https://jgwoodsigns.com/carved-camp-sign-pet-name-dog-bone-add-on-wooden-name-sign-dog-bone-with-pawprints-jgwoodsigns-personalized-sign/ Please PIN Like and Share to those friends with pets, who would like to remember them with a carved sign.

http://jgwoodsigns.com/chalkboard-custom-carved-camp-sign-…/

Please like or share this to all your camping friends.

http://jgwoodsigns.com/rustic-carved-camping-family-name-sign-welcome-to-our-campsite-with-2-add-ons-and-one-chalkboard-add-on-with-sign-holder-option/

Hailey, a family member, practices new skills with the drill pulling the powder coated eyes out of it's fixture.  Hailey the tool-man!

Gary has been busy running the machine, getting organized and getting prepped for hellaciously rapid Christmas sales. This is a batch of silver eyes waiting to go into the booth for black powder coating.  This is only about 1/6th of the amount we will complete between now and Dec 1st. 

He and I both have been furiously trying to clean, sand, and coat the rest of our wood slabs that were purchased a year ago July and never really finished until now. The push is on! Gotta be ready for Christmas! 

And yes that's a Walmart Canopy frame in our upstairs bedroom, it just fit beneath the ceiling and holds the drying slabs wonderfully! (My idea, I might add!)

And finally the organizing. He's got the space under the machine filled with our set up jigs, so he can easily switch out the projects he's running. Above the storage bins on the left, is his organization pegboard with all our tiny USB drives that hold the actual G-code for the machine and our work orders.

My job in the slab prep was the dreaded centering and drilling the holes for the hooks so they can hang while they dry. Gary's worst job! And I actually didn't mind it so much (maybe it's just newbie enthusiasm) except for all the math involved. No I didn't have to use a calculator but I did have to measure and divide, as well as make square lines and line up my drill properly. I felt a little bit like Tim the Tool Man!

On another note, I've been having pain in my 2nd toe on my left foot.  It mostly aches and causes problems with certain types of shoes I'd like to wear (no tie shoes for at least 2 years now.)  But this past month I've had shooting pains on the top of my foot into my 2nd toe.  So much so, it feels like a lightning bolt!  I thought it might be related to my ankle that was broken 12 years ago, so today I had an appointment with the ortho and he immediately suspected a stress fracture, but upon looking at the x-rays ruled that out.  I thought it was a little weird to go that direction since I hadn't injured the foot at all, and it's lasted so long.  His next idea was inflammation and he injected a cortizone shot into the area just below the knuckle at the bottom of the toe.  Talk about a lightning bolt!  4x worse than the pain I normally feel shooting that direction but not enough to bring tears.  I sure hope he's right and the next few days bring relief, because I can't even imagine boxing and shipping 30 signs a day on a bum foot.  His time frame for this to last is going to take us right up to our busy time, and I sure don't have enough time to eat, sleep, and shower then, let alone let someone mess with my foot!  I guess I just have to find my priorities.  It's all worthwhile when we escape the cold weather and move on to warmer temps when it's all overwith. 

In the car!  A nice tight fit!

 My comments to Gary - and just how do you think that's magically going to fit on those two little arms? 

And with a couple two by fours and some very long bolts, magic, the arms extended. 

But it did fit, thanks to the magic of sliding on cardboard.  

The long drive up the driveway.  Notice the size difference between the size of the machine and the size of the door!

Notice the orientation change which made my heart pound.  I was thinking at that point in time - this operation will never go down!

Well it looks like I missed a couple of important photos, taking off a panel with the doors to the carport, wheeling through the narrow path in the carport and up the ramp, into the back door.  This was the point my heart was really thudding and probably the point that took more than 30 minutes between photos.  However, Gary had confidence that the two of us COULD move this 350 lb machine up 3 steps and into the back work room successfully.  His comment, it's not any more heavy than a side by side refrigerator, and I've moved those many times!  Well I haven't!  And I'm not your average line backer material either!  But as you can see in the next photo we made it inside with actually very little huffing and puffing.  The only time I was really not sure was when Gary was at the top of the ramp, and decided I was very little help at the bottom and decided we would switch places.  It was up to me to hold on to the machine and not let it roll down the hill into our neighbor's yard while he went through the house and out the front door and around to the back.  But I left him in the same position while he held the machine in place and I retraced his steps to the interior!

