On The Job: Salisbury Pewter

have some christmas trees and decorations out for sale. today 47 abc’s michelle mackonochie went on the job at a business that makes and sells custom items — like christmas ornaments — and that’s just scratching the surface. take a look. “today we’re on the job at salisbury pewter and i’m going behind the scenes in their factory – were going to be making christmas ornaments – engraving and even boxing some items. i’m so excited so lets go.” track 1 ornaments – picture frames – cups – whatever you want made – salisbury pewter can do. in business for the last 36 years — the company started in salisbury – but then moved to easton in 1998. today – there are about 25 workers in the factory and about 12 people who work in the offices and showroom. and today-they have another factory worker – me. “what are we going to be doing today – today we’re going to start out in casting we’re going to let you cast some rubber mold casting.” “and then we’ll move on to our engraving department and we’ll let you input some stuff and get a part engraved.” “and then we’ll move on to our inspection area to let you be an inspector.” “it looks like there’s so much going on back there and i’m a little nervous i’ve never worked with any sort of pewter items or made anything or polished anything so i hope i don’t mess anything up – you’ll be fine.” “we’ll i’m so excited so i guess we should get started. ok.” track 2 our first job – making some holiday ornaments. for this – they use a big rotary casting machine. and the pewter can get pretty hot – so gloves are required. “so is that still hot this is still hot probably about 250 degrees oh we don’t want to touch that.” “ok so what are we doing here so what we’re doing here is we’re taking the liquid pewter – wow that’s amazing – and we’re going to pour it into this machine.” track 3 first you have to set your mold in the casting machine – securing it down with a pressure plate. “so she’s going to put the mold in the machine – ok this whole thing – yep – oh it’s heavy – and you’re going to put it in and you’re going to put this plate on top and you’re going to turn it so those little tabs go under that arm.” “you’re going to push that button hold it down and then close the lid slowly.” track 4 after the lid is closed – the casting machine will spin at 600 rpm’s for about a minute. “and now you’re just waiting for it to cool enough to be solid do you can take it out – well not that cool 350 degrees cool well it’s cool enough to become this.” track 5 after time is up – you lift the lid – take out the mold – and open it up to see how it turned out. “hopefully it came out good – and let’s see how you did.” “uh oh oh no we broke one.” “well what did we get like 3 of them because i broke half of them – well you’ve got two up here so you did pretty good.” track 6 next – we headed over to the next station – engraving. salisbury pewter can engrave just about anything you ask them to – and today we’re engraving a plaque. next step – picking your own font. 03:34:31″you put in your graphic of what you want – you size it for the item that you’re going to engrave – you’re going to come down you want to be within a fingers tip edge from the plate.”03:34:40 track 7 after all that is set — you have to tell the computer that you’re ready – and the engraving begins! polcak says salisbury pewter engraves about 3 to 10 thousand items a month. finally it was on to our last job of the day – inspecting and boxing some jefferson cups! the first thing that needs to be done – is a close inspection of the cup to make sure there are no scratches or dents. after it is deemed perfect – its time to roll! “sideways roll it twice – flip your end up – roll it around there you go perfect – there you go – that ones pretty good – and now you can be an inspector at salisbury pewter.” “so this is the last job this is the last job before it ships out – before it ships out to our customer – ok and do you also pack them in the boxes to be shipped out as well – yes the box station is over here.” track 8 last step – boxing the cups in a personalized salisbury pewter box – sticking on an item barcode – and stacking them up for shipment. o how did i do today – you did very good.” “i did a lot of things today that i’ve never done in my life before.” “so would you hire me to come on your staff you think – absolutely – you would? absolutely ok and what area do you think you’d put me in? probably either engraving or inspection.” 03:43:16″well thank you so much for having us we had so much fun.”03:43:18 track 9 michelle mackonochie 47 abc. michelle says salisbury pewter creates and ships their products out to places such as tiffany’s – government agencies- and other businesses around the world. she says working there was a lot of pressure because they make things for such important companies! but she says it was a lot of fun. next week on the job – michelle heads to dazzle in ocean pines where shes going to be helping out the personalized gift wrapping team – so be sure to tune in for that. coming up we’ll have a final look at your weather – we’ll