Wood-N-Whimsies Newsletter

Phone: 800-820-1099

AUG 2011

Hello

Not a lot going on this month, It's just too hot. Here in Monett, MO we have hit 108 and 109 degrees for several days in a row. Needless to say, working outside in the shop has been torturous.

There are a couple of items we have run short on and a few more which we

Dink says, "Thank goodness for the ankle strap on these smacky surfin boards, I plum near lost er that time".

will run out of soon. This is a hard time of year to know how sales will go. We do have the 7mm precut Slimline tubes back in stock. We are placing another order for merchandise with the manufacturer soon but the orders usually take three to five months to receive from the time we initially place them. Once we place the order and pay for it, we do not get to change our mind.

We are not a wholesale supplier. We have customers especially overseas who order kits by the hundreds and even thousands. For these orders we usually have to refund them and ask them if they are willing to wait six months to fill the order. If not then we suggest ordering from PSI or Craft Supplies USA.

If you are one of these mega order customers and need something in a large quantity please let us know soon. Tracey will be placing an order to stock us up for the Christmas season. You will be required to pay for your order up front as we have to pay for everything we order up front. There will be no refund or stock exchange on your order if you change your mind. What you order is what you will get. Your items will be sent to you FOB when we receive the shipment from the forwarder. The Forwarder is the company who handles all the logistics for the order to get it to us from the manufacturer. They charge us a fee to handle all the shipping and the mounds of paperwork required by US Customs.

We are given estimated delivery dates which usually do not go as predicted. Since we do not order enough to fill an entire container, 100% of our orders are pulled for inspection by US Customs. Sometimes they move the shipment in a day or even a few minutes and sometimes they sit on it for two weeks.

We have been working on a new climate controlled workshop, pictured above, and hope to get some good use from it soon. Finding time and money to work on it are two things in short supply. The 24 X 30 foot room is inside our metal building and is completely insulated. Tracey will not have to freeze her fingers off this winter to turn her blanks to make the inlays. We have a long way to go but hopefully will be finished soon.

Tracey's Two Cents Worth:

If you bookmark our website or add it to your favorites and don't have your web browser set to automatically refresh the page every time you open the bookmark/favorite then you need to do so manually. We've had several instances lately of folks who were not aware of this and they order items we have listed as out of stock, don't even have on our site anymore or if it's a PSI item, probably a price increase. Since they have an old snap shot they are seeing old information. This can cause frustration on our customers part and we feel bad when we have to contact them to explain the situation of not having something or why they owe additional funds. So remember to refresh your saved bookmarks/favorites if you don't have your system set up to do so automatically (which by the way, is the best option).

What's On Sale This Month

For Our Newsletter subscribers we are offering 15% off of 24 Pen Portfolios.
Use Code: PEN24 in the Coupon Code section during checkout.
____________

Pink Ivory Pen Blanks $2.29 each
___________

Kingwood Pen Blanks
$1.50 each
___________

Olivewood Pen Blanks
$2.60 each
___________

Coffee Bean Pen Blanks (Either Finish)
$7.60 each
____________

Military Ribbon Inlay Blanks
$15.00 each
_____________

Adirondack Alcohol Ink
$3.19 each
____________
Purchase 10+ of Our Secret Compartment Key Chain Kits
(SECRET3 and/or SECRET5) and get a FREE set of Bushings.

30+ gets a FREE set of Bushings, FREE Drill Bit, PLUS 2 Free Blanks from our $0.95 list (Wood will be Selected Randomly based on availability)

DO NOT ADD these items to your Shopping Cart or the system will charge your for them. We will manually add the bonus to your order.
______________
Click "HERE" to go to our Speicals Page

TECH TALK

Why did you send me tips that don't fit? We have customers every week who order the rose gold (fancy smacky words for 90% or better copper)
30 Cal tips, item number PKCPTIPR. These are not tips which you can press into a 7mm tube. The tips have internal threads which screw onto a tip coupler on the PSI Woodworking faux/replica cartridge pen kit.

We do have customers who use these tips with their own proprietary cartridge pen design. I do not know how they do it; I suppose they make their own coupler. In any case, these folks are able to think outside the box just a bit further than the average bear. Maybe they are using them for fancy fishing weights, who knows.

If you order these tips from us and don't have a clue what to do with them, please send them back for a refund. We will be happy to make things right for you. If however you have tried to use them and have damaged them in some way, congratulations, they are yours to keep.

I have sent some rough plans to the manufacturer to make some tips which look like these which you will be able to press in. Like everything else that is new, it will take time to get all the glitches worked out.

Gilbert Barbo sent us an idea for applying a CA finish and it works great. He uses Craft Foam, purchased from Wal-Mart to apply the finish. He cuts the foam into small squares and uses each piece several times on an unused area. The CA will not stick to the foam and allows the glue to spread out very evenly without leaving any bubbles or foam behind. An almost perfect finish from the get go.

After applying the desired number of coats, sand with micromesh for a brilliant finish. Be sure to use a good quality CA glue like Stick Fast. Lower quality brands will cloud, boil, bubble or haze over when the accelerator is sprayed on. Remember to use the accelerator sparingly.

WHAT'S NEW

The Stainless steel wire braided pen blanks are here and are be ready for sale! We also have the Carbon Fiber blanks. Both blanks are available for the Cigar Pen Kit and the Monet Kit. Also in the shipment are some very impressive Polyester Resin Snake Skin replica blanks. They are available in several patterns and colors and are ultra impressive. All of the above already have the tubes in them.

Those of you who use CA glue have noticed that we now carry the glue in all three viscosities in a 4.6 ounce bottle. If you do CA finishes then this is a significant savings at $11.39 per bottle. That's less than $2.50 per ounce and it's good stuff too. We are also carrying an impressive 12.5-oz size of Activator for $10.20. Woo Hoo for us CA finish and Inlay turners!

There are also three new acrylic colors that came in with the same shipment. Candy Nougat, Citrus and here by popular demand is a purple and gold blank. The Citrus blank is a bit more expensive than the Standard Acrylic Blanks so you'll see it listed separately.

COMING SOON

I have been in contact with the manufacturer of the 6" Digital Calipers. They will be shipping any day now.

We will be carrying some other Polyester resin blanks soon with mother of pearl in them. The supplier is also looking into making blanks with multi colored braided Kevlar hose shielding. I am looking forward to seeing the different color combinations they come up with.

Unfortunately the Inlay blank Tracey has been working on is giving her problems with consistent results. For those of you that have turned any of her Inlays you know she's a stickler on proper fit and this one is not cooperating. It's a matter of will now and I am confident she'll get the result she wants and you'll love it! She has an every growing list of things she wants to try along with lots of suggestions but really wants to conquer that nemesis she is currently working on.

Thanks for reading and have a great month. We are sorry for the delay but were having some technical problems with the Newsletter program. We think they are now ironed out.

Tim Nicholas