A refurbishment doctor that is. As I was surfing through eBay vintage items that cost less than $3.00, I came across this little beauty. I couldn’t believe that no one had bid on this metal Lunch Box after 7 days of being listed. The ideas were endless but the application and inspiration of it came from the unfortunate disaster in Japan. When the metal lunch box arrived, I took a peek inside to check out the condition and to my surprise I found a hand written note. My first thought was who still hand writes notes? It must be important. Turns out the lunch box I purchased still belonged to the original owner who bought it 74 years ago. The note was simple and to the point:
“Thanks for buying my lunch box, I got it in the sixth grade 1934.”
By now I am sure that you know my appreciation for quality craftsmanship. This lunch box is no exception. 74 years old and it still functions! Granted, it probably sat on a shelf for most of its life but still. After separating the hardware from the box the powder coating process was easy. The silkscreen image was a great touch and brought the whole concept together. Take a look!! Let me know what you think.
Function: noun / a handcart that holds groceries while shopping
Definition: A device whose concept was simple: make shopping easier for the customer and they’ll visit the store more frequently, and buy more.
Patent: March 15, 1938
Inventor: Sylvan Nathan Goldman
Criteria: First to invent. First to patent. Entrepreneur.
Birth: 1898 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Death: 1984 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Nationality: American
The Story:
The first shopping carts were put into service by grocery store owner Sylvan Goldman in 1937. Sylvan Goldman, born in 1898, grew up in the new Oklahoma Territory and went into wholesale produce with his brother. Oklahoma oil prices plunged in 1921. That wiped them out, so they went to California to study new methods for retailing groceries. They came back and set up a chain of self-service stores equipped with woven baskets customers could carry while they shopped.
It was a huge success. They finally sold out to the Safeway chain. This time, the Depression wiped out their Safeway stock. But “the wonderful thing about food is that everyone uses it—and uses it only once.” The Goldmans dove back in. By the mid-‘30s they owned half of the Standard/Piggly-Wiggly chain. One night, in 1936, Goldman sat in his office wondering how customers might move more groceries. He stared idly at a wooden folding chair. Put a basket on the seat, wheels on the legs. . . Wait a minute. Why not two baskets, one above the other?
Goldman and a mechanic, Fred Young, began tinkering. Their first shopping cart was a metal frame that held two wire baskets. Since you have to be able to store shopping carts, the frames were designed to be folded and the baskets nested. Since they were inspired by the folding chair, Goldman called his carts “folding basket carriers.” Basically, they were folding metal frames with handles and wheels. Customers could place hand-held baskets on the carriers, and take them off again at checkout. Goldman formed the Folding Carrier Basket Company (still in business today as Unarco).
Goldman’s concept was simple: make shopping easier for the customer and they’ll visit the store more frequently, and buy more. Unfortunately, the customers didn’t want to use the carts. Young men thought they would appear weak; young women felt the carts were unfashionable; and older people didn’t want to appear helpless. So, Goldman hired models of all ages and both sexes to push the things around the store, pretending they were shopping. That, and an attractive store greeter encouraging use of the carts, did the trick.
By 1940 shopping carts had found so firm a place in American life as to grace the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Supermarkets were redesigned to accommodate them. Checkout counter design and the layout of aisles changed.
In 1946, Orla E. Watson, of Kansas City, MO, devised a plan for a telescoping shopping cart which did not require assembly or dis-assembly of its parts before and after use; this cart could be fitted into another cart for compact storage, hence the cart descriptor. Watson applied for a patent on his shopping cart invention in 1946, but Goldman contested it and filed an application for a similar patent. In 1949 Goldman relinquished his rights to the patent and granted them to Watson. In exchange, Goldman received licensing rights in addition to the three other licenses previously granted; Watson continued to receive royalties for each cart produced.
The shopping cart has undergone many more changes as time has progressed. The shape has changed as ergonomic considerations have been taken into account. For the most part, carts are bigger to hold more merchandise, thus enabling more sales. Although basic design hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years, the next generation of carts is still evolving, with even bigger upper and lower baskets. Some stores are starting to get cart accessories that hold two kindergarten-size kids.
