Checking Gemstones
A sign in my dentist office reads “You don’t have to brush and floss all your teeth. Only the ones you want to keep!
The same applies to take-ins. You don’t have to check every stone. Just the ones you don’t want to replace!
Brad
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« March 2008 | Main | June 2008 »
May 2008
May 30, 2008
May 28, 2008
Jewelers Tool Maintenance
Time allowed for shop maintenance is always time well spent. Keeping cheaper tools in top condition is better then having expensive tools out of adjustment and poorly maintained.
Brad
May 26, 2008
Gold Dust
Do not let gold dust walk out of your shop – sweep the floor of the shop daily and mop monthly. Dump the dirty water from mopping in a sink with a gold trap in the drain. Never dump the water in the toilet or other drain without a trap designed to accumulate scrap material.
Brad
May 23, 2008
Jewelry Repair Estimates
Always give the customer an estimate of routine repair work when the jewelry is left, allowing the customer to decide whether or not to have the repair done before you begin doing it. If the price is too high, you can work with the customer to modify the amount of work to be done until it meets her budget.
Often you encounter problems over price, because the customer did not know how much the repair would cost. When they pick-up the finished repair, they complain about the cost. At this point, the work is finished and you can do little about it. Giving estimates at Take-In eliminates this.
Brad
May 21, 2008
Gravers
Have two or three gravers of the size you use most often. If one is dull, use another one. When all are dull, sharpen them at the same time. Sharpening three gravers at the same time takes less time than sharpening one graver three separate times. Also if a tip breaks or dulls in the middle of a job, you can finish the job and sharpen when finished. This saves time from having to keep stopping to sharpen a graver.
BradMay 19, 2008
Shop Cleanliness
A dirty shop affects profits, because of the high value of the metal that is lost. Small pieces of gold on the floor from filing, buffing, and other operations in the shop, cling to the bottom of shoes. If the floor is not swept regularly, the gold literally walks out the door of the shop. If not collected at the source, gold dust is spread around the shop. It is then carried out of the shop on workers hands, clothes, and shoes.
Brad
May 16, 2008
Customers Jewelry
Be careful when placing jewelry in envelopes. Often jewelry is damaged further while stored in the envelopes. Do not force envelopes into a box for storage. This may bend or dent the jewelry.
Brad
May 14, 2008
Lap Tray
Always use your lap tray to collect metal filings and save these filings in a container to send to a refiner. Some refiners will supply you with a plastic jar with a screw top lid for these sweeps. Any type of container with a wide mouth top may be used; an old coffee can with a plastic lid works well.
BradMay 12, 2008
Plan Your Work
Plan your work and work your plan. If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.
These are well-worn phrases about planning your work to accomplish more. They have been widely used, because they are true. One minute spent in planning saves several minutes in execution.
Brad
Group similar jobs together. Any jeweler can work two to three times faster, if they work on similar work together, i.e. all sizings together, all chains together, all re-tipping together etc
May 09, 2008
An Organized Bench
An organized bench WILL NOT LET YOU DO BETTER WORK!
It will however let you do work more efficiently. Every minute looking for a tool to use is 60 seconds not working.
To maximize productivity it is important to have an organized bench. A cluttered, disorganized bench is an unproductive bench. The time you spend looking for a tool or piece of jewelry to work on, is time spent not working.
An organized bench may very well be a bench full of tools and jobs. However, those tools are organized in a manner that when you need a tool you can reach for it without stopping your work.
Your bench is not properly organized, if you can not reach without looking and pick up a tool that you use everyday, or find a tool that you use less often in the first place you look. To say your bench is messy because you are busy or creative, are just excuses for not putting the tool away when you are finished with it, or not taking the time to organize your jobs and tools. Every minute you spend organizing your jobs and keeping your bench straight is multiplied in time saved doing the work.
Brad
