Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Work Smarter, Not Harder

It seems I learn something new every day with my laser. The more products I add to my shop, the more creative ideas I come up with for lasering. I recently added Engraved Wooden Spoons to my shop. For the first order, I just put them in the laser one by one and auto focused them each time. Luckily there were only 3 spoons to do. I recently had an order for 50 spoons and didn't want to engrave each one individually...so I got creative.

I looked for a way to engrave more than one spoon at a time and remembered the jig I made for engraving my wine bottle stoppers...I could do the same for the spoons! It was a fairly easy process. I drew the spoon in my software program to cut out the jig. My largest spoon is 14' long, but all the spoon ends are all the same size. So the jig works for the 10", 12" and 14" spoons!

Now I can engrave up to 6 spoons at once. This really helped the process go much quicker than engraving them one at a time! Plus, it gave me more time in between reloading to work on other projects (yes, I'm a multi-taskers!).

 I did find out after the first run that the spoons are very light and move around a bit during engraving. There is an exhaust system hooked to my laser and the suction moved the spoons a bit. Noting a little scotch tape couldn't fix...another learning opportunity :)

Have your learned anything new about your craft lately?

13 comments:

  1. That's ingenious!!
    And congrats on the order of 50 spoons :)

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  2. Awesome discovery! These spoons are so great for a a wedding favor. I love when you actually receive something useful. :)

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  3. Congrats on the big order! You found out a great trick to do them together...awesome! Sometimes these techniques come to mind after you complete the project!!..good that you figured out a great way:)

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  4. You never cease to amaze me Edi! And the title of your post is one of my favorite sayings. :)

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  5. That's so smart, Edi! I'm really trying to find ways to be more efficient in my work too. It's hard when you are a one-woman operation. :)

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  6. Aren't you clever! Congrats on the big order and hope you get many more!

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  7. Great idea! I bet that makes a larger order WAY easier. =0) Love the spoons, by the way.

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  8. Agree with every one of the comments here : clever, smart and ingenious! Congrats of the wholesale!

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  9. this is a smart idea! I try to cut out like pieces of fabric at the same time, as well as, sew like pieces i.e. several apron bottom ruffle sections at once instead of completing one garment at a time.

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  10. That's brilliant thinking! You sound like my husband. He's always making things to make his work easier. I always say that he's building something to build something! But when it works, and it saves you time, it's brilliant!

    Love your spoons too. They are a perfect memento. (this word doesn't look right, but I'm pretty sure it is spelled right)

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  11. neat!! That is definitely a fast way to get all of those spoons done. Also, I think spoons are an awesome gift!

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  12. neat!! That is definitely a fast way to get all of those spoons done. Also, I think spoons are an awesome gift!

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