iSign
New Member
I'm copying this post from elsewhere, so maybe some have seen it this morning, but for the rest of my cyber peers...
...it's been quite a year so far. Last fall, another unit became available in the commercial warehouse I've been leasing space in for 11 years. It was 3 units away from my existing shop, & had 10' ceilings instead of 24' ceilings, due to the front of the building being 2 story. But, at least it was in the same building & represented a chance to follow through with my plans.
I had been wanting to expand for several years, and twice my next door neighbor had even given notice of terminating his lease, at which time I was notified by my landlord, & had already signed papers when they decided not to move.
Once I secured the second space, I booked my trip to Dan's Sawatzky's Router Magic Workshop, and began my research of Router choices, and software choices. I had met Cody (Columbia Signs here), and knew he would be attending the February workshop too, so I spoke to him about my desire to evaluate router & software options. He owns a Multicam, running on Enroute software, just as Dan does. He spoke highly of both products and the access to service behind both products, as Dan does again. Cody also reassured me I could always turn to him with questions, in addition to the manufacturers own support systems. He also told me he felt Dan would be an accessible source for information among the other sources, and from several years of reading his posts, I of course knew this to be quite true from all the evidence I've seen.
Basically the decision was made before I even saw those 2 products in use at Dan's shop. In fact I had Enroute installed on my laptop at the workshop, just in case that would help get the most out of the time spent there, and I had a quote in hand, from Multicam. The workshop was an amazing step in my journey & served many many purposes in helping me chart my course for this year and beyond, but it also easily confirmed my equipment & software decisions were right for me.
After I returned from Dan's,I succesfully negotiated with my neighbor, to trade down to the smaller unit, relinquishing their conveniently located larger unit to me, for a reasonable payment to offset their existing build-out & increased space they would be sacrificing. As a construction company, I knew they were experiencing a more significant impact in the economic downturn than many other industries around here, and the need to downsize may have been on the horizon anyway. The chance to recover their renovation expenses was an offer they knew would not usually be available upon departure of a commercial lease. that was the selling point that I got their attention with & the deal went down, much to my satisfaction.
In the 4 months since then, I have seemingly spent 25% of my 60 hour(or more) weeks doing renovations & research, trying to put together a puzzle that required many tradesman, multiple machines from several vendors, & a lot of planning and decision making from me, based on a limited amount of related knowledge and experience. It has been quite a ride! An expensive one too!
Well, I need to wrap this post up for this morning, because the moment of truth is on the horizon. Today I have some air compressor lines to run, some cat-5 connections to complete, & some last minute clean-up and organization to do before the big day. My electrician just got lights and outlets in the unit last night. The new 100 amp power supply and panel went in a few weeks ago & the last walls were closed up & painted this past week.
Monday is the big day! My container arrives on a barge from Honolulu tommorrow, after it's long slow voyage across the Pacific. My shop will be ready & I have a qualified rigger in place to offload the Aireworks dust collection system, the 20HP vacuum pump, and of course, the new 5x10 Multicam.
Once they position the router and DC on the first floor, and the pump on the second floor, my electrician will hardwire everything to dedicated disconnect boxes, and I will close up the 4'x8' hole I left in my ceiling for the 80 gal. compressor, which is up there already & the pump.
The Multicam tech arrives one week later, for the standard 3 full days of set-up and training, plus the one extra day I purchased to make the most of the rare event of having an expert technician out here in the middle of the Pacific.
Before I head off to enjoy another weekend of persuing my entrepreneurial dreams, I'll close this post with a few photos. Below is a before and after shot from the new roll-up door.
The "before" shot was posted here a while back, and shows the new insulated back wall & half the left wall. The wall at the right divides a new 120 sq. ft. office from the shop area. That sheetrock was removed & replaced to add insulation for soundproofing.
The "after" shot, taken last night, shows my new insulated ceiling & shop lights, as well as the completed walls. As mentioned earlier, the opening in the ceiling will be closed up, since I have a staircase in my older unit already.
I'm sure it doesn't look like all that much in the photo, but this was a lengthy process & it is a relief to be this close to the end of this chapter & the beginning of the next, even more challenging & rewarding chapter.
