[Jewelry making - Article 00181] - Re: [Orchid] Rubber Mold Storage

[John Donivan]

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Theresa..

>     I'd love to get some Orchidian ideas on clever ways to store
>     rubber molds. 

    Even though we have a fairly good system, I'm curious to hear some
    answers, too. We probably have somewhere around 3,000 molds, give or
    take, 1/3 of which will never be used again, but we still have them.
    1st: Have a good numbering system and use it - do NOT use names to
    describe your line. If you want to cross reference numbers to names
    elsewhere, that's fine. If you can divide your line into categories,
    then do that- rings, pendants, etc., and even floral rings, classic
    rings, animal rings, or whatever. So, floral rings might be 100
    series, geometric 300 series, etc, and leave room for growth. Some
    numbers I have here are E197P, W197P, G197P, E156TT, E311/2, W302PFF,
    E1001/2B, and F335/9/9B. E is engagement, W is Wedding ("Wed"), and G
    is Gents. P is plain - no stones, TT is two-tone, meaning two rings
    are cast, split, and soldered together. /2 means 2 diamonds, /2B
    means 2 baguettes, F is fancy (not bridal), FF is form-fit. All of
    this allows you to put them into some container by numerical order
    and go right to it as needed. You might have a E146P, an E146/2, and
    an E146TT, and there they'll be. Mark the number so you can read it
    when it's standing up - on the other short end opposite the sprue. As
    much as possible, standardize your mold frame - if the model is too
    big, that's just the breaks, use a large frame. If it's too small,
    use the standard frame anyway, just for the sake of standardization
    and storage. As to what to put them in, we are fortunate in having
    two large ancient storage cabinets that used to hold addresses for an
    addressing machine - embossed metal stamps. Good luck finding that -
    like I said, we're fortunate that way. For overrun we have some small
    drawers from somewhere. Eventually if you accumulate a lot of molds
    you'll have to build or work up some storage system - for now, maybe
    the Container Store? It's pretty easy to use some existing thing to
    store 50 or 100 molds - when you get over 500 or 1000 and more,
    you're going to have to build, I'm afraid. If someone has found a
    ready-made thing for that I would like to hear it, too. 

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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