And the rest of it was done maneuvering in very tight places, only about as wide as the actual hand cart itself!

The doorway carpet caused us more issues than the ramp up to the door!  Placed it on the pre-assembled stand!  And we were almost there.  Thank heavens for rollers on everything. 

And then backed into it's little tiny corner and the rest of the equipment back into place. 

Now all we have to do is master the software for this beast and we are good to go!  A day of rest will follow for sure!  If anyone is interested in the machine itself click on the link at the bottom of the page at jgwoodsigns.com

Today we are tearing apart the workroom, because last night we picked up a different new machine.  This one, a little closer from Columbus. Gary measured our vehicle before we left and thought for sure it would fit.  However after we got there, and he found out that it was in a box that was almost as tall as the back opening of the vehicle, and that there were 3 more boxes involved we thought it wouldn't fit.  But, one of the employees saved the day, and said sure, we've gotten that size machine in your vehicle style before!  And yes it did fit.  And I didn't have to be strapped to the roof even.   No spicy food on this trip, thank goodness!

Today we moved the old machine out to the trailer, the old stand to an upstairs bedroom, and put together and moved the new stand into place in the work area.  No photos until it's in place.  I think I jinxed it last time, with all my excitement over a new machine and how long it took us to assemble it.  This machine comes assembled and weighs close to 350 lbs!  The stand alone weighed over 150, but Gary and I were able to use a hand truck and wheel it into place fairly easily.  Since the machine has to come up 3 steps, I'm not so sure just the two of us can do it.   He's hoping to get some muscle tomorrow to help, and all will be well.  Tonight he's also hooking up new electricity outlets for the change in current. 

Here are a few pictures of new items we've been producing.  A lot of requests for alternative fonts, and a few new graphics.  

This font is called Georgia and Gary loves the way it machines.  

The rose was for a cute little 4 year old who grows vegetables, but her middle name is Rose.  

The campfire/tent is for an anniversary present.  We have some very sweet guys who buy signs for their honeys!

We've not done this font on a slab before.  Gary was leary but I think it turned out spectacular!

This is also a font we've not done on a slab before.  Makes Grama and Papa look kinda snazzy I think!

Check back with us to make sure the new machine fits through the door, although I've been assured that everything will work out just fine, thanks to my new free tape measure.  Buy a $7700 machine, they throw it in for ya!  Now that's service!

I've posted a listing on this website as well as the cedar website.  Here's a view:  http://jgwoodsigns.com/colored-campfire-and-trout-graphic-custom-camping-sign-great-fathers-day-present-with-sign-holder-option/

And in spite of all the papers that seemed to come with it, no assembly instructions were included!  So it took us over a week just to get it all set up. 

Parts parts and more parts!

And then after it was completely assembled .... 

now there's software to learn!  Video tutorials to watch!    Oh man, this is like going back to school with no teacher to ask questions of!

But soon there will be a new test carve and I'm crossing my fingers that it won't take 10 of them to get it right!

We knew we had ordered a fair quantity but had no idea they were coming to us assembled.  

I suppose we could have gotten a few more in the back of the vehicle but not too many!  The back end was noticeably lower than the front end but it travelled well and no tire issues.  When we arrived home at 1:30am after starting out at 5:58am we were a little tired to say the least.  

Thursday was spent unassembling them, and finding ways to store them in a smaller space.  We still only have about half of them unassembled.  The boxing and shipping room definitely looks more like the sign holder room at the moment! 

These are the remainder still assembled.

This is the size we have them down to, to ship them easily.  That's actually a stack of 6 holders. 

And this is our storage area.  We recycled boxes from the China made holders to hold our new USA made sign holders.

Another suprise when we got home, a package on the porch with REDWOOD from a Canadian lumber source.  It looks like wonderful material but came in soaking wet.  We are not happy about the condition, but hopefully a few days of drying will be all we need.  

We are hoping our new sourcing will alleviate some of our frustrations with delivering a quality product and in the case of the redwood at least, will cut down on our waste.  

It's an exciting time for us to be able to have someone make the RV camping sign post holders exactly the way we want them.   We are still on the look out for a new machine, but haven't purchased yet, so more exciting times are in our future for sure!

