Mid term exams

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B. Newman

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Ok class, this is your mid term exam. Be sure your answers are understandable. Punctuation, spelling and grammer will not count on this test.

Newman Va... make that ACME frame shop has been operating with minimum equipment for far too long. They have examined their budget and decided to make one major equipment purchase this year. The question is should they purchase:

A. An underpinner (they are using a miter vise with glue and nails)
B. A Framesquare saw (they are using chops)
C. A Drymount press (they drymount very little as per c/p considerations)

Make your reasons thoughtful and clear. You will not be timed on this exam.

:rolleyes: Miss Betty
 
Betty, I think you need the saw first although I have no opinion on the brand. You can save money ordering length and purchase box moulding. The money you save there will pay for the saw. Sometimes it doesn't pay to order length, but the ability to alter the sizes of your project with a saw is very important.

The underpinner would come next. I was just discussing this with a HH'er. I had to thumbnail and join 4 rather wide frames the other day. I had to cut in 96 thumbnails, wow what a waste of time. I could have corner vised them quicker but the set up time in the vise would have slowed me down. My next must have is an underpinner. So I will be anxious to see the responses here too.
 
I definately agree with Max, purchase the underpinner. I'm in the same situation, using glue and nails. I'm so sick of filling nail holes and mixing filler to get an exact color match. I could be spending more time on the grumble! An underpinner is in my near future. :D

-Mike.
 
Your order is exactly what they should do:

A. An underpinner (they are using a miter vise with glue and nails)
B. A Framesquare saw (they are using chops)
C. A Drymount press (they drymount very little as per c/p considerations)

B: Chops, price accordingly make great profit, and save the saw investment.
C: Little use, someday look for a good used piece of equipment.
A: Without a doubt one of the biggest time savers / ie money makers in the shop. You don't even have to fill the holes.

John
 
Edie the FG
July 10, 2002
Framing Equipment Exam

You mentioned that this ACME frame shop can only make one major equipment purchase this year. That could mean that over the next three years all of this equipment will eventually be purchased. I would recommend purchasing in the following order for the following reasons (along with disadvantages/special considerations:)

1) Frame Square Saw
A good reason to buy a Frame Square Saw is that ACME will be able to cut metals. This means, however, that ACME should be prepared to be more involved in the business of stocking moulding. Does ACME have a chopper and if so, do they stock wood mouldings? If yes, then stocking a bit of metal length will be no big deal. If not, then they need to take that into account. Also, this saw is LOUD, so there is the possibility of disruptions if customers are nearby. It also generates a lot of sawdust which is big trouble if your fitting area is adjacent. ACME needs to consider a dust collecting system- we use a shop vac and it is louder than the saw! But our shop is in the basement so it works fine for us. FYI, this saw can be found used- it doesn't appear to wear out!

2) Underpinner
Lots of good reasons to buy this baby: increased joining speed, a higher quality join, an aesthetic advantage with no nail holes, etc. BUT you will also need a compressor for it if you get a "good" one. So ACME needs to be sure to factor in that cost. The manual underpinners are "okay," but, what a learning curve! And they're not as versatile as the pnuematic variety. Get a good one.

3)Dry Mount Press
Even if ACME does almost archival work, the heat press comes in handy for mounting fabric for what you know to be one of The Goddess' favs- fabric-wrapped mats! Yum. Better than chocolate. And no aftertaste, either! Hey, where was I? No extra accessories are involved (other than an affordable little tacking iron and some rolls of tissue.) By the way, Betty, you might want to let the kind folks at ACME know that there is a pristine used Seal MT 500 press for sale up here. They can be crated and shipped which may actually be a deal compared to the price of a new one. E-mail me if you-they want more details.

The end
Grade_______
 
Hey! I just reached 100 posts! (I take pleasure in small milestones :rolleyes: ).

-Mike
 
I have an underpinner, a saw and a Vacuseal press. If I could only keep one of the three, it would be the press.

I frame lots and lots of large, inexpensive posters. It's the easiest $100-250 a framer can make, but it would be a nasty job without a good press. The other two items have working substitutes. The press does not.

Maybe Acme Framing would like to suppliment some of that C-P framing with something a little "lighter." Some things really need to be dry mounted.
 
This is brilliant Betty !!!

In my opinion:
1) prime issue is productivity.
> is the vise a 'bottle-neck' in the work flow? I can almost guaranty that it is.
ANSWER : DO IT!

2) prime issue is savings.
> Do you have space for length storage, the saw and mess it makes?
> Do you have the time to spend at the saw?
>How often does a situation come up where you say 'if I had a saw I could solve this problem'?
>If you are covering all your needs w/chop, you might not be ready to go with length, even with the extra profits.
ANSWER : Think long and hard, STRONG MAYBE.

