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shipping glass

 Usually the biggest nightmare for us is getting the glass here in one piece
such that we can meet a deadline; getting reimbursed for busted glass isn't
such a problem. My strategy on this is threefold:

1) I function as my own supplier, more or less. When ordered by the pallet
load the shipping is not only much cheaper, the process of being
safe-and-secure on a pallet keeps breakage almost nonexistant. Obviously
this only works when placing quantity orders; about once or twice per year I
drop $1,500 -- $3,000 on material for a big surface order. I'd guesstimate
my ongoing stock to be about $8,000 in glass and transformers alone. This is
big bucks to throw at "long term" materials but I do a lot of wholesale
work, and if I can't finish the job three days from receipt of pattern there
would be times that I wouldn't get the job. 

2) Obviously I can't stock all colors for all situations in all diameters,
or I'd be calculating an inventory of more like $30,000...Enter air shippers. 
        a) Forget UPS -- Universally Pulverized Silica, and yeah, they shrug
and say too bad. We get everything else from them but glass though, because
they're swift and friendly.
        b) Federal Express is the way to go. Even if there is no value
declared on the glass, they cover up to $100 per parcel automatically. More
if declared / insured. And their tinkle-free delivery rate is pretty good...
my only secondary beef on this issue is that the glass, IMHO, should all be
corked from the manufacturers like the old days. This way a couple cracked
ends of 15mm glass won't have the chance to roll through and strip powder
out of the rest of the tubes. But Fed Ex just blinks and hands you a check,
no questions asked. I even serviced a sign today from the mainland that was
HORRIBLY crated, crappy little masonite box that all but caved in under
normal use, NOTHING on the exterior to indicate fragile contents, and they
just paid it and shrugged.. Now, in a case like this I think that's abuse by
the person crating the box, so I worry that the Fed Ex policy may change,
but so far so good. 
        c) Tecnolux glass can be delivered guaranteed unbroken if shipped in
one of their magical boxes. This is how all the glass goes from Tecnolux to
the suppliers; so they DO have these cartons around, just a matter of
pestering the supplier to reuse one. I get all my glass from Interstate in
LA and they're pretty good about honoring my requests for using those
cartons. They're basically a great big long box with three heavy-duty
styrofoam inserts, that have punch-out triangle sections that will accomate
the Tecnolux triangle-shaped cartons, so it suspends the carton within the
carton. Dont think I've EVER had a single broken T-lux tube when shipped
this way. One box can hold six cartons of Tecnolux, at about 11 sticks per
box 12mm.


And PS, I think $16 a stick for ruby is pretty high -- I seem to recall more
like $10-$12, when bought by the carton load (a quantity which, of course,
is significant for other reasons, given the radical color shift from batch
to batch of Ruby Tecnolux -- be SURE to get the amount you need, lest those
two other sticks not match at all. As I understand it FMS is selling
Tecnolux glass with Tecnolux coatings under the FMS label, but dealing with
this color-shift problem by sorting it according to general range.

And then there's dimming-out of new Ruby tubes -- more on that later, if you
bug me --- I'm off to Maui tomorrow for a three-day install, wish me (and my
aching back) luck.....

Cheers, 

-- Ted Pirsig