Hey Canadians (& other international)

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ed4copies

ed4copies

Local Chapter Manager
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Mar 25, 2005
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Location
Racine, WI, USA.
A comment made by a Canadian got me to wondering: What size pen blanks would you LIKE to be able to purchase??? We send a fair amount of Dawn's resin over the border. Each blank is 6" long and weighs 4 oz. They are also very close to an inch square.

You will "turn off" a bunch. But this also limits what we can get into a small flat rate box.

Please comment on what size you would LIKE to have? One suggestion I might "put out there": The blanks could be just under 5".

The box is 5 x 8.5 x 1.5 inches for reference.

We are looking for ideas for next year---here's your chance to "weigh in" (pun intended--I like puns!!)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Thanks eh

Thanks for asking Ed. I could live with just under 5" length. With a little planning I've never had a problem getting any pen out of a 5" length. Most of the time 3/4" square would work but I do the odd full sized Statesman or Majestic. So 3/4" square and just under 5" would work 95-99% of the time for me.
 
Just doing the math you can only get 8 blanks maybe 9 in a box with your current size. If you were to go with the 5" X 3/4" you could get 20. Double your and our pleasure. Only 1 package would be necessary if ordering over 8 blanks and less than 20. This would save us but also you as there would be less packaging to do and for you less resin used and less resin wasted for us. Maybe there is a price reduction in there somewhere. :wink:

3/4" allows 2 blanks high inside the box and is fine for most pens. Length to me doesn't matter as much. I can get a pen out of 5" but I prefer the 6" because I use the leftover for other small projects like bookmarks.

One other comment if I may. Is it possible to get the blanks either 1" or 3/4" square? The blanks I have received are quite often irregular shaped which makes it sometimes difficult to put them in a chuck for drilling.
 
ANYTHING is possible.

We currently are using the readily available molds. They yield a blank that is .95-1.1" "deep". We then cut them very close to 1" wide--3 out of the mold, which is 6" long.

The resulting blank is very close to one inch square and 6" long. Now, I could cut that down to 5" before we ship.

At 6", they have to lay flat in the small flat rate box, meaning we get 5 high. We can also put a couple imported blanks in the same box, since they are 5" long (stand upright). A couple kits can fit, in the half inch between the blanks and the box wall.

IF we made them 5" (another cut, would not lower cost of production) but it would allow more blanks (about 9) per small flat rate box.

We have discussed a 3/4" blank, as well. This would allow more blanks in a box (about 20). But they could not be "fat", they would have to be pretty exact (the inside of the box is 1.5", not larger) ---which means having molds made.

So, that's another aspect of the question. A full inch or an honest 3/4"???
 
ed4copies said:
So, that's another aspect of the question. A full inch or an honest 3/4"???
Click to expand...

Ed...

Thanks for asking the question. The cost of shipping is always a factor when ordering from a supplier in the US. For the majority of the pens I make an honest 3/4 x 5 inches would be ok. This would effectively allow me to double my order of blanks at the same shipping cost.

Wade
 
Flat rate box

ed4copies said:
A comment made by a Canadian got me to wondering: What size pen blanks would you LIKE to be able to purchase??? We send a fair amount of Dawn's resin over the border. Each blank is 6" long and weighs 4 oz. They are also very close to an inch square.

You will "turn off" a bunch. But this also limits what we can get into a small flat rate box.

Please comment on what size you would LIKE to have? One suggestion I might "put out there": The blanks could be just under 5".

The box is 5 x 8.5 x 1.5 inches for reference.

We are looking for ideas for next year---here's your chance to "weigh in" (pun intended--I like puns!!)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

SFRB is 5 3/8 X 8 5/8 X 1 5/8 Weight limit 4 pounds.
 
3/4 x 5 is good for 99 % of my turning. I order often from suppliers from the US and i get 20 blanks in a SFRB on a regular basis.

To be honest, this has an implact on my choice of supplier.

Altough the cost of the blank is the same most of the time, that's over $10 saving on shipping compare to ordering 1" x 6" blanks. It's like having a couple of free blanks :) , plus less shaving, plus less turning, plus less shelf space for storage ....
 
Ed, as a hobby turner I too would be 99.999% happy with blanks that are 3/4" x 3/4" x 5". If there is something that I need a larger blank for I usually find someone who has it and I pay the extra shipping for it. IMHO the biggest problem with shipping to Canada is getting UPS involved. They think that shipping to Canada is a licence to steal.
 
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