Stone Caster Studio update and review for 5/7/2012

Hello everyone,

New Crew/New Facility: This past weekend marked the end of the set-up and training phase, and the start of the mold production phase.  It’s been full steam ahead since we’ve moved into our new facility, and after updating our entire stone veneer mold production system we were finally able to run our crews through the paces to work out the kinks this weekend.

With our new stone veneer mold production system fine tuned, we are able to produce well over 1000 square feet of stone veneer molds, with the same effort it took to make 200 square feet of molds in our previous location.

The new facility took a little bit longer to set up than I anticipated, but we worked everything out and it was well worth the effort.   It was difficult not really accepting new orders until everything was set up, but it was very much needed.  1 step back…20 steps forward.

After everyone gets a rest today, we will be in full production starting tomorrow.  We’ve all been waiting for this time and we finally made it.  Thanks for hanging in there crew.

Business Administration: I can honestly say that we are an entirely new and upgraded company since the move…in regards to mold production at least.  After working together with our local government we have a check list of things that we need to do in order to get funding for our facility.  Now it is time to start training office staff, rebuilding our website, fine tuning our customer support system, and filling out a bunch of paperwork we’ve been putting off.

I want to apologize to any customers or potential customers who felt neglected during our transition to the new facility.

BBB: The BBB gave me a call the other day to let me know that they have changed their ways and are now using a new grading and database system.  ABC news and thousands of businesses, along with ours, were fed up with the way the BBB was treating us by almost forcing us to pay for their services or face getting an “F Grade”.

I am a serious rebel and I can be very stubborn when it comes to things like this, but I have to say that my experience with the BBB over the last few weeks has been great and the new system is much more honest.

Our grade with the BBB went from an “F” for the last 3 years, to a “B -” all in one day.  By the end of this week we should have a “B+”, and working our way towards A+ status.   All I wanted was a fair shot at making good on customer complaints, I guess I finally got one and it worked out.

When we say that we are going to stand by our commitment to our customers we mean it, and our history proves it.

Come visit us: If you are in the Las Vegas area you are more than welcome to pick up your stone veneer mold order at our new facility and save on shipping costs.  Just give us a call to set up an appointment to come down.

That’s it for now.

Happy stone making!

Shawn Romant

founder

StoneCasterStudio.com

702-430-9033

twitter

Real Stone Caster Studio Reviews: From negative to positive.

I remember when we used to fight on the phone Garrett.  I really appreciate that you gave us a chance to make good on our word.  Thanks for your input on new mold styles too.  You are an old and valuable customer.  Thank you very much!

“Garrett Apr 24, 1:52 am

I want to say that these guys have totally taken this company to the next level and I have seen them grow over the years. You couldn’t ask for better guys like Shawn and JR to take care of you. Be patient with your orders, this stuff is totally custom and hand made–that kind of quality and durability isn’t created overnight. These guys are living the American Dream of building a company from the ground up with an awesome American made product.

I have a new stone idea for you guys. How about developing smooth faced electrical box molds for outlets and outdoor light fixtures so they fit flush? Maybe a large trim stone with circle box cutouts for lights (10”h x 6”w) and then standard 2 plug outlet size? I am sure you guys will think of something.

Happy Stone Making!

Garrett W”

Gotta love it!

Stone Caster Studio update 4/24/2012

One of our DiY customers created these stones in our stone veneer molds. Great work!

Hello everyone,

With a new location comes new challenges.  Excuse my French, but we’ve been ‘balls to the wall’ for the last few weeks in order to complete all of our existing orders, before JR had to go to the VA for hand surgery.  Unfortunately we’ve missed the deadline and are behind two weeks on a couple of your existing orders.   We wish we could have made the production goal but our existing crew is having a hard-time making it to work at our new location.