Recent studies determined while the cartless retailers such as Sears and J.C. Penney have suffered slow sales in recent years, the retailers that do use shopping carts, among them Target and Home Depot, have had booming sales. In large part this could be attributed to the ease of shopping made possible by Sylvan Goldman’s invention—the shopping cart.*
Sundial Restores Shopping Carts, Lessens the Carbon Footprint
Sundial is fully committed to preserving the environment. One such example is our work in restoring and powder coating corroded steel supermarket shopping carts. If it weren’t for our restoration process, these shopping carts would end up in landfills.
Our powder coating process first begins with full dismantling of each steel shopping cart. We then sandblast them and, thus, rid them of corrosion and rust. After we’ve completed the sandblasting process, we powder coat them with an anti-microbial gray Hammer tone powder to prevent the spreading of germs. This technology has been around since the days of the Pharaohs but not used until recently in the powder coating industry. The silver in our powder acts as a natural sanitizer.
Once the powder coating process has been completed, we re-assemble each steel shopping cart, install child-restraint seat belts and new wheel casters.
By powder coating and restoring these steel shopping carts, Sundial has lessened the carbon footprint (shopping carts are re-purposed instead of being placed into a landfill) and saved the supermarket industry thousands in new shopping cart purchase costs.
The days of the National Newspaper may seem to have lost its battle to the digital world but local small print papers have never been in greater demand. When the San Fernando Valley’s (CA) The Sun (el Sol) asked us to restore and refinish their newspaper stands with our advanced powder coating techniques, I was surprised. I thought that print was dead and certainly not needing to powder coat their newspaper kiosks.
The Sun (El Sol) explained to me the phenomenon that has occurred; as national brands move away from print, local coffee shops, bus stops, and the like are only offering local print. A demand that was created by lack of choice became a connection to the neighborhood. Now more and more people are picking up a local small print newspaper or weekly magazine and finding out what the Joneses are doing. This newfound interest has also encouraged small businesses to include local print in their advertising budgets and market to their neighbors.
Of course, we cannot leave the city officials out of the picture, as they saw more and more people walking around with local “free” print, they felt they needed to act. So they ‘asked’ the San Fernando Valley Sun to clean up their act and gave them one year to collect all of their boxes and have them match the new city color coordination code.
Sundial Powder Coatings was happy to help. These unassuming boxes had a lot going on with them. We needed to rebuild them with new plastic doors, all new labels, and also had to build a new shelf inside that wasn’t there before. All in all the powder coated metal newspaper and magazine kiosks look great, and the The Sun can rise again.
Its 1988. My brother and I are walking home from school. Earlier that week our mother forbid us to stop into the new 7-Eleven located between our home and school. The weather was pleasant, but really what 10 year old cares about the weather? The only thing on my mind was the forbidden zone a.k.a the 7-Eleven. My brother was the wiser, simply explaining risk vs. reward to me – obviously, all junior high students discussed risk vs. reward!
As we walked into the comic book store next door I walked right by it; a simple unassuming red vending machine mixed with red and white gum balls staring at me from inside the 7-Eleven.
We visited the comic book store many times that school year, but never once did we enter the 7-Eleven. As the school year came to an end my willpower was beginning to be tested. I found a quarter on our sidewalk as if my mom had placed it in our path and was parked somewhere to witness the betrayal. A plan so devious only a parent could conjure up. I picked up the quarter while looking in every direction anticipating my mom to jump out and say “got you!”
This wasn’t fair I thought, there is no way I will be able to resist. As we got closer to the 7-Eleven I saw my chance; a school mate was walking in. I yelled to him, explained my situation and asked for his assistance. I watched from the outside as he placed the quarter into the machine and gave the knob a good spin. As he lifted the flap to reveal the red bubble gum I stood witness to the greatest betrayal ever as he popped it into his mouth and began to chew.
The original item for Project 6 had failed to coat properly, and would need more time in order to be corrected and ready for show and tell. Luckily some old friends’ front gate was in need of a face lift, and became the new Project 6. As I got to the house the gate was still attached to the house and looking like most front gates: badly rust and coated in many layers of standard liquid paint. My friend and I easily removed it from the the wall and placed it in the back of the truck. My They already knew the powder coating color they wanted so it was off to the shop for some B.C.A. (Blast, Powder Coat, Assemble).
Since the gate was a last minute replacement for another item earlier in the week (which still had to be powder coated!), I needed to move quickly. As luck would have it I was able to sandblast the gate and get it into production for a primer and top coat all in one day. The powder coated metal outdoor house gate emerged form the oven in mint condition and was ready for installation.
