We say that we have a two person shop. It’s really a one person shop (Mike) that does most of the outside work. Mike designs pieces and cuts them out on the CNC plasma machine. He grinds the surface of the piece, applies patinas, and clear coats the finished product. Pat does some patina work but is mainly responsible for the inside work – product photography, invoicing and shipping, the books, website, and social media.
Grinding steel is an important part of preparing the steel to accept the patinas in a certain way. Mike is working with a grinder that is spinning at a high rate of speed to polish the steel before the patina process. He wears gloves, leather apron, and safety glasses. But sometimes things happen. This time the grinder kicked back in a split second – so fast in fact, that you can’t really tell what happened.
Grinder versus finger – grinder wins…
Thus the dilemma of a small business and a two person shop. You don’t have extra staffing to pick up the slack. And your wife doesn’t feel comfortable working with a grinder (especially seeing the end result of what it can do!). Production has to be shut down for several days until the stitches are out, and you can comfortably start working again. Any requests for new products must wait in the queue until Mike’s back in the shop.
Thanks for your understanding and patience as we “take a few days off”.