About Scheduling
About Files
About Sizes
About Veneers
About Completed Jobs
Scheduling:
Q. How long
does it take to get my inlay?
A. We usually
complete an order within 3-5 business days but seasonal fluctuations
may cause delays of business 10 days or more. Your quote
includes a scheduled date. If you accept the quote (pay for your
order) prior to the schedule date your job it should be produced
at the scheduled time.
Q. If I miss
my scheduled time do I need another quote?
A. No. Your
quote is good for 30 days. If you place your order (make
payment) after the scheduled date your order will be scheduled
in the first available slot.
Q. If I loose
or damage a part how fast can I get a replacement?
A. Reorders
due to loss or damage are given our very highest priority. Except
in unusual cases we can usually turn your reorder around in 3
business days or less.
Files:
Q. What file
formats work best?
A. When
supplying a quantized bitmap the BMP
and GIF formats are the only ones that do not incur a setup charge.
When supplying vector work, only DXF does not incur a setup
charge. In both cases the file must be cut ready.
Q. What is a
quantized
bitmap?
A. This
is a raster image containing less than 16 colors. Each color represents
1 veneer cut pattern. Such images must be sent in a lossless format
(bmp for example). Lossy formats like jpg are incapable of holding
a quantized bitmap.
Q. What do you
mean by 'cut ready'?
A. For raster
images, it means that no additional processing such as quantizing
or removing orphan dots is needed. For
vector images it means each set of vectors to be cut from a given
piece of material is alone in its own layer. That is, each layer
is ready to cut as it is.
Q. When I send
a photo, what DPI is best?
A. More
often than not, customers asking this don't realize how many details
in a photo will either be lost or result in parts too small to
handle. Photos with high Dots Per Inch (DPI) are more likely to
have this problem than lower resolution photos. Web quality 72
DPI produce vary acceptable results. As DPI goes above 100 the
quality of the result does not usually improve much.
Q. When I send
a quantized bitmap, what DPI is best?
A. DPI isn't
as important as you might think. It's the effect DPI has on part
size that you need to understand. If you provide a 50 DPI drawing
then each dot represents .020 inches (our minimum). Higher resolutions
produce higher quality output such as smoother curves up to a
point (about 200 DPI). At 400 DPI, any part less than 8
dots wide in any direction will be too small
or fragile to handle.
Sizes:
Q. How big of
an inlay can you create?
A. No single
part can be bigger than 12 inches by 24 inches without needing
to be created from pieces that size or smaller. There are
additional costs with such oversized jobs. Depending on the veneer
selected, this limitation might be much smaller. Your quote
will include a notice if some veneer parts will have seams. Seams
due to intrinsic veneer size limitations DO NOT incur oversized
charges.
Q. How big
of a stencil or template can you create?
A. No single
cutout can be bigger than 12 inches by 24 inches. Overall size
is not limited in length but cannot be more than 26 inches wide.
Items larger than 12" x 24" incur oversize charges
that are job specific and so must be quoted in the context of
a specific job.
Q. How small
can a part be?
A. Our equipment
can cut parts much smaller than we can realistically package (or
sometimes find!). We can't accept responsibility for parts smaller
than .04 sq. in (.020 x .020). Nor can we guarantee that parts
thinner than .02 at any point will make it through shipping undamaged.
Certain 'difficult' veneer species can have evem more stringent
restrictions.
Q. What are
'orphan dots'
and why should they concern me?
A. Some
customers try to save money by creating their own quantized
bitmaps using common photo editing software. If not
carefull the results can contain 'orphan dots'. These are single
pixels or sometimes pairs that are different in color from the
immediate pixels around them. They result in very tiny pieces
being cut and ultimately lost, leaving
little holes in the customer's work.
About Veneers:
Q. Is your veneer
backed, raw, PSA, what?
A. All inlays
are made from raw veneers. We can special order other types and
even cut customer supplied veneers. Contact us with any
specific requirements you might have.
Q. What thickness
is the veneer you use for these inlays?
A. That
depends on the manufacturer, the species ... seemingly the day
of week. We don't make our own veneers and so have no control
over thickness. You should assume there will be differences in
thickness between species.
Q. Wood moves!
How can I expect all the parts will still fit together once
they arrive?
A. When
new veneers arrive they are quarantined in our flattening room
for a minimum of 3 days before moving to general inventory. This
gives the veneers a chance to stabilize to the same conditions
as other veneers that might be being used for your project. We
are quite strict about humidity being between 47% and 51% with
the temperature between 73° and 78°. You can request
the temperature and humidity conditions at the time your job is
cut to be included in your shipment.
About Completed
Jobs:
Q. What if I
damage or lose a part during construction of my project?
A. If you
need replacement parts for any reason you can reorder a specific
layer. In some cases we allow ordering of just parts of
a layer. We keep your job on file for 90 days to allow for
shipping damage or problems with installation and finishing. You
can reorder a particular layer or an entire job within 90 days
without any setup charges. See also scheduling.
Q. Is there
a way to keep my job on file longer than 90 days?
A. For a
nominal fee of $5/year we will keep your job on file so you can
save setup charges if you plan to reorder. You have until your
90 days expire to ask for retention.
Q. When does
the 90 day period start?
A. On the
date of your quote for that job.
Q. Can I keep
the job files myself?
A. Yes and
no. If your job involves us processing a photo into quantized
bitmaps you can save this bitmap and later use it to reorder.
Files created from other processing we might do are not released.
If you have additional questions
please contact
us.
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