Messages

For me.. just about anything will work... cept.. just don't call me "Sue"...

Rick

Paul, not even a thing on the help. Let me ask you. When you order staples, being they go to 5/8" of a inch, what will you order? 5/8" staples is long. I would think 3/8", if available, would be sufficient. Also, you said you will continue to glue fabric covered dw. I would think a cloth dw would collapse better over the staple to hide it??? Meaning, if stapling works good on vinyl dw, cloth would be better? I do understand how glue will not work on vinyl where it works on cloth..

Regards

Rick

I do not do much furniture but I have always been thinking about the dbl welt issue and fastening it. I am going to keep this in mind and consider ordering one myself just to have it in case I need it. Thanks to you for the idea...

Regards

Rick

Gun...

https://www.amazon.com/XtremePro-SFT10XP-Upholstery-Pneumatic-Stapler/dp/B00BPBCTDY

Staples...

https://www.amazon.com/Senco-D10BABN-Count-Staples-Galvanized/dp/B000OAS6HU/ref=pd_bxgy_469_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000OAS6HU&pd_rd_r=8QW2JK8NXHYSYF0TVQ19&pd_rd_w=MTL5d&pd_rd_wg=npnMg&psc=1&refRID=8QW2JK8NXHYSYF0TVQ19

Is this what you had in mind???

Regards

Rick

This is a fascinating subject for me on the cost and time involved with conducting business. The main question is, "how much money is being made"? I have a theory that everything involved with a job has a cost and it takes the price of the job to pay the cost. Problem for me is charging the fair price - determined by how much I want to make off of the job - that covers all the cost. A fact told to me by my sister - she being a old school book keeper - is if one is honest with oneself and not afraid of numbers, numbers can tell a true story. Like Chris shared, I try to track everything I can on cost and time. With the excel spreadsheets I have developed, what has gotten me to the point I am at with them now is asking questions and then seeking the objective in a spreadsheet to find the answer to the question. The thing I see that has to be addressed is what is taking away from the base price of a job. Material cost with markups - for me - is the easy part of it. The time issue is the hard part. I keep very specific spreadsheets that calculate - per job - bench time to do the job, then other time factors involved. Admin, cleanup, load / unload, final cleaning of project for delivery, travel time. Each one of these category's carries a specific cost per hour charge. Other than bench times to do a project, the thing I really like to see on the spreadsheets is the averages. Especially admin time elements. The time spent on admin can be very interesting to examine with numbers - from initial conversation of project with customer to depositing the check in the bank - these time totals per job, broken down then to averages, compared then to total job cost, that figure can then be inserted in a initial estimate to start with. With keeping careful notes during a project, and then reviewing these notes, I then have a very reliable source of information for future project estimates that are like what I am estimating. It is like building my own time charts for upholstery.

I have developed a extensive per job work order that does these calculations automatically that I am going to test with a close friend that has a cabinet shop / custom wood working business. If I let him give me input back to tweak it, I might try to market it later on for service oriented businesses.

Rick

Hello. After Chris let me use the guide foot he had, I really like it. Now, my objective with the feet is not really a guide for a single fold over top stitch seam, but for French seams. That being said, I purchased a three set of guide feet for left and right guides. Why both sides? If having to install a French seam on a automotive seat, and keeping the majority of material on the left side of the machine and not under the neck, all that is needed is to switch the feet out to jump on the other side of the deep seam, again keeping most of the cover to the left. I did a ski boat last year that had a side wall panel that had a French seam on the top that was approximately 9' long. The guide feet was a life savoir on laying out a nice straight, even French seam. Right at $80 or so for both sets off of ebay, one of my best investments.

Rick

Chris - I got a roll of 3/4" last year from you (Dk Taupe) but it was a full roll you sold me at a very reasonable price. This was done when I picked up all of that left over acrylic and vinyl you had..

Rick

Chris...... what is really a bear is sewing 3/4" dbl fold without a binder..

Rick

Chris, yes, I was delayed on a shipment out of Orlando from a jobber. And, I had a hard time patterning Friday. It was quite windy with 20-25 with gust. Hard to deal with a large chunk of Sunbrella in that.

Rick

Hello...

