Production Updates

I know a lot of my customers of wooden flags are anxiously waiting for their purchase wondering why it is taking so long. Unfortunately right now items such as the carved military flags are taking a min of 6 weeks and the 3′ flags are taking even longer at 10+ weeks. Let me say upfront that I’m sorry it is taking so long and I am investing and working to get these times back to normal. That being said I want to be transparent and let you know some of the reasons for the delays.

The number one reason is volume of orders. This year around March orders exploded and made the backlog for the different wooden products quite long and hasn’t really let up since. I am a one person shop with one CNC machine that each product has to go through. I am looking at another CNC machine but the one I am considering does not ship until April.

Another issue, especially for the carved military flags, was covid. Yep covid shutdowns caused interruptions and delays in the supplies. I use a specific pine board for its grain and no knots and it is only available at Lowes. At times it would be a couple weeks until they received new stock and even then finding straight boards was challenging (we all know about lumber from big box stores). At times I would upgrade customers to the poplar boards when I could. Right now the supply has been better and I have found another source of boards, although it is a little different so only when I have to.

Finally there is the weather which has a number of effects. We have had a number of heat waves down here in sunny San Diego which saw temps over 100 for long lengths of time (up to 110 in the shop). For one, I don’t do well in that type of heat, especially in the humid heat waves, so that limits my time in the shop to spurts with cool down times. Even my trusty CNC which normally runs almost 18 hours a day needed some down time during the hottest hours (the router finally went kaput this week and needed replacing). Then there are those nice flat boards I found above: in the dry heat waves they tended to start to warp and did’t always bounce back, making it necessary to go back out looking for more.

And. of course, there is the occasional breakdown, broken bits, and even…. human error.

As mentioned, I have purchased new and upgraded tools to speed up production and increase quality. Also reorganized the shop to improve work flow and try to get things out the door faster. For instance, before it would take almost a week for a 3′ flag; I am now able to glue up 2 a week and working on getting to 3.

So I hope this will explain a bit to all those that have purchased and those still looking to (I hope you still will). I am working hard to get your order out the door as fast as possible in the order it was received. I literally have not taken a day off since last year and will not until production times are back to normal.

If anyone has an order in and has any questions at any time, please feel free to message me. I try to get back to every message within 24 hours.

Thanks, and Stay Safe!
Jeff

A Note from Jeff’s Wife
He really is working as hard and fast as he can to get these orders to you, and he won’t sacrifice quality. These flags mean too much to the recipients and they deserve the very best. I’ll keep feeding him and taking care of him so he can get your orders to you asap!
Mary