Equipment investment
We have been using a Gunnar computerized mat cutter
since the shop opened in 2002. This equipment has
easily paid for itself both in terms of productivity
and quality. The Gunnar is a Swiss-made piece of
equipment and it has never failed us.
But the dependency this has created is not a good
business practice. If this equipment were to fail, we
would have to resort to hand-cutting the mats. We've
done this before and it works, but it is slow and
manually cutting a mat is an easy thing to screw up.
That being said, a computerized mat cutter is an
expensive piece of equipment. It doesn't pay to
purchase cheap equipment if it is going to fail or
become inaccurate.
We opted for a Valiani. The Valiani is a substantial
piece of equipment. It is larger and more rugged than
the Gunnar is and it is of Italian origin.
Italian engineering is much different than Swiss
engineering. The Swiss like minimalist design and the
Italians like over-engineered designs.
We intend to keep the Gunnar and use the Valiani for
larger projects.
Back to energy efficiency...
Two years ago we tried LED holiday lights and we were
very disappointed. The white lights had an odd
blue-ish hue and the lights really did not have very
much 'throw'.
Last year we went back to traditional incandescent
lamps and the building looked terrific. But, because
the lamps are not energy efficient, we had to
minimize the amount of time they were illuminated.
This year we went back to LED lights. The lights need
to be replaced every year because the squirrels like
to chew through the insulation. We opted for a longer
icecicles and we are very pleased with the advances
of LED technology.