Offcuts

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valpendleton
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Offcuts

Post by valpendleton »

Good morning fellow framers. We seem to have a constant pile of mountboard, backboard & glass offcuts. What size do you lot consider ' bin-able' ? Maybe we're just keeping bits that are too small & will never really get used. You'd think after over 30 years framing, we'd know the answer ourselves!
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prospero
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Re: Offcuts

Post by prospero »

If you chuck it out, you will want it the next day. :lol:
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Jonny2morsos
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Re: Offcuts

Post by Jonny2morsos »

Hate binning stuff because I always think what it costs to buy but probably you have to accept there is a built in wastage factor in your pricing.

As regards size I think it depends on your business. If you have a market for small ready mades then anything over 8 x 10 ins is probably worth keeping and once a month make up a batch but bin the remaining stuff.

Moulding is more of a concern to me and I am finding customers tastes are more varied now than ever so find I have a lot of part lengths of moulding lying around.
valpendleton
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Re: Offcuts

Post by valpendleton »

We buy in small readymades these days...easier on the old backs & knees ! This is probably why we have more of an offcut problem. Thanks for your responses guys !
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Re: Offcuts

Post by Roboframer »

Glass and board A4 or less gets tossed, unless maybe we've got a load of mount board offcuts the same size then we'll bag them up in 5s or 10s and flog them. Small fall outs from cig cards etc get used as price tags - or sold in bags - and they always sell quick - heaven knows for what use.

Long skinny offcuts of glass 8" wide or so also get tossed - even UV and AR, unless there's an immediate use for it.

Long skinny offcuts of mountboard same sort of width also get tossed, but not until we've peeled the surface paper off.

Our default backing board is 5mm artcare foam board and again A4 or less is tossed but the skinny offcuts are kept for many uses, e.g. making things flush, glass spacers and for bevelling and wrapping with surface papers mentioned above.
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Re: Offcuts

Post by Not your average framer »

I have racks for cut to size off-cuts. When the rack for any particular size is full, then anything else that size goes straight into the refuse bin. As for mouldings, I prefer to buy in particular mouldings to make ready made frames, so most of my left-overs are given to a friend and he burns them in his wood burner.

We are having a massive move around and sorting out of which mouldings we will be stocking in future and another framer will be taking away the mouldings which won't be on our future stock list. I don't see any big advantage in keeping too many left-overs, after all there are not enough hours in the day and there is a limit to how many ready made frames you can display and sell.

There will always be more off-cuts than you can ever make worthwhile use of. That's just how it is! :(
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IFGL
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Re: Offcuts

Post by IFGL »

We make all our frames first and then glaze and back the whole batch, starting by arranging the tickets into groups of the various glass types, then arranged from largest to smallest, by the time we get to the last few small frames the off cuts are gone.
All strips of glass 7" or wider are used, we do not have any ready mades or standard sizes.

In fact we make the frames the same way too, arranged into batches of the same frame type, then cut largest first, smaller frames are made from the smaller bits off cuts are not a problem.

If there happens to be a off cut it is handi wrapped to a full length an used when we next have that moulding on.

Same rules with the cmc big first and in batches of the same colour.

This works well for us, each part of the frame is completed by a different person, our pricing/visualization program prints out a job ticket comprising of a separate mount report and frame report, each ticket goes into a separate ticket holder and picked up by the relevant operator, that ticket is then goes with its mount or frame.
Sounds complicated, but is actually very efficient, if I did not work this way I would need at least 1 more full time staff possibly 2.
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