Sunday, July 11, 2010

Our busy season continues

Still working hard to get this ginormous production run of tankards completed. With the bodies of the tankards finished, the next step was to make handles.

Don spent an entire day marking and cutting nearly 300 handles. He got about half of them sanded, then I took over sanding...


...while he routered the edges (1/4" roundover bit, for whoever's wondering).


Sanded but unroutered...


Sanded AND routered, ready to glue onto the tankards.


Friday evening and Saturday morning, we had a handle-glueing marathon. Good thing our houseguests weren't here to see the mess we created! The old sheets on the floor protected the carpets from glue and sawdust.



Next step is to coat the tankards with the first shot of varnish using a spray gun. On Saturday morning we started setting up to shoot the tankards outdoors, because with a production run this size we don't have enough surface area inside the shop. It was a perfect day for shooting outside - clear and hot. The first coat would dry rapidly under such conditions. However when he was just about to start shooting, the wind started blowing. Blowing wind and wet varnish do not mix. Grumbling, poor Don had to find enough surface area in the shop (he set up long boards across tables and equipment) to accommodate about 280 pieces.



Today's job will be to buff the tankards with quadruple-ought-steel wool, brush them off, and re-shoot. Tomorrow we coat the insides, whoo-hoo!

...Oh, and a pretty picture just for fun.

4 comments:

  1. Dahhhling! We have matching vases!!! lol

    It's so good to see this run of work and know you're getting some good big orders.

    YAY WORK!!

    A. McSp.

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  2. Do your tankards have an identifying mark? I may be going to a Renaissance Fair this year and want to look out for them.

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  3. Tiarosa, which Ren Faire will you be attending? I can probably tell you whether you'll find a vendor selling our tankards or not.

    We don't have an identifying mark per se, but I don't think anyone else makes mugs in the same style we do: six-sided, wider at the bottom and just a bit narrower at the top (for stability), about six inches high. The interior coating is gray and the tankards can hold hot as well as cold beverages. If a vendor has tankards matching that description, they're ours.

    Let me know what Ren Faire you'll be attending!

    - Patrice

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  4. Don't know the exact name, but it will be in the greater Dallas, Texas area or Hillsboro TX. Maybe Middlefaire?

    ReplyDelete