3)prime issue is return on money spent.
> How well are you getting along w/o one? will it hurt you or your sales to continue?
> You sound like me, mostly C/P work, and my dry mount profits don't even cover my lease payment.
I love the press for what it can do, but it's not my best investment.
ANSWER : NOT YET, maybe later.
 
My answer is "A", the underpinner. I'm at the point of considering one also as I am still a member of the glue and nails in the vise club. If you don't take in alot of none c/p work, a dry mount press would just take up space. If you have a good supplier of chops, a saw would not be a priority. Besides, the more inventory you stock the more things you have to count and report at tax time. Not to mention getting stuck with molding that doesn't sell.
 
I must agree with the Goddess on this one.

1. FrameSquare saw for the same reasons. I would recommend getting the double rabbet option and 20 inch extension in addition to the basic saw. These 2 options are relatively inexpensive and come in really handy. The saw makes noise but I wouldn't consider it really LOUD. My air compressor and shopvac make much more noise. It does make sawdust and metal chips and takes a fair amount of floorspace once it's set up. Shopvac dustcollection attachments work marginally at best. You will learn over time that there are some profiles that you'd still rather order chop than to fight with the saw.

2. I don't have experience with the fancy underpinners, but my FrameSquare manual underpinner is handling our low volume shop nicely. There is some getting to know the feel of the machine and also getting to know it's limitations. I don't think the learning curve with a manual pinner is as bad as it might seem. Prior to the manual underpinner we used the Fletcher Cornerlock which is similar to the thumbnailer and still use it on some mouldings that we'd rather not be using the underpinner. Having used the thumbnailer and cornerlock, the Fletcher cornerlock is the better of the two (my opinion). There are some calibration problems that arise when you go from 4 sided to octagonal frames & vice versa w/cornerlock.
 
I just did a quick tally. 12 of my last 64 orders involved dry-mounting. These included the aforementioned posters, some very large photographs, a couple of newspaper articles and one fabric mat. I don't dry-mount anything when I think there's a good alternative, so these 12 were orders I could not have done without the press.

BTW, for those 64 orders, the number of times I used the saw or the underpinner: 7 total combined. (I like chop and I frequently like chop-and-join.)

Acme's business is likely very different from mine, so I won't be offended if Acme's president, who I've heard is blessed with good sense, makes a different decision than I made.
 
If you had a drymount press, not only could you drymount, but you could also offer printguard laminate as an alternative to glazing (not CP of course), as well as doing your own canvas transfers !!! We offer that service and although it's abit labour intense, it's a great upsell, and isn't readily available in many places so we can offer something unique...
You can also do interesting 'antiquing' finishes on posters with laminate and a tube of artists oil paint.
:cool: my two-cent's worth
 
Acme's CFO should be consulted. I'm sure she would say "Which of these pieces of equipment will save me the most money this year?" Once that is answered, then it becomes that much quicker that Acme will have the money to buy the second peice of equipment, with the same priorities just used.

There is only one real reason to buy a peice of equipment-that is to make money. The money may be earned through increased productivity, it might be through superior buying, it might be from offering new or expanded services. But once this learned CFO does her homework and determines which will provide the biggest bang for the buck, then she needs to do it post-haste. Everyday she doesn't do it continues to cost her more unearned monies.

This is a classic use of the Cost/Benefit analysis that our good friend William Parker wrote so intelligently about a few months back.

Class Dismissed
 
Tough choice?

1. Underpinner, I nailed for two year and bought a Cassese foot powered unit. It takes a little while to learn the tricks, but it saves an incredible amount of time. What took 45 min. for a frame to complete (dry time, etc.) now takes 1 minute. Don’t give up your vises; you will need them from time to time.

2. 40x60 Heated Dry Mount Press – can’t live without it. There has been situations where I hinged work I considered worthy of c/p, but when the paper got wavy the customer brought it back and I dry mounted it (at their request) on rag or Artcare with “acid-free heat reversible” mounting tissue. Makes for a great work surface too.

Solution Buy both now used.

3. I love my foot powered chopper – saves money and I can control the quality of the chop. No noise & dust.

I buy chop for metal and moulding the chopper can’t handle.
 
ACME and I have a lot in common, and I'd say without equivocation buy the underpinner. A good manual one works just fine for small shops. The time ACME would save in joining frames will let more work get done, thus more money, thus purchase of the press as the next piece of equipment.
Go ACME.
 
When it comes down to it, you can join (now), and you can order chop, but you can-not pressure or heat mount.