As you can see from the picture the color was a perfect shade of brown and matched the white and beige colors of the home perfectly.
For over 30 years, Sundial Powder Coatings has always provided some form of lobby seating. From the typical lobby chairs with a table in between for beverages and magazines to a nice sofa set complete with end tables and a lamp. During our last remodel, we redesigned our office to a much smaller format – its all about the factory space. And so for the first time our office was without a lobby or lobby seating. So, as part of the next Project 52 powder coating challenge, I figured to remedy the problem and get back to supplying dignified lobby seating.
A few months ago, I purchased a random selection of metal chairs and metal stools from an auction for only $10.00. I had already refurbished the chairs and put them to good use, so I was left with just the metal stools. I found two matching stools and got them ready for the B.C.A (blast, powder coat, assemble) process. I figured since these are probably never going to be used or any attention paid to them I wasn’t about spend time setting up a special color. We happened to be running black the day I needed the stools so black it was.
After the metal stools were powder coated, they looked impeccable. Some of the effects of long term rust showed on the metal and through the powder coating, but in my opinion it added some character. I was happy to see the same day I put them in service they were used. “Its about time you guys put some seating in here, they look pretty expensive too” said an admiring customer.
It was just like any other Monday and I was doing what I normally do on Mondays which is to settle in and think about Friday. This Monday was different. I just didn’t know it yet. As I picked up the phone to follow up on work done over the weekend the door opened and a weathered old man walked in.
“Can I help you?”
“I hope so. My name is Frank and you’re my last chance.”
“That sounds dramatic.”
“Maybe son, but no one else has been able to do what I need done.”
For a moment I thought I was in a Clint Eastwood movie but then I snapped back.
“What do you need done?”
“It’s my 1950’s dresser. My beloved Delores used to fold laundry and store it there. I need it back in the same condition she would’ve remembered.”
“Well, I’ll do my best to get your dresser back”
And that’s how it started. After unloading the dresser and finally getting a chance to see it in full light I knew I had signed up for one of my hardest challenges. How was I going to restore 90 years of wear and tear? How was I going to meet my customer’s needs? And how was I going to make sure Delores was happy? The challenge was made alot easier because Frank had all of the confidence in the world that our state-of-the-art powder coating would restore his medical cabinet to pristine condition.
I knew from the beginning I needed to take a different approach in my powder coating process. I used plastic blasting media, part of the Blast Coat Assemble process (B.C.A.), which is how I removed years of old paint and memories. Once the dresser was finally down to its original, unfinished state, I had to take a step back. This is how the metallurgist who created this piece of art felt; like introducing something knew into the world. It was only days away from being in Delores’ hands.
Now that I had it in an unfinished state I needed to imagine what the dresser would look like. My first thought was to harken back to the fashion and music of the 50’s; Chuck Berry, Blue Suede Shoes, Slack Dresses and Sock Hops. I used this inspiration to pick the powder coating colors for the dresser: white, green and brown. But which shade of white, green and brown? It took hours to match the right shades and tones. I finally settled on the color details and started the powder coating process.
The powder coating process is involved to say the least. I had my team sandblast, mask and paint the dresser three different times to get just the right look. It was worth it. When the dresser came out of the oven with the final coat of paint I knew Dolores would be happy! The result was something I was proud of and I felt I could let Frank know the job was done. I picked up that phone and asked Frank to come over.
A few hours later he walked back in and saw the dresser.
“This is exactly what I had in mind”
“Well, I hope Delores would say the same.”
“I’m sure she would”
And that’s how it ended. That’s the last time I saw Frank but I know, somewhere, he has that dresser and Delores is happy with the result.
The weeks feel like they are flying by, yet we are only on Project 3. I have had my eye on this Radio Flyer wagon ever since my business partner found it on the back of a junk peddlers truck. Poor guy had no idea what a treasure he had underneath the rust exterior. He was happy to part with it for only $15.00. It had been a long time since I played with a Radio Flyer, let alone seen one. So I went online to do some research to make sure I got the powder coating colors correct: Red, Black and White. Hah! I know some cars that have fewer colors than that. Just like the metal outdoor patio furniture set, the hardware basically crumbled as we took the wagon apart. On to the B.C.A. (Blast, Powder Coat, Assemble).
