Saturday, December 26, 2009

Economies of Scale

As my current marathon effort building several instruments at the same time draws to a conclusion, I've sworn never to repeat the exercise when I finally have a clean slate and I'm ready to begin the next one. As a part-timer, the building process is slow enough as it is and I've found it a little frustrating having to wait so long to enjoy the fruits of my labour when my limited time is divided between so many instruments.


Nevertheless, it's sometimes more efficient to work on a production run of components like these mahogany neck blocks, when preparing bracing stock or dimensioning and slotting the mahogany strips to be used as kerfed linings. The additional time involved isn't hugely significant and it's easier to fabricate them mindlessly with consistent dimensions when jigs are in place or machinery is set up and adjusted appropriately. There's the pleasing illusion of rapid progress to be enjoyed later on too when there's a ready-made stock of components on hand!

Cheers
Pete

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