From Chris: "I know Ricat offers Solarfix as an option like Mike does. Rick is really good at marketing PTFE thread and typically is able to upsell customers to Solarfix without problems. Most of his customers have no problems paying extra for Solarfix when they discover it can live for 20 - 30 years in high UV States."

On a new canvas project for a customer, considering the amount of money being spent and with a proper explanation of PTFE thread, it is usally easy to upsell a customer to PTFE. Also, it can be quite profitable...

Regards
Rick

Hello Floyd. As for myself, I do not participate with the trade shows. Marine Fabricator's held a convention earlier this year near me in Clearwater, Fl. The first day was an open house - free admission - so I went. I had never been to one before so I decided to ck it out. I met people that had come in from Washington and Oregon. They told me they go to everyone of them for the workshops. And then I heard of some of the projects they took on. One shared about a huge governmental project with some kind of huge hanging curtain thing. What I found interesting is they had never done one before and took it on. They had a huge learning curve to get certain hardware fabricated and so forth and so on. My point to this is, for me, as I get older I am staying in a comfort zone with certain aspects of upholstery that I am used to. Just not quite as froggy as I used to be. If I do decide to go forward with some new ideas in the future, it will be very relative to what I already know. I would say the trade shows bring new ideas and technology. New ideas and technology is not hard to get information on if one just looks in the right direction and talks to the right people. That is how the internet is so powerful with this. Take MoJo (Chris) for an example. When he started his canopy business, he got in the weeds on finding out information on acrylic. He shares information with me on the different mills that is amazing. He did his research and I don't think he went to a trade show (I might be wrong on that). It is good to find out about new products. Example, at the trade show I went to, I found some interesting and updated hardware from the people that makes the pole supported boat vents for covers. Then what I did was get with my salesman from my main jobber and fussed at him on not keeping me up to date on the new products. I just keep rooting around and getting information. I do subscribe to Marine Fabricators magazine and that is a good resource. It points me in the right direction on new products and technologies. Another factor for the trade shows is the cost and time. Is it really an advantage to invest the time and money for one? Maybe for some, yes. The thing I did enjoy was talking to the craftsman there and gleaning from them. That is where I see a value. Like here on the forum, every now and then picking up a gold nugget of information from a peer because of their experience in a aspect of a  phase of upholstery I do.

Regards

Rick

     Chris, my friend, it was my pleasure to come by and try to give some input on the issue with the seam. I know how serious you and Ingrid are on keeping a standard to provide the best product you can produce for your customers. When you, myself, and the others on this forum from different parts carry the standard of craftsmanship to the best of our abilities with good ethics, we are doing what what we can to keep the craft of upholstery held high. That in turn puts the right pressure on the money hungry goof-balls that is our competition. While you were busy on the phone with a customer, Ingrid and myself was discussing the issue of your possible new competition. What we were discussing is the same for myself with competition. It goes farther than just doing upholstery. It starts with the character makeup of the person. If information comes our way on the character makeup of a person of competition, and that information shows character flaws, then no doubt, that will be the standard they use to conduct business. And that standard then produces a reputation. That is what you and myself strive very hard for - a good reputation. And when one has angry customers, well it is like someone told me many years ago when I was going to build them a tonneau cover - "You do me a good job, I'll tell 20, 30 maybe 40 people, you screw me I'll tell a 100." As Ingrid and myself was saying, one has to have good ethics, craftsmanship, good equipment and common sense. A package.

     Your shop was very impressive. To see what you have accomplished in a short period of time when you moved, it was inspiring. I admire your aggressiveness on you moving forward with your business. Gives me a kick in the ass to get some things done!

     Let me share what I really enjoyed when I came over. Just to be able to chew the fat on matters of the upholstery business. Every time I visit you, I learn something. Thank you. I do not interact with my peers in my area. I have reached out over the phone to a couple on who I refer work to, but to actually sit and discuss matters and share war stories, you bless me with our discussions on the phone and when we get together. I would like us to get together more in the future since we are in the same area. What would really be neat is if Paul could get with us.

Keep cool (with the a/c) my friend...

Rick

Very, very nice work

Rick

Oh, and Chris forgot to mention... the tropical storm / small hurricane we have just off the coast...

My wife bought one. She found a single one for approx $50. I didn't want one. I got my pillow just right. So, the buy one (for $100) and get one free is not very truthful.

Rick