Chris is the only one of us who really has a good grasp on our two diamond-tip rotary machines. Training has been slow due to the high workload. Though we have laser engravers, uv printing, and sandcarving, we still get quite a few orders for good ol' fashioned diamond tip engraving. I actually prefer it myself because it looks so dang classy.
Robert, like some kind of superhero, jumped in and taught himself one of the machines so that we could complete the rush order. The rush order was one of our unusual jobs. The customer found a beautiful solid walnut trophy on Craigslist that had plastic perpetual plates. The customer wanted to change those out for brass. Naturally the plastic plates were a custom size, so we needed to cut them in house. So Robert learns the machine, and I'm trying to cut brass on our cutter that is still slightly off (no time to adjust it). Robert needed to go to work at some point, so he comes back at the end of the day to help drill the holes in the plates and figure out how to engrave the larger header plate on the diamond tip rotary, which looks like it's made to engrave smaller things.
It's 7:30 at night when we realize the holes for the plates are all lopsided and not perfectly equal, which meant each plate needed to be drilled the same way as the plastic plate it was replacing. I had already taken the plastic plates off, so then I had to figure out their order, and then one by one we matched the holes, drilled them, and put the brass plates on. I'm pretty sure everyone knows how much I effing hate puzzles, so I was dropping curse words left and right.
Anyone reading this blog, if you have a beautiful, solid walnut trophy, please do not add plastic plates to it. Also, it's never a good idea to drill holes in things if you're drunk. Sober up and use a leveler, ruler, anything to make sure those holes line up with one another.
The whole situation was funny as hell though, and we were very tired, so we managed to laugh our way through the whole process. And thankfully, the customer was not only thrilled with the trophy but went to high school with Robert! Also, the customer needed the trophy for a party that was cancelled due to the snow.
There hasn't been any word on when Chris is coming back, but both Robert and I have been sitting on pins and needles to see how one properly engraves a larger plate on the diamond-tip engraver. I cannot wait to see Chris' expression when I describe the process. I feel very confident we are going to be laughed out of the place.
Look at this fine display of hillbilly ingenuity. We took a spare wooden block leftover from balancing our shelves and taped the holy heck out of it with multiple tapes.
We also had our first wave of Pinewood derby trophies to build and a handful of other jobs that were Chris' projects in addition to our own projects. We had some beautiful (and slightly crazed) teamwork going on that I am very proud of. I think we are all ready to get to a quieter place where we can properly train on the machines we're not comfortable with and about 150 items on the to-do list.
Robert and I have been home to sleep and sometimes for an hour in the morning or evening but that's it. Our dogs take advantage of every moment we are still! Both have turned into champion cuddlers, and because it's winter time, they both want to sleep in our bed as much as possible. I love each season for lots of different reasons. I think my favorite thing about winter is having the dogs with us through the night.
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