Saturday 7 June 2008

Packing of our kits for transport,what we do for you and why













We always insure our kits at the owners expense but at our net cost,this applies to all exports and most internal deliveries,which travel by road freight companies.
Once was we used as basic materials as we could,this was based on the premise that customers would not want to pay for packing? Then as our kits began to go further and further,we had some reports of damaged crates and so on,we were lucky that not one kit was affected in any large way.So a review of what we were using and what could be done to effect a better packing standard became the issue,for our crates we moved to steel band strapping,an expensive extra,the tools and two rolls of 16mm wide steel straps,cost over R3600 alone but since this has been used we have had good reports.

We have always tripple wrapped our machined and twice selected timbers,this starts with a basic taped bundle,then a plastic sleeve tube is slipped over the entire bundle,we then add protection with a cover of corrogated cardboard,tape that,then add a second plastic tube cover for good measure,so each pack is safe and probably quite water proof too? Sawn Pine for building stocks is always tanalith treated,this is a copper solution based in water,then vacumed into the pine in an enclave,so the wood is quite damp when we receive it,this is why we never wrap our rough sawn pine,we just bundle and steel strap it as our picture shows.So when you note our packing fee with our kit offer prices,you will understand what we do for the charge you are asked for.

Roy

Kayak cutting and deluxe light plys




We had an order to cut ten off of a kayak designed by Dudley Dix www.dixdsign.com,the kayak is a super light one man boat and is skinned in a light fabric,rather than plywood,so to save weight even further, we used our special Deluxe Light Plys,in a 6mm thickness,its the back bone and bulkheads in this case,our cut bulkhead and frame kit pictured, weighed in at a remarkable 1.75 kgs per boat only,with the stringers in a light wood and supplied by the buyer.

Friday 6 June 2008

Exporting of Boat Kits continues to expand


Romania



Zambia



Hawaii



Washington



Virginia


Pennysvania


North Carolina



Florida



California



Arizona


England

Wales
South Africa (none export)







United States of America



Kenya



Venezuela




Trinidad & Tobago








We have sent our boat kits country wide but also world wide,some days I think it is as easy to send to Honolulu as sending localy,with a recent export order to Kenya,we have now got orders to many different regions of the world,many of which we have sent kits to a number of times.The idea is to grow this blog with a list of flags to the various countries,lets see if we can add yours to our growing list! Remember we can also supply materials only,it does not have to be one of our boat kits. Around the corner,around the world,comes to mind,we have sent five orders to the general Pacific Ocean area to date,this came about via our kits but soon led on to orders for others who were doing boat refits,we supplied the materials required at a lower price than could be found locally .

Roy

Monday 2 June 2008

Thin Plywood for Model Making


Or for any other use you can think of? those of you who are modelers,scale boat and plane builders may be interested to know we can supply thin plywoods.

We have irregular requests to supply decent thin three ply,normally its made from Ockume and is about 1.6mm thick,not bad for a sheet of plywood is it.We have stocked this when it became available,which is not at all often,this suits our requests to supply it,which again,is not very often! The last four sheets we sold came from Bruynzeel Plywoods in Holland,made to a BS1088 marine ply standard and faced with african mahogany of the Khaya (which means house) species it was a really nice ply.

The phone just rang,the caller asks about 1.5mm modelers ply,he was too late by a month I informed him,he tells me he can actually buy it in from another source but a sheet thats as large as a telephone book's cover will cost him all of R300,thats U$39 by the way,now I have heard of expensive but thats way out by my way of thought.

We can supply at much better prices ex factory,which will take about six weeks,better six weeks than not at all? they make what they call a two and a three ply,each lamination having an insert of a super thin strong paper to stabize the construction,the paper is so thin,its not actually visible at all.There is also the option of an exotic species on one face,with eighty species to choose from,I assume one will suit you.We have samples if you can call by to our factory.Ex stock we can offer the 3mm Superform plys,plus range of 1mm thick Flexiveneers that may do what your after?

Roy