The last pic shows the goldmine at the back corner of the new shop, where the real dreams will start being realized soon!
...it's been quite a year so far. Last fall, another unit became available in the commercial warehouse I've been leasing space in for 11 years. It was 3 units away from my existing shop, & had 10' ceilings instead of 24' ceilings, due to the front of the building being 2 story. But, at least it was in the same building & represented a chance to follow through with my plans.
I had been wanting to expand for several years, and twice my next door neighbor had even given notice of terminating his lease, at which time I was notified by my landlord, & had already signed papers when they decided not to move.
Once I secured the second space, I booked my trip to Dan's Sawatzky's Router Magic Workshop, and began my research of Router choices, and software choices. I had met Cody (Columbia Signs here), and knew he would be attending the February workshop too, so I spoke to him about my desire to evaluate router & software options. He owns a Multicam, running on Enroute software, just as Dan does. He spoke highly of both products and the access to service behind both products, as Dan does again. Cody also reassured me I could always turn to him with questions, in addition to the manufacturers own support systems. He also told me he felt Dan would be an accessible source for information among the other sources, and from several years of reading his posts, I of course knew this to be quite true from all the evidence I've seen.
Basically the decision was made before I even saw those 2 products in use at Dan's shop. In fact I had Enroute installed on my laptop at the workshop, just in case that would help get the most out of the time spent there, and I had a quote in hand, from Multicam. The workshop was an amazing step in my journey & served many many purposes in helping me chart my course for this year and beyond, but it also easily confirmed my equipment & software decisions were right for me.
After I returned from Dan's,I succesfully negotiated with my neighbor, to trade down to the smaller unit, relinquishing their conveniently located larger unit to me, for a reasonable payment to offset their existing build-out & increased space they would be sacrificing. As a construction company, I knew they were experiencing a more significant impact in the economic downturn than many other industries around here, and the need to downsize may have been on the horizon anyway. The chance to recover their renovation expenses was an offer they knew would not usually be available upon departure of a commercial lease. that was the selling point that I got their attention with & the deal went down, much to my satisfaction.
In the 4 months since then, I have seemingly spent 25% of my 60 hour(or more) weeks doing renovations & research, trying to put together a puzzle that required many tradesman, multiple machines from several vendors, & a lot of planning and decision making from me, based on a limited amount of related knowledge and experience. It has been quite a ride! An expensive one too!
Well, I need to wrap this post up for this morning, because the moment of truth is on the horizon. Today I have some air compressor lines to run, some cat-5 connections to complete, & some last minute clean-up and organization to do before the big day. My electrician just got lights and outlets in the unit last night. The new 100 amp power supply and panel went in a few weeks ago & the last walls were closed up & painted this past week.
Monday is the big day! My container arrives on a barge from Honolulu tommorrow, after it's long slow voyage across the Pacific. My shop will be ready & I have a qualified rigger in place to offload the Aireworks dust collection system, the 20HP vacuum pump, and of course, the new 5x10 Multicam.
Once they position the router and DC on the first floor, and the pump on the second floor, my electrician will hardwire everything to dedicated disconnect boxes, and I will close up the 4'x8' hole I left in my ceiling for the 80 gal. compressor, which is up there already & the pump.
The Multicam tech arrives one week later, for the standard 3 full days of set-up and training, plus the one extra day I purchased to make the most of the rare event of having an expert technician out here in the middle of the Pacific.
Before I head off to enjoy another weekend of persuing my entrepreneurial dreams, I'll close this post with a few photos. Below is a before and after shot from the new roll-up door.
The "before" shot was posted here a while back, and shows the new insulated back wall & half the left wall. The wall at the right divides a new 120 sq. ft. office from the shop area. That sheetrock was removed & replaced to add insulation for soundproofing.
The "after" shot, taken last night, shows my new insulated ceiling & shop lights, as well as the completed walls. As mentioned earlier, the opening in the ceiling will be closed up, since I have a staircase in my older unit already.
I'm sure it doesn't look like all that much in the photo, but this was a lengthy process & it is a relief to be this close to the end of this chapter & the beginning of the next, even more challenging & rewarding chapter.
The last pic shows the goldmine at the back corner of the new shop, where the real dreams will start being realized soon!
)