But, the thing came in 3 very huge boxes which included the stand, the sander, and an improvement to our dust collection system and barely fit in the back of the SUV. After unpacking, there was the daunting task of assembly.  Gary is a professional assembler having put together grills at Lowes for close to 3 years.  He matches all the parts to the list before he makes a move, makes sure he has the proper tools ready and actually reads the instructions.  Well, sort of, I read the instructions to him and then had to flip around the paragraphs when he skipped steps and got ahead of me. 

And it's a good thing I was getting photos of the top of his head, cause the only other choice was the other end!

We painstakenly  got it together little by little. 

And then after the stand finally the machine!

A little more tweaking and we were ready to move it to it's place in the production area. 

Notice the small dust collector cyclone system in the right corner.  Almost the rest of the day was spent reworking the ducting to make the new larger cyclone unit connect up! 

And then I finally got to put my hands on the new baby - er machine and it worked like a dream! 

Took me two hours to do what Gary said would have taken him 2 days and a sore back and shoulders with the old sander instead!   This is progress!

Wednesday we started out going south to accomplish 5 things.  Only one of them was accomplished on the 1st try.  We wanted to stop at a bicycle shop, because Gary threw his bike out to the curb, and definitely needs a new one.  Drove 40 miles to the listed bike shop and even though it was Wednesday, the bike shop was closed.  Tight.  Dark.  No success!

So we went onward to the grocery store in the big town for two items, edamame and polenta.   And of course no sign of either in the produce section where I had seen them before at a different big city store in Florida.  

Next stop was the shipping label store.  I had previously looked online and tried to figure out the exact label I needed without much luck.  Too many label choices not enough time.  We've previously tried Avery and they didn't stick well.  Then we used 3M labels and loved them, they went through the printer just nifty and stuck like a really really sticky thing.   The last ones I got because 3M is no longer making labels!  Sheesh, who told them they could make decisions like that?  I ordered Digi-Orange and they were ok the 1st ones out of the box.  About 1/2 way down they started to curl and I had to insert them one at a time in the printer.  Then they started to curl after we placed them on the boxes and the corners were becoming unstuck before we even got them to the Post Office.   After a few more they curled so much I had to crease the edge to get to even feed through the printer one at a time!  Too much work for a simple label!    So we stopped at the Label store and they weren't open either!  But there was a sign that said new customers stop at the office upstairs, so we did.  And they were nice and were able to figure out what we needed and even offered to send us a free sample box!  But alas it had to be shipped to us and we still didn't accomplish our goal of getting more labels. 

And did I mention that it was raining cats and dogs?  Every stop we made, it was up with the umbrellas, and quick feet into the place of business. 

Ok next stop was the box manufacturer, and it stopped raining long enough for use to load the boxes into the back of the car.  Thank goodness because by the time we got across town again and to the next big city grocery store it was raining again!  This time I was determined to find the edamame and polenta.   I had internet, so I went to the store's website and it said yes the store had the items, edamame was in the frozen section, and polenta was in the canned and bagged items area.   We looked all over the produce and didn't find anything.  Asked someone and he took us back to the place we had just looked.  Went to the frozen section and finally found the edamame but no polenta.   Stood in line at the customer service desk for about 15 minutes.  Finally talked to a lady who said she knew exactly where the item was.  I asked what was it close to, so we can find it?  She didn't answer and I repeated my question.  Finally she took off and said she'd get the item.   We followed her to the frozen vegetables section, where we had just come from, and there I mentioned that another name for polenta was corn mush.  Then she admitted she had no idea what polenta was and she had no idea where it was in the store!  We gave up, and paid for the edamame.   Gary decided to make a phone call to a machine manufacturer to inquire about us getting a new machine, and I decided to go back into the store to use the bathroom while I was waiting.  After using the facilities I decided to look for corn mush in a different place, near the meat, and followed the refrigerator section on to the dairy and finally found it above the eggs!   Success, but  a very frustrating success!.  Oh well. 

