Discontinued Pandora Kit from Purple-Days

New developments in our ongoing quest for the best.

We are always looking at ways to improve.

In an effort to speed production of Purple-Days and to keep some of the dust out of the Shop we have been using our local Laser and Wood man to do some turning for us. I give them a sample shape and they should be able to follow the simple shape. But seems they don't pay much attention and way too many of their efforts (that I have paid for) have gone in the PD trash can. Getting truncated cones and beer barrel shapes back is not the Purple-Days way and I won't sell seconds.

We are looking at new woods, Myrtlewood and Western Maple from this area. Getting a crazy quote from our (former) Laser and Wood man, sent us looking. First stop, the fellow up the road with a Laser and a Wood Shop, he's just up the road and has a nice retail shop out front on 101 and a very nice well lit shop out back.

I walked into the shop from a pouring rain with a little white box. Introduced myself and asked if they were working at full capacity. I think at first (of course) he thought I wanted a job. No, then I think he thought I was gonna try to sell something. No, I'm here to give you business.

Ahh, we got got down to tacks. They have Myrtlewood, they have Western Maple and we started talkiig wood. This fellow is knowledgeable and creative too. Quite proud of his shop, his workers and the quality of their work, "second to none.", he said. And that's what we want. Funny, he looked at the laser logo on my sample and commented that it wasn't a very good laser job, this was before we got too far into the discussion. I knew this was the guy! We see eye to eye, and I can't say that about everyone I meet.

Cool, that's good to hear Tom!

Not to tread on your vision, but maybe the reject bodies could find another life as tube holders like past unusable bodies?

EDIT: er, not to sell or anything, as prizes or something. Although I guess if they're not really living up to your standards it might not be appropriate to do so

This sounds like very good news Tom. A little variety ahead, and another passionate party. Exciting and promising, congrads.

Having worked with wood for 45 years or more I know there is a certain amount of waste (lots). I hate to see it, but accept it. And accept a certain amount of 'slip ups', I'm not unreasonable. But at some point you know it's time to find a better partner.

Our new fellow makes products for over 150 shops, even wooden jewelery. He showed me some catalogs and wanted to show me more, but we were on the way to a Doctor's appointment, so I will get to know more as we go along. I did get a look at some 3" x 3" material fresh out of the kiln, nice Myrtlewood.

I really like keeping the money local. But if the local doesn't appreciate it, a few miles up the road is is local enough.

ps. no more Billy-Bowls for now. We will see what is available.

Yesterday I was pissed off enough to look at getting our own laser... maybe someday...
Built by
John Doe (your name)
in laser script??? Just above the power jack?

New Leather arrives May 5. Cinco !

pps, Fresh Alder and lots more Walnut arrived yesterday, all top notch. A littlke Cherry to hold us over they they get a big shipment in a few days. They come to us in waterproof wrap, good thing around here.

that is great for all parties involved. I am assuming my myrtlewood pandora will come from this new partnership.

I am literally counting the minutes until I get this wonderful piece of art.......

thanks for taking so much pride in what you do. It is great to deal with people who care.

Yes, all Myrtlewood and Western Maple will come from our new partner (sub-contractor). All Cherry , Alder, Ash and Walnut (woods) will continue to come from our 'Mom and Pop' Idaho source. Most wood will be turned 'up the street' but I like wood turning and will continue to do some units and other products on the horizon. But having a 'turner' frees me up for other work, so more folks can enjoy our product, and it cannot affect quality of the end product.

I think that it is really cool that mine will be entirely done locally (oregon).

I too own my business and I can appreciate how difficult it is to have to get help as you grow. It is a necessary evil but is difficult to let go especially when you are so passionate about your product.

I often want to do everything myself. I am guessing you have had similar thoughts. you cannot continue to do that and satisfy all the people wanting your product.

congrats. this should help you to grow your business while still maintaining the integrity of your product.

tom,
question # 1,000,000. I have read in the myrtlezap threads about that unit not running hot enough for some people. do you think this is because of the internal heating unit or do you think this might be a function of the wood itself? Do you think this could be an issue with the pandora or do you think your heating mechanism will take care of this issue?

This was just discussed in this thread a couple of pages back....

Short answer no. There is no need to run a higher voltage adapter to get it hotter. The pd heatexchanger does just fine as is. If you want toms answer read the thread

the ob said:

tom,
question # 1,000,000. I have read in the myrtlezap threads about that unit not running hot enough for some people. do you think this is because of the internal heating unit or do you think this might be a function of the wood itself? Do you think this could be an issue with the pandora or do you think your heating mechanism will take care of this issue?

Click to expand...

See post #356

I have been reading the thread. I still was just a little unclear. Tom was mostly addressing the charger type that people were using. I was wondering about the difference in the internal components. thanks for the help though.... No more dumb questions. until tomorrow.

I am indeed sorry if this question has been asked before. I did skim the PD threads but there are a million and a half pages, so I may have missed it.

Is there a material that could be used in lieu of leather for the base? In other words, a veggie-friendly PD? If not, could human skin be used? That last question was a joke.

The PDs are so beautiful, but the leather is what's holding me back. It would be nice to know I could get one to suit me perfectly.

i belief there was some vegan line in the past don't know precisely what they used butt i read something bout it somewhere

Yeah they use to have a vegan one and it just didn't have leather on it so you could see the plug. I'm pretty sure they stopped doin that though. You could just leave the leather off if you wanted I suppose.

Just use a a piece of felt or something, should be no problem.
If you build a pandora you can easily make that small mod.

I think There was a version with a hardwood plug in the bottom, but that version was discontinued because of the extra work time required to make a nice finish (maybe it was some other problem don't remember)

Another alternative, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_leather#Vegan_leather

EDIT: Linoleum would be a very suitable material, I think so too. Cheap, easy to work with, durable, easy to clean, lots of different colours and designs, all plant material and minerals. maybe a bit plastic looking?

Thanks for the info, people. The hardwood plug would be my first choice, but if they don't do that anymore I would have to have it made elsewhere, which might get tricky. And i know about artificial leather-- have an awesome pair of veggie leather shoes-- but I was thinking of less synthetic materials. Felt would be fine, though not ideal. Would any plant-based fabric work, such as cotton canvas?

cork would be nice i think or linoleum would be super

woven hemp

I think cork would be awesome. It wouldn't hold up as well but it's not like cork board isn't cheap...

Denim?

Yes yes yes, all awesome ideas. Nice. Now I want a PD even more. I wonder what I would choose...although I feel like a bit of an idiot because I realized that there's already the plywood disk--I was thinking the leather was protective or covered something besides more wood. So yeah, it would be easy to do sans leather.

The leather is protective. It can be cleaned like a shoe sole. It can stand up to a little water after using a leather protector such as Buzz-Butter. Bare wood seems a bad choice. It also covers the plywood and body joint. The plywood is Birch and will not match the body, so some sort of covering is needed, IMO. Some of the above suggestions are interesting. The cork may be the neatest option. If it gets dirty or damaged just scape it off, sand a little and glue on some more. A bit of protection without leather.

Aha, thanks for that tip, Tom. Another thing, I'm sure the leather helps hold the PD in place on a surface, something that a fabric like denim, hemp, canvas etc wouldn't do. I could always add little grabby rubber feet, but I feel that would detract a bit from the lovely smoothness of it all. Cork would work well in that respect. Aesthetically I would rather the fabric, but hey, we are talking about the bottom here.

The fabric store here has bolts of transparent neon vinyl. Not sure what the chemical issues might be, but that'd be neat to see on the bottom of a PD.

i just ordered the Myrtlewood pandora i'm so stoked can't wait to get it and start building