Press is first. It is a capability you do not have. As a income source, vs income outlay, it is a winner. The saw, in addition to it’s initial and actual cost has storage (of length and cut lengths) and handling (where the saw is place, do you have the space to move length in the space, you will need to deal with dust, you may need 3-phase installed) issues and noise too. On the surface I would have said underpinner. But an underpinner is a purchase that going for the low feature (read cheaper) model will live to haunt you. Meaning you need to make it pretty good investment. And then, of course, have it make enough money to pay itself off over time.

However, you can scale down to a Vacuum Mount Press, and not a Heat Mount, you will have a new profit center that wan pay for itself, and then you can get the underpinner much sooner then id you go Underpinner then Mounter. What I mean is a cheap VacuMount Machine will still mount and be very profitable, whereas a cheap underpinner will cost grief and you your soul.

So what I am saying is: Drop from a Heat-mount to a Used (cold)Vacu-Mount press.
The cost difference alone will get on your way to a decent used underpinner. With the add on sales you can now capture with the new machine in the shop, you will make up the rest of the way to the underpinner. Go used and get it even sooner.

THEN, with increased sales of new services (the press), as well as better use of time and materials (both the press and underpinner) you will be able to afford the third item in half the time.

I have two great Underpinners in the used section if your are interested.

Also. Define price ranges for expected purchases, as well as level of machine (low, med or high end). Has Acme thought about a Pahedra instead of the Biggie Saw? What is Acme’s current sq footage (maybe it is wiser to say with chop)? How may people employed at Acme? Rough number of wood and metal frames made in an average in a week?

Alot of the other stuff SlowTalkinTexan said was ap-cray, but he did say, every time he turned on the press it was like printing money.
He did have a point somewhere in there.
 
First always by the best equipment that you can!

This is a tough question.

Get a loan and buy all three.

If this is not a viable option, I would by the Underpinner first. But as stated above this will also require a compressor. Bonus here is that you can use pnuematic tools.

Next the press. This may also require a trip from the electrician.

THen comes the saw. The saw will allow you to buy length and make a better margin. But also cost a lon more in space and moulding inventory that you curently arn't stocking.

We have all of the above, in many cases multiples.

If I were starting from scratch my list would have the following in order

POS software
Under pinner
Press
CMC
Saw
 
Bob made an excellent point--which pc. can make you the most money fastest? I faced this same decision some years ago and bought a used chopper and placed a 1000 ft. order of length moulding. Good variety of my best sellers. That expense
(I think it was about $3000. total) was recouped in about 6 months.) If you are paying an employee to join frames, go with the underpinner--otherwise keep putting in the extra hours for now.
If you can sell enough additional mounting to pay for AND generate additional income with a hot press--do that. My chopper purchase created an immediate increase in profit margin and has continued to save me money every month. Not to mention you can suddenly do same day service, and that WILL get you more sales! By putting your biggest $ producer first, you'll get ALL of your
toys-er, tools faster!
 
Originally posted by Marc Lizer:
When it comes down to it, you can joint, and you can order chop, but you can-not pressure or heat mount.
Click to expand...
Marc has a great point here. I was going to tell you that I thought the underpinner would be my choice, but then he caught me with logic. :D I have to say that the press is a VERY usefull item in my shop. I run mine at least once a week, if not more.

Reasons for a Heat Press:

1) Fabric wrap mats
2) Mounting cheap prints
3) Making a cheap print look like a painting... Canvas transfer, Canvas Print Guard
4) Heating a Batique, to remove the creases in the wax.
5) Use the heat to help dryout Framing materials.
6) Vacu-Mounting Canvas. (Wet mount, no heat.)

Non-framing uses:

7) Drying your clothes after getting caught in the rain.
8) Heating up your lunch. (Grilled Cheese)
9) Heating the workroom during the winter.

There are many other great uses for a Drymount Machine. Not that many for the Underpinner, or Saw.

(Sorry about getting a little Warped.)
 
Originally posted by Framing Goddess:
Edie the FG
July 10, 2002
Framing Equipment Exam

Grade_______
Click to expand...
Miss Edie, your grade is an "A" on this exam. (Who could imagine less for the Goddess?)

It is interesting, informative, and well artec.., artic..., artu.., um, make that well written.

Miss Betty
 
I quizzed my boss and she immediately said a V-nailer. (We have a Casesse. It requires an air compressor which we use for lots of other things like the stapler, nail gun, and air for blowing dust off.) She really liked building frames in the vises and was hesitant about the Casesse, but now it is one of her favorite pieces of equipment. It cuts down production time so much.
 
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