in the sewing room. She's a marvel of efficiency, that's for sure!

 

Going back to last week's "green sheets." Pam gets a copy of each green sheet, and knows which cases she'll need to have finished in the following weeks. She can tell you how many Folkcraft cases she'll need next week, how many FolkRoots cases, how many rigid cases, and which cases are customized with a person's name. 

 

She orders fabric, foam (for case padding), needles, all kinds of thread, leather (for straps), and a slew of different snaps, buckles, and sliders.

 

And zipper stock, and zipper heads. She orders zipper stock by the kilometer some months, then cuts to length for each given case.

 

Here's Pam's shelving system for storing some of the quick-release buckles, and some of the other hardware:

 

Here's a close-up, just in case you didn't see her system:

Each brown box has a bunch (hundreds, sometimes many hundreds) of a given part. She's attached a sample part to the front of the shelf, so that she can go, instantly, to the part she needs. Simple, and ingenious. Typical smart Pam.

 

In her actual work area, there are more shelves, with bins for various smaller items:

Lots of zipper heads, plus all kinds of other pieces, in a variety of sizes and colors:

I'm constantly amazed at what my crew can accomplish when I provide them with tools and time. From making dulcimers, to cases to protect the dulcimers, it all comes together to get Folkcraft and FolkRoots dulcimers into your hands.

 

That's all for this week, now I'm heading back to the shop. There's still wood to be cut, sanded, fitted, sanded, lacquered, and sanded some more.

 

Thanks for reading, Y'all - have a great holiday weekend!

 

Richard Ash, luthier-who-is-glad-he-enjoys-materials-handling-jobs-because-there's-sure-a-lot-of-that-going-on-every-day