Grants: Tomorrow at 9am marks a big step for us as a company.  We will be meeting with the president of a government agency that offers grant programs for businesses like Stone Caster Studio.   Our goal is to come out of that meeting with the ability to create local jobs right here in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Stone Caster Studio’s products create jobs in two ways.  First, we create local jobs when we create your stone veneer molds.  Second, some of you are creating local jobs when you open your stone veneer manufacturing facility, with the stone veneer molds you purchase from us.  We also create jobs at our material and service vendors.  Not to mention that our products are made from over 50% locally recycled materials.

New Crew:  Now that we’ve fine tuned our production system and decided on the new stone veneer mold styles that we will be offering, we are now entering the phase of training a new daytime crew.   Our existing crew has been working as part-time employees, but we are ready for a full-time production staff, aside from JR and myself.

This Thursday we are hiring two new daytime crew members that will require at least 30 days of solid training.  This means that I will be back in the mold workshop full-time to train the new crew members while JR’s hand is healing.

With a weekend, evening, and a daytime crew we will be running close to two full-time shifts, which will keep our existing orders on track and even build an inventory.

New Mold Lines: We spent part of today digging through pallets of stone with one our manufacturing clients, who is also a stone mason with a good eye for good looking stone.  We picked the natural stones that will be used to create our new stone veneer mold line.   Our new mold line will be installation friendly, while maintain the natural crisp look of Mother Nature.  Over the next few weeks I will posting pictures.

Order updates: Tomorrow is shipping day so keep any eye out for tracking numbers in your email inbox, or via phone call from JR.  For faster service please call JR at 702-430-9033.   Don’t be shy to call…now that JR’s hand is bandaged up he’s the man on the phone for the next few weeks.

We will not be available from 9am-12pm tomorrow since we will be in meetings most of the morning.

Happy stone making!

Shawn Romant

founder

StoneCasterStudio.com

twitter.com/stonecaststudio

  702-430-9033

 

 

Shawn Romant’s Stone Caster Studio Review 4/17/2012

Look what one of our customers made with our natural cut ledgestone molds blended with our handcut ledgestone molds. Great job Peg.

Hello everyone,

I am very excited as I write this blog posting.   This post serves as a way to get everyone caught up on what’s going on over here.

If you’ve been following our twitter updates, as you should be, you already know that we have moved into our new facility.  After rebuilding and cleaning EVERY mold master we have, and setting up the new stone veneer mold production system, we are 100% confident in the quality of our new molds, and the ability to get the molds out in time.

Cosmetic Defects: After a few sleepless nights, I am placing the final batch of molds made at our old location on “cosmetic defect” status.  Even though the molds are not really cosmetic defects, compared to the new molds they really are.   These cosmetic defects will still make great stone veneer.

We are now selling these cosmetic defects on a first come first serve basis, while supplies last for only $60 per mold.  We are only accepting check, bank-wire and western union as payment for these in-stock molds.   There are currently 210 square feet of flats and 15 linear feet of corners available at this price.  And, we are still providing our warranty for these molds.  Please call 70-420-9033 or email jr@stonecasterstudio.com if you want to order these cosmetic defects.

Existing Orders: All existing orders that have not shipped will receive the new upgraded molds from the first full batch created in the new facility, which will be completed by this Friday.

Training Program: As for the new stone veneer manufacturing training program, we are still working out the details, but expect to have fun and learn how to make professional grade stone veneer while you are here in Las Vegas.  We’ll even provide a room at a newer Hotel Casino on the strip like Ceasers or Paris.

New Orders: I also want to apologize to those of you who have been trying to order molds over the last 2-3 weeks.  We wish that would could have taken everyone’s order, and had planned on doing so during the move, but we had to fire our office help for a few strange reasons we wont go into.  We are now ready to start taking new orders,and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Thanks again for all of your support and trust in Stone Caster Studio.  We want to say a special thank you to Garrett W for being our customer for so long and for being a significant part of our growth.

Happy stone making!