The last stop was at a Woodcraft shop where we were looking for parts to improve on our present dust collection system.  We have two areas with wood dust issues, the main work area with the machines, which we've pretty much taken care of issues with dust collection.  The 2nd area is the router area (which is presently outside during good weather) where we cut out the blanks to carve the signs on.  This one needed a big overhaul as it wasn't collecting much of anything and Gary was getting a lot of wood dust back in his face.  Even though he was wearing a dust mask while cutting he was still having a bunch of it into his nose and down in his lungs.  Most of the time this doesn't cause any issues, but during our Father's Day rush and at Christmas, he actually has health issues because of the dust.  We were able to buy a lid for a barrel we bought 2 years ago, but failed at finding the fittings that would allow us to connect the tubing from the fan and back out the other side of the barrel. 

So all in all, a fairly disappointing day, but we bought enough boxes to fill the car so if we had been successful at everything else, it might have been really tight indeed.  Two days later we reenacted the day with a trip north to buy wood, and had about as much success.   Luckily enough success to keep making signs!

That's all for now.  We are definitely looking forward to a little slower season for the next 4 months so we can get back to having a life again!  Onward!  

We currently offer the smallest hook shown here.  We ordered a few of the very largest (shown on the left) and offer them only on our jgwoodsigns.com website, and they haven't sold too well.  But they won't fit all of our signs and are difficult for us to ship as they come in only 2 pieces.   Back in May we started working with another vendor to make our own specifications and will be moving toward replacing the small 3 piece Scroll Arm Holder with our design.  It is heavier, but comes in 3 pieces for easy shipping and transporting, and is much sturdier and American made!   When our shipment arrived today we acted like little kids at Christmas!  Look for the new sign holder for the fall shipping season! 

We are working to get a new revised sign holder to offer our customers that will be more sturdy and American made, for the Christmas season.  So far we haven't found anyone willing to make it for us, but it's a never ending search.  We will keep on keeping on until the task is accomplished.  

One of the last tasks we accomplished for signs was a visit to IKEA the day before we left to purchase a wire basket system you might use in a laundry room or closet, to keep Gary's supplies, that he can bolt under his current work bench.   It's about 4-6" too tall, so it will have to be reworked in order to fit, but that should be no problem for a mechanical genius like him.  

Just making the time to be organized is a challenge, and having to look for everything for longer than it needs to be causes there to be less time to organize.   After our visit to IKEA they told us on the Today Show that couples who visit IKEA together are very likely to come out of the building arguing.  I'm happy to say that didn't happen to us! 

This time of year we always have a few new design requests and our most recent was a heron oval that we hadn't done before. It's posted at: 

http://jgwoodsigns.com/beach-family-name-sign-with...

I'm sure there will be more to follow. Our customers are always presenting us with new challenges.  

In a few days we'll be back among the familiar, back in Ohio and making the transition from trailer workshop to sticks n brick workshop.  I'm looking forward to the change, but there will always be another change down the road.  It takes me about 3 months to get the itch again and onward we go!

 The weather never seems to be ideal when we take on the task of prepping the wood slabs, it was close to 90° in temperature and after brushing and picking for a couple hours I was coated in dust and moss and whatever scales that grow on the outer bark of a tree.  

We only purchase wood slabs once a year, usually 40 or 50 at a time and it takes us quite a long time to get them all prepped and ready for carving.  But in the end I feel they are our most beautiful product and well worth the extra cost. 

We also received a shipment of sign holders Friday night.  I was expecting it to arrive UPS early in the am, but it didn't arrived until sometime between 6-7pm and the box it came in was totally demolished and it was then placed in another box that was totally oversized for it's contents. 

 I've listed these new holders as 41" Garden Stands and they are a heavier pole than our regular scroll arm holders.  They do not break down to quite the small size as the scroll arm holders, so more space is needed in RVs for storage between displaying.  20" x 30" for space requirements in your under belly storage. 

Well it seems as though there might be hundreds of variations of all those combined and it's my job to sort them out and make them all available to everyone in a logical and concise manner.  As the designer in this duo logical and concise are not words in my vocabulary!

So I'm immersed in dog bones and travel trailers and text lengths and shipping weights and photos and option sets (did I even know what an option set was before last Thursday?) and tag words and meta tags and photos that are all the same size and shape and Canadian postal rates and US postal rates and OMG am I forgetting something?  Yes!  The text box for the most vital information - what do you want carved on your sign!?!

Well all in good time.  It's definitely a learning experience and while everything may not be perfect for a very long time at least there's a comment box on the order form to explain everything that's not as it should be.  So onward to see what amazing things can happen when combining a few hundred options. 

Until next time, call me website guru in training.