Messages

I had a restaurant call me in to look at doing 10 booths.  The vinyl on the booths is a dead ringer for Nauga Soft.  The backing is the same, the grain pattern is exactly the same, the dull finish and feel are exactly the same.  But the color is not on the sample card.  The color is close to Deep Sea but not the same and farther off then one would find with a dye lot discrepancy.  Anyone know of any vinyls that are an exact match to Nauga Soft except for the colors offered.

Jim

I emailed the quote today to the facility giving them 2 prices, one with the 500+ nails and one with about 130 nails per chair.  The job is large enough that it is not a problem figuring in the price for the Uffy decorative nail gun if they go with the higher quote for the 500+ nails.  I read that there can be a problem with the nail heads scratching, but I figure if I use an oxford head it should cut down on this.  If I end up buying one of these guns, I will let you know how it works.

Jim 

Thanks for the input Gene and Sofadoc.  From what you say using the strips are out of the question.  The facility is one of the top country clubs in the area, and if it does not look good it is not an option.  Did not even think about the gun to shoot the nails.  I will look into that.  Thanks again.

Jim

Does anyone have any experience with using the decorative nail trim strips.  I have never used them before and am wondering how they look compared to using the nails exclusively?  I am bidding on a job on doing 32 leather upholstered captains chairs that currently have approximately 530 nails per chair.  The customer wants it bid with a minimum amount of nails being used and doing it the exact same way it is currently upholstered with all the nails.  Not looking forward to installing 17,000 nails, and I am sure they will be surprised by how much labor this is going to add.  Because of this I was wondering about the nail trim strips if they are a viable alternative or if they make the job look cheap or second rate?

Jim

Thanks Johann.

MinUph.  This has a pretty distinct print to it and they will be very particular.  But I am leaving this as a last resort due to the cost involved.

I have a country club that has asked for a quote on doing 32 leather captain's chairs.  They picked a specific leather off a furniture leather line sold by Coast to Coast Leather.  Of course after calling them I am informed that it has been discontinued for a year or so, as an aside I would love to ask them why is it still showing on your web site after all this time, but I digress.  The country club is being very particular about the color because they have leather cushioned booths in the same area and are trying to match it.  What leather suppliers do you use other then Coast to Coast and Garrett?  Over the years most of my leather experience has been with automotive, hence my working with Coast to Coast, so I need some other suppliers that I hope I can find something close to the discontinued leather my customer is looking for.  Thanks for any help you can give.

Jim

Sofa there is no way I could put it off even if I wanted to since my wife is well aware of it.

Rich.  The work I am doing is for 3 of the hospital systems in the area.  The bulk of the work is done for the medical offices that they manage, and this consists of exam tables and chairs and waiting room furniture.  The hospitals themselves don't seem to throw as much work at me but I usually don't complain since it is easier to get stuff in and out of the office buildings then the hospitals.  From talking to others it is easier to do what I do living near a major city since these entities have vendors lists and if your not on them, you don't get any work.  In less metropolitan areas I believe each hospital makes it's own decisions and it's just a matter of finding the person in the building that makes the decisions.

Sofa, luckily I have been able to avoid the anal probe, but I just turned 50 so my Doctor told me that colonoscopy is coming soon, but there has been more then a few times I have had to go to one of their offices 50 miles away for a stool or one sitting chair.  But it's the price that has to be paid to keep on their vendor's list.  Have to do a bunch of little ones here and there to get the big ones.  I'll admit for the most part, most the vendor's lists I am on were done by being in the right place at the right time and I bend over backwards to stay on them.

For me any medical or dental office is the first appointment of the day, usually 20 to 30 minutes before any patients arrive.  I never wait longer then 15 minutes, and if it's going to be longer then that I leave and they can email me pictures or tell me the make and model number of the piece.  Then they can expect a padded estimate.  I may make exceptions for the large Hospital systems that I am on their Vendor's List, but that is because they all spend a solid 5 figure amount year in and year out.  But honestly I don't really run into the problem all that often.

I think the reason I see so many P&C and Adec's is that there are 2 or 3 companies in the area that set up and service dental offices and I believe those brands of chairs are the ones they push.

Honestly I have never come across a dental chair that I could not figure out how to disassemble, though way back in the beginning we did drop a dental light on a DentalEz when we didn't realize that it was attached to the chair frame instead of the chair base like most of them are.  That got expensive.

As to the DentalEZ I mean the chair pictured in the link below:

http://www.cascade-dental.net/images/Chairs/PC/DentalEZ_Chair_TealBlueUpholstery_$1350ea.jpg

I don't get asked to do them as often as in the past, and I am probably going to pass on any in the future.  I have 4 herniated discs in my back, and the chair is just too heavy to mess with without needing a couple days to recuperate.  Most the chairs I see now are Adec 1005 and 1040's and Pelton & Crane Chairman's.  Have had a couple P&C 3000's come in with the UltraLeather peeling off the backing and P&C refusing to do anything about it so they had the entire chairs redone in commercial vinyl.

Luckily, most chairs, no matter who the manufacturer is disassemble very easily.

We probably do about 15  dental chairs a year.  Once you are used to them the Adec's, Midmarks and the Pelton & Cranes can be done in a full day or less.  If the chair is not in use on a Wednesday, we pick up at the end of Tuesday and return on Thursday morning.  Now the DentalEZ J chairs I like to give myself 2 days to do.  They are heavy and require a lot of dis-assembly to re-upholster.  In my area, depending on the make and style of chair we get between $500 to $700, except for the J chairs.  I get a minimum of $1000 for those because of the work involved.

I would try the members at this forum.

http://www.thehogring.com/

The admins will require you to fill out a profile, but once you are signed up on the forum someone there should be able to help you.

The way I look at it is, if for whatever reason there is a failure to deploy or a partial deployment of the air bag, even if it is not your fault, you can be sure some attorney is going to have you involved in the lawsuit.  Most jobs on seats with airbags are panel replacements, and to me it is not worth the potential liability for a $225 to $350 job.  The big problem I have seen is body shops, that deal in redoing wrecked cars and reselling them, coming in and wanting the split seam on the seat sewn back up, and claiming they will be putting a new air bag back in the seat.   I would never trust them to do it, and don't want to think of the liability involved if they did not and an accident occurred.

Most the trimmers I know including myself do not resew seats with airbags due to legal liability.  There has been much discussion at The Hog Ring which is a forum for auto trimmers.  You might want to go there and search air bags.  I know at a point in the past someone who claimed to be in the know about SIAB (side impact airbags) said that you use a T-70 for the top thread and a T-30 thread for the bottom stitch.  In the critical area of deployment you need to use a stitch length off 4 per inch and lower the tension.  I do not know if the person knows what he is taking about, but it is what he said.

Jim