The last, and most painful�. The scrap bin�.most of these have pinhole voids, or cosmetic flaws�.. ouch! No way to tell they're there, until you machine or grind!
I feel your pain. I once was the QA manager at a tier 1 Automotive parts supplier, running at a high scrap rate off a milling process where we did not know what the quality of the castings were till we machined them. It's really bad when the customer finds your rejects for you, tough stuff. Just makes your heart sink when you see that doesn't it.
The good news is look at all those beauties on the shelf, looking for new homes...casting is a science unto itself.
>Hey! There is my scraper I tried to buy with my christmas gift certificate!
Ah, well, it is tough being successful. Actually, ir really is; more then a few business suffer (and occaionally crash and burn) during periods of intense sales growth and/or expansion, the latter of which LV seems sensible about.
>Rob, thanks for the behind-the-scenes tour of your new milling machine. The operators control station looks more like the latest computer game than a work station!
Is it located in the big LV building on the "About Us" page on your website? How was this milling done before?...a more low-tech way, or perhaps farmed out?
I would love to see a more comprehensive tour of your facility here or on your website.
>What does the new tool do for you? More capacity? Fewer rejects? Handles different steels? All of the above?
Hope it gets into production with no problems and brings you joy for years to come. And I hope it helps you get my bullnose out the door. I promise to never again order a new tool right before Christmas. :)
>What does happen to all those cosmetically-imperfect planes? There are old tools marked as 'imperfect' and/or with no name imprinted, I assume so as not to sully the good name of, and take sales from, the first-quality stuff.
Naturally, like anyone, I'd drool at the chance to shop through that bin ... but what occurred to me as I saw it was ... ship those babies to Southeast Asia.
A quick Google search found a Thai organization teaching woodworking to about 40 blind students - http://www.fao.org/sd/PPdirect/PPre0040.htm
Or, Rob, if you have any interest in donating these over there (I can't imagine it would cost you any business) I'll undertake to find a proper recipient in the affected area, and make sure you get the tax deduction for the donation. Just let me know ...
>I'm hoping that my LV 62.5 is a bit farther along that those! It's supposed to ship in just a few days! I'm having withdrawals - you don't want to get charged with "cruel and unusual punishment" do you?!
But with my luck the one marked for me got tossed into the scrap heap and I'll get mine around August or something! *grin*
Instead of replying to each comment/question individually, I�ve consolidated my comments here�
For many of the �blemished� planes, we do complete them, and sell them off to employees. At this time � we don�t really want them out in the public, though we will offer them at significantly reduced prices to schools etc�
It becomes a question too, of cost recovery vs margin loss�we make money selling a plane, but forego a net revenue when selling a �second�, though we do cover our cost. Depending on the �pour� (or batch) of castings, there could be virtually no flaws, or as many as 10-15%� We do recycle everything from the machine shop � chips, lubricants, and packaging�.
Donation of �seconds� are a tricky thing � it�s often very difficult to ensure that the right tools end up where they�re going to be used � even presuming that a �western� tool will be of use � we prefer to sell off seconds or specials locally � and send the cash. Cash is really efficient�it�s always useful! At a later date, once basic survival needs have been met, we will investigate how we could do something more long-term�
This new machine (actually the second of it�s type here) has a larger working envelope than some of our other mills, and has a 60 tool magazine� this will allow us to keep multiple tool sets loaded and �set-up� � giving us much more production flexibility. We�re in the process of creating production work cells � where we can flow families of product through a set of production equipment � saving on some set-up time, and focusing knowledge/experience of the production staff. Also, having multiples of the same machine gives us some back-up for when a machine has to be taken down for maintenance.
Our machine shop is located at 1000 Morrison Drive, down the street from the big building shown on the website (our head office, and mail-order center). We own six buildings on this street:
900 � Ottawa Retail Store
1000 � Machine Shop
1010 - Leased
1024 � Vacant/Storage
1080 � Veritas/R&D
1090 � Head Office/Mail-order center
There�s an additional bulk facility (the 6000 pallet position warehouse) about 20 Km from here, as well as a second long-term storage facility about 100Km away�.
New honing guide � we expect the first pre-production castings at the end of this month� if they check out (and they should!), I�ll post a rendering of that one too�I expect it will be March �April�
>I think eBay has changed things a lot. Lets say your company makes things that have a certain reject level but the rejects are functional to a degree where they may be used under some conditions, or perhaps even fully functional but "not pretty". In short, could be useful to someone, but not something you would be proud of or want your name on. Now once-upon-a-time, you might be able to maybe slap some paint on-em, or mark them, send em off to the third world, feel good, help out and even get a bit of a tax break. There was little chance it would shot back up in your market and embarass you.
Now, go do that and before you know it there will be real-cheap product with your-name-mentioned-so-it-sounds-right (or even claimed to be "new") on eBay making you look like an idiot in front of the whole world. It will be mentioned here and on rec.woodworking amongst other places and lots of links and know suppliers. You will have dropped your drawers in front of the whole world. Now I know a few people who like doing that sort of thing, but not many corporations.
Tis a shame really, but OTOH I don't think most third world artisans care whether they have a beaten old woodie or a LA jack. I have a feeling bevel-up or bevel-down doesn't come often among the hut-building set, or even build-it-all-by-hand -but-decent-housing set. So, for them, maybe sending a used mill, or other tooling help, or expertise, or just plain cash is much better.