The metal was showing severe signs of fatigue and pitting. My sandblasting supplier recommended the use of glass media which turned out to be great advice. My staff was starting to get nostalgic, reminiscing about the downhill races and broken arms. Originally, I thought one of my nieces or nephews would enjoy having an original Radio Flyer! Then it occurred to me!. There is no plug, screen or wireless connection. What use would they have for something that wasn’t electronic and didn’t have an “i” in front of its name. The iWagon? I doubt it. My wife came up with a great idea. She thought it would look great as a planter and after she said that I really couldn’t envision it being used for any other purpose.
The powder coating process included two layers: a rust inhibiting primer and a UV weather-resistant top coat. At the end of the day it looked great (as you can see in the photo above), but there was no chance of me getting on one of these things again.
They really do not make them like they use to. In that it was over 60 years old and showing major signs of neglect, this three piece outdoor patio furniture set made sometime back in the 1950′s still had life in it. Friends of Mr. Wells gave him this set with the hopes that he would have the will and the means to bring it back from near death. When Mr. Wells brought the patio furniture set to us, I knew right away it would be perfect for Project 52. To set the stage, we took the furniture to a local park to photograph the before pictures. Even during a quick trip in the back of a truck parts of the furniture were falling off from severe rust damage.
We quickly sandblasted the pieces to expose all the nuts and bolts. During the dismantling process, we found that more then half of the bolts had been eaten away from rust. Parts were literally falling off in our hands. Sure it helped speed up the process but the post-powder coating challenge was finding fasteners that fit and looked similar.
Once Mr. Wells selected the two colors he wanted (which I must say were excellent choices), we powder coated the patio furniture. Once completed, we were ready to assemble. Unfortunately, finding replacements parts that resembled the original look was not possible but we got close; and more importantly we got it put back together. Like I said they don’t make things like they used to and I am just glad we got the chance to bring it back for extinction.
After the holiday long break I was starting to get nervous about Project 52 where we photograph and blog about a weekly powder coating project. The idea behind Project 52 is to not only get a chance to powder coat many unique and interesting items throughout the year but to market powder coating to consumers that don’t know how effective, longlasting and inexpensive it can be.
Time was running out and I was unprepared. Project 1 came to us as a late holiday gift. When I got the call from Mrs. McPherson looking to salvage a vintage metal cabinet I couldn’t be more relieved. The cabinet is a beautiful mid 1900′s classic. When it first arrived at our offices we were able to count at least 4 layers of paint and a dozen shades of white on it. Rust was present but structural damage was not compromised. Once the powder coating color was selected, a deep crimson red, Tiger Drylac -RAL 3004 the process was ready to start. ( You can see pictures of the process in our gallery page under Project #1 )
The cabinet was constructed with minimum welds and almost no screws. Rather it was put together using perfectly form fit panels; a beautifully engineered puzzle. Each door has a glass panel held in place with interlocking strut bars. I had to dig deep to find my inner Jenga master to figure it out. Once each piece of metal was separated and the glass was safely stored, the powder coating fun began.
We used three different types of blasting materials to clean the cabinet, plastic, glass and aluminum oxide. Material selection is important to minimize the amount of heat generated by friction. Too much isolated friction will cause warping and permanently damage the metal.
We quickly moved the parts to the powder coating department and began the application process. Ill try to spare you the boring details but the parts came out looking great. We finished powder coating the Vintage Metal Cabinet by piecing it back together and to my relief there were no extra parts!!
A refurbishment doctor that is. As I was surfing through eBay vintage items that cost less than $3.00, I came across this little beauty. I couldn’t believe that no one had bid on this metal Lunch Box after 7 days of being listed. The ideas were endless but the application and inspiration of it came from the unfortunate disaster in Japan. When the metal lunch box arrived, I took a peek inside to check out the condition and to my surprise I found a hand written note. My first thought was who still hand writes notes? It must be important. Turns out the lunch box I purchased still belonged to the original owner who bought it 74 years ago. The note was simple and to the point:
exception. 74 years old and it still functions! Granted, it probably sat on a shelf for most of its life but still. After separating the hardware from the box the powder coating process was easy. The silkscreen image was a great touch and brought the whole concept together. Take a look!! Let me know what you think.
