TAT tactics

[Blake McCully]

Hi all,
Our local (? 75 mi away) Woodcraft is hosting a TAT on veterans day weekend. I was thinking that an efficient way to get things prepped is to cut, drill, glue, and square a bunch of blanks prior to the actual TAT. I know that's what SWMBO and I do when we get a new shippment of kits from Ken. Get all the blanks prepped then just turn away.

That's why SWMBO has more pens turned than me. I cut, drill, glue and square the blanks. Then when she turns a group I buff and assemble. It really speeds things up.

Any thoughts on this prictice.

Thanks,

[Dick Parr]

Thats the only way to do it. :D We tied up 5 people all day doing just that during our TAT in Knoxville just to keep up with the turners that showed up. Those 5 would rather have been turning. :p Next time we WILL have everything ready before it starts. This time everyone thought the other person was doing the prep work and it turned out no one was. :eek: We won't make that mistake again. :p

[Aaron Koehl]

It's definitely best to have the blanks glued and prepped before the Turn-a-Thon. It's also really helpful to have someone dedicated to assembly after the pens are turned--I find it really speeds us up by allowing the turners to really crank 'em out without pausing for assembly. (Of course, if you turn 10 or 15, then take all of them over for assembly, that is perceivably a slight speedup)

[Larry Gottlieb]

To prepare for our TAT last month, I cut, drilled ,glued, and squared, about 80 pairs of blanks.Because this was done ahead of time, I was able to use polyurethane glue.I also prepared red,white and blue centerbands That went well.The staff of Woodcraft prepared an additional 20 blanks.

Because some of the turners were new to pens, they were interested in doing the assembly, so we set up a drill press and V block. Some of us were there to give help.

We also had non-turners making pens and this took a lot of lathe time and use of an "instructor".

All of these factors resulted in completion of fewer pens than would have been done with a group of experienced pen turners. However wider participation was a plus.

Larry

[Stuart Johnson]

We also had non-turners making pens and this took a lot of lathe time and use of an "instructor".

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I think the non-turners or in my case non-penturner having the opportunity to actually turn a pen is a big plus. In my case Bill Oliver was my instructor. I'm sure if he had spent the same amount of time turning as he spent talking to me his production would have been greater. But, thanks to Bill and also Mike Mastin for hosting the Curlywoods TAT I have now completed 100 Freedom Project Pens. I found something that will use up scrapes, is enjoyable and above all a wonderful cause.

[Blake McCully]

Thanks all for the resonse. That's the way I would do it, but with a corporate run show, you know.... I have volunteered my services for the TAT and haven't heard from the fellow that is organizing it. I'll give him a call this weekend and touch base with him and give him my/our thoughts.

Thanks again.

[Greg Heppeard]

Blake,
There's plenty of time...I manage one of the stores and we started tubing up blanks about a week before the TAT, no problem when we started to run a little low, we just tubed more and kept turning. We had over a hundred turned that day. I'd start with about 75 blanks tubed up and just keep in mind that at about 20 or so left, it's time to start doing some more. Don't worry about a "corporate run show", all the guys that work there are good ole boys anyway, and I'm sure they will do the best job possible.

[Blake McCully]

Thanks, Greg.
I'll post the results after the event.