Hello woodworking family. I've been commissioned to make a boatload of these snowflakes for a local horse farm, and I'd like to figure out a way of coloring all these little snowflake pieces without all the effort that would usually go into something like this. Just this one farm is wanting somewhere around a hundred of these things, and it they might get picked by other farms as well. Ideally I'd like to just throw all similarly colored pieces into a 5 gallon bucket of color treatment (I suppose stain) and net them out to let strain and dry. How feasible such a method would be is anyone's guess.
Any suggestions as to how to mass color-treat in a project like this?
A couple questions. Are these for outdoors or indoors. That will determine top coat. What did you color what you have there with? What is the wood used? I assume you have jigs made up to cut that many pieces so they are repeatable. They look like very easy cuts. If that is considered one snowflake, that is alot of cutting. Now you asked about staining, that is going to depend on the wood used. Will it take stain well. You can always paint them and do an assembly line thing. Stack a bunch of them up to whatever height you want and place a weight like a brick on top so they do not topple and then spray paint all the sides. Then lay them flat on a board in rows and paint all tops and then flip and paint all bottoms. No matter what you do it will be time consuming but you can get someone to do the painting while you do the cutting. I always hated doing repetition work like that because it gets boring real quick. Dunking is a possibility but have to watch for fingerprints. Saving time will not be any different than the way I said about painting. Plus you will have to set them on a screen to drain back into a pan to capture stain. That can now leave marks. Is that the color to be used or will there be various colors? if so you may have to weigh price of stains over paints. Now there is outdoor stains like used on decks but there is more outdoor colors of paint. Will they need a top coat to keep from fading? some points and questions. I will say this when you get the project done you will not want to see another snowflake in your life. I am betting it will take you longer to assemble than to cut and stain all together. Good luck. Keep tract of your time. Hope you will get paid well. Look simple but there is time there in each one for sure.
Just one other point if using a chop saw or even a tablesaw please make zero clearance fence and throat plates or those will be shooting all over the place.
12 dark grey
12 light grey
3 braces white per unit X 100
You could probably save yourself the coloring of the branches or braces if you use polywood and in fact you can get all colors and not have to stain or paint anything and it will stand forever. It will be more expensive and you need to find a source but it is another option. They make outdoor furniture with it and it is beautiful stuff.
I am betting it will take you longer to assemble than to cut and stain all together. Good luck. Keep tract of your time. Hope you will get paid well. Look simple but there is time there in each one for sure.