decorative tacks

[gene]

I did approx. 102" of 7/16" decorative tacks today. That's about 233 tacks. It took me approx. 1 hour.

That's 1 foot of tacks per 7 minutes.

How does this speed compare to your speed?

Thank you,

Gene

[MinUph]

Sounds like a decent speed. I've never timed it myself. I do remember one job a couple of years ago building 3 walls with nail trim on all sides. Took me 3 days.

[baileyuph]

Gene,
Those general numbers reflect a tack every 15 seconds.  That is fast!  Especially if the rate could be sustained over a longer period of time.

My last tack experience (probably last post on the subject), took over twice that much time per tack.  The wood was difficult to drive into because the shank was 3/4 ".  Plus the tacks were side by side making maintining a straight line even more difficult.

For sure, if there was a volume of work like that coming in, at least the equipment that is used by factories would be seriously investigated.  My manual efforts were not as pretty and straight as what was removed (factory accomplished).

Decorative tacks, at least in furniture picture ads, seem to finding their place today.  So, that makes this discussion somewht relevant.  Finding their place today, I say and see, is because furniture is so plain in shape and color, the tacks do "add".

Doyle

[sofadoc]

I did a job recently where I averaged 5 tacks a minute (about 12 seconds each). I was able to sustain this rate for the duration of the job, which was over 1200 tacks. But this particular job was under ideal conditions. Good wood with no previous tack holes, and not too hard that would cause a lot of bent nails. There are a lot of frames that I would not be able to keep up that pace on.

But even if I could only do 2 tacks a minute, that's still fast enough that I can't really justify the cost of a decorative nail gun. I just don't do enough small (7/16") nail jobs. I average about 3000-4000 nails a year. I do a lot of the larger nails (3/4"-1") that a nail gun would be useless on.

[baileyuph]

The nail situation is or can be a variable task.

It was requested in another post what factories use (equipment) to install the longer shank nails and haven't had a clue.  They, being a mass producer are using something that cannot be equaled by the hand method.  Taking as much time as needed, my manual endeavor could not lay the tacks as effectively.

So, not knowing where the piece (my last big job) was made, it looks difficult to learn what the effective automation is or looks like.

In the experience aluded to, I could take several shorter shanks and drive them in much easier and accurate.  But...............those long dudes!

Doyle

[baileyuph]

After additional research, learned more about decorative tack installation eqipment.

That is, the technology is quite advanced, those used by manufacturers will do the job
with a lot less effort at a rate of 60 to 80 installations a minute, that is close to 5,000 per hour.  

Obviously the equipment is at a cost, but in manufacturing the job has to be done perfectly and fast.

Can't be justified is the response in a custom shop.  Agree and at the same time a small shop can't compete with factory work at the moment and the real message is it will be impossible going forward.

Interesting,  the cost of the equipment would have to run several thousand.

Get bigger or get out or change what you do while small.

Doyle

[gene]

Thank you for the feedback. I wasn't sure if that was good or not. Sounds like I'm doing OK on my time.

This situation was ideal. I ran a line of decorative tacks around an ottoman, 4" above the bottom of the wooden frame. I drew a line with chalk and was able to put the ottoman on it's side while I sat on a stool. It was hard wood but it went OK. I spent no more than a minute to straighten up the lines when I was done, so I was able to keep everything on the chalk line rather well.

gene