Quanity question.

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AceMrFixIt

AceMrFixIt

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We are making an imaginary business for a college class. We decided to make pens. I know most of you are one person operations, but how many pens do you thing you could make a month? This would be a full time job. 40 hours a week. Thanks for any input.
 
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Rick, sure you could make pens a full time job, but not only the making but the marketing, the traveling to and from your venue of selling. If your method of selling is having retail stores as your outlet then you will spend part of your 40 hour week looking for retail stores to sell to and visiting your stores that are carrying your pens. If your going to use art and craft shows I can from personnel experience tell you 40 hours a week at times is no where enough.
 
Roy he's doing a hypothetical project for class.

If they were nice custom pens, figure 25-50 per day if done in assembly line fashion with unlimited materials.

For true production work where you would be regretting your life inside an hour, 100 per day is possible but wouldn't be fun.

Heck neither scenario would be fun for long.
 
I made 8, pens, all the same kind kind in 4-hours this weekend. So if my job was just pen making and not dealing with all of the things OK-man pointed out, I could make 80 pens a week.
 
Screw all of that, doing this as a full time job would take all of the pleasure out of it. Dont get me wrong, I love making the money, but I really feel like my quote below applies to this type of situation. And in the case of a full time job, you would have massive pressure to fulfill the number of pens these businesses want and I think that would really put a damper on the love for the job.

But as far as your question is concerned, there are a lot of variables that ultimately affect the number you could turn in one day. I would say with proper organization, I could knock out around 10 per day (working somewhere around 12 hrs max per day) 5 days a week would total 50 per week. Just my .02
 
Just a quick walk through.

Use a Sierra kit. Only one tube, quick and easy to make.

1) cut a bunch of blanks to approx. length.
2) drill blanks
3) glue in tubes
4) mill ends
5) turn
6) finish

If you can't do 100 of 1 and 2 inside of an hour, something is wrong. glue up may take another hour, and by the time you get to the last, the first should be ready to mill. Milling another hour tops. Turning with a carbide tipped tool can go pretty quick. And finishing with friction finish is very quick.

So I really think 100 per day per person is possible. If done on the quick and easy path, not necessarily quality.
 
Well, this may help.

When we did a lot of shows, I was good and FAST. On Thanksgiving, every year I knew I needed as many pens as I could make with about 25 show days left in the season, and 5 production days (part time).

So, on Thanksgiving, I would get into the shop about 8 am and turn until 10 pm. Did 40 cigar pens, pretty regularly. Blew up a couple that didn't get counted. ALL were resin, polished by Beall system, turned as fast as I could turn them. Started the day with the tubes already glued in and fully ready to face, turn, and mount on hardware.

Hope this helps,
 
50 per day is a real stretch for me, I've done it in 12+ hour days, but really too much for day after day. I mostly make resin pens, all with painted tubes or painted drilled holes, CA on the few that are wood, buffing on all of them.

I can make 8-10 pen per hour of lathe time, all the rest it prep, finishing and assembly. I think of the lathe time with cutting tool in hand as a little less than half of the total time.

You head count for worker assignment seems out of balance, 3 making pens and 3 selling would be a better balance.
 
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Wow

36 seconds on average to drill a two inch long hole -- not with my drill press. And 36 seconds on average to cut to length? That's easier but if you're operating the saw manually it might be a little dangerous.
I think you are either one darned hard worker or an optimist.

Russianwolf said:
Just a quick walk through.

Use a Sierra kit. Only one tube, quick and easy to make.

1) cut a bunch of blanks to approx. length.
2) drill blanks
3) glue in tubes
4) mill ends
5) turn
6) finish

If you can't do 100 of 1 and 2 inside of an hour, something is wrong. glue up may take another hour, and by the time you get to the last, the first should be ready to mill. Milling another hour tops. Turning with a carbide tipped tool can go pretty quick. And finishing with friction finish is very quick.

So I really think 100 per day per person is possible. If done on the quick and easy path, not necessarily quality.
Click to expand...
 
Have a go

Define your variables.

It is impossible to tell without knowing. Starting with blanks or boards?
Can you use precut and predrilled blanks, higher acquisition cost but lower labor costs....and on and on
 
Thanks for the comments. Its not to involved. I figured 1000 per month for 5 guys, $45 avg selling price and $15 cost per pen. Am I way off base with that??
 
Doing one complete pen at a time you are likely right, but I work in batches and use stops and other shortcuts. Work smarter, not harder. I wouldn't try to do prodction drilling on the lathe, it'd have to be the drill press. Time is more expensive than any tool in my shop.

Smitty37 said:
36 seconds on average to drill a two inch long hole -- not with my drill press. And 36 seconds on average to cut to length? That's easier but if you're operating the saw manually it might be a little dangerous.
I think you are either one darned hard worker or an optimist.

Russianwolf said:
Just a quick walk through.

Use a Sierra kit. Only one tube, quick and easy to make.

1) cut a bunch of blanks to approx. length.
2) drill blanks
3) glue in tubes
4) mill ends
5) turn
6) finish

If you can't do 100 of 1 and 2 inside of an hour, something is wrong. glue up may take another hour, and by the time you get to the last, the first should be ready to mill. Milling another hour tops. Turning with a carbide tipped tool can go pretty quick. And finishing with friction finish is very quick.

So I really think 100 per day per person is possible. If done on the quick and easy path, not necessarily quality.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Sorry I think the cold has frozen my brain cells and my answer wasn't to the question asked. So here goes...
Depending on the components used, two piece higher end one person in 8 hours should be able to do a good job on one per hour, that includes cutting the blank, drilling each blank, turning each blank , putting a good finish on and then assemble = 8 pens a day.
Doing the same on a one piece unit you would think half the time spent on each pen but in reality you would spend 3/4 hour on each so maybe you'll get 12 pens a day.

Now if your not concerned with quality but only quantity you can double that, the fittings might be a little bit off the finish might be a little wavy.
 
AceMrFixIt said:
We are making an imaginary business for a college class. We decided to make pens. I know most of you are one person operations, but how many pens do you thing you could make a month? This would be a full time job. 40 hours a week. Thanks for any input.
Click to expand...
Four hundred Slimlines a month.
 
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