Shawn Romant

Founder

StoneCasterStudio.com

twitter.com/stonecaststudio

Stone Caster Studio llc

702-430-9033

Stone Caster Studio update and review for April 2012

Corner of our new showroom.

Hello Everyone,

We apologize for not being as available as we should have been lately but we’ve been very busy behind the scenes.  We tried to hire a receptionist to keep everyone updated and all that, but that didn’t really work out too well, so we had to let her go.

This update is going to be short and sweet.  I’ve been staying quite over here because I’ve learned not to talk about  things before they actually happen.  Now that we have the keys in hand and in the process of moving in, I can now announce that we have finally secured our own manufacturing and training facility.

This means within the next few weeks we will accomplish:

• 500% more production output.
• 100 square feet of unique designs per stone veneer mold style.
• Faster turn around times.
• Setting up of our training facility for our clients.

It’s been a long time coming for this update but we finally made it.  Over the next few weeks we will be hiring more staff over here so keep an eye out for a few more major updates.  We will be away from phones and emails until this coming Wednesday or Thursday while focusing on setting up the new facility.

Thank you to everyone who believed in us and our products.  We are now in the process of returning the favor.

Happy stone making!

Shawn Romant

Founder

StoneCasterStudio.com

Twitter

702-430-9033

New Shop Corner Pic

Stone Caster Studio update and review for December

Hello everyone,

There has been a lot of changes around here over the last 6+ months, I will only cover the important stuff.

New Staff:
After 20+ years of not seeing or talking to each other, my Father and I have started to rebuild our relationship.  I have to say that I wish that I had brought him into Stone Caster Studio sooner because he is doing a great job.  My Father is the guy JR who has been answering the phones.

We’ve also brought Ira into our mold crew.  She is officially the first female mold maker we have hired and she is proving to be a fast learner.

Helena will be helping with the emails and phone calls starting mid-December but for now my Father JR is going to handle the phones, and I’ll be doing my best to keep up with the emails. Please call JR if you want faster service than email.

First-Come First-Served:
We’ve been through a lot as a company in order to keep our doors open.  Keeping up with the volume of orders we receive has always been a challenge for us.  Each time that we ramp up our production it seems that you guys want more and more of our products.

In order to prevent our clients from going through frustration and headaches, we have decided to offer our in stock molds on a first-come first-served basis.  We will only sell what we have in stock, which will be ready to ship within 24 hours of receiving payment.

In all honesty, even the requests for our in stock molds is already to the point that we are having to ramp up production in order to keep up with the waiting list.

New Management:
I’ve been running Stone Caster Studio for the last 6 years pretty much by myself.  I haven’t run my company the best way possible but I have kept my commitments regardless of what people have said about me.  I’ve taken various day jobs, downsized my lifestyle and many other things in order to catch up.  Now, I’m proud to say that we’ve made a substantial dent in our back-orders over the last few weeks.

One of the day jobs I have been working on now requires my 100% attention over the next few months, which is why I am handing the day-to-day operations of my company over to my Father.

For those of you that are curious, one of the projects I am working on is the development of a next generation film scanner.  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), UCLA Stanford and other entities approached us to design the film scanner for national security (nuclear forensics), archival and other uses.

Everyday we are loosing our collective history that is archived at various libraries around the world.  Most people are unaware that a large portion of our archived history is decaying rapidly and cannot be rescanned into a digital format due to the age of the film.  Our scanning technology scans aged film footage without damaging it.

This project is a national priority that must be completed.  In order to speed up the process we’ve released our technical papers so that scanner manufacturers can use our technology to create their next generation film scanners.  It’s not about money, but about preserving our history, which is why we release the technical papers for free.

As for Stone Caster Studio, I will still be creating new designs and providing technical support to our clients, but I wont be involved in the day to day operations due to the scanner project.

Current Orders:
In order to catch up on back-orders, I had to make a decision to push back our current production que 2-3 weeks in order that we could send out the bulk of the back-orders. We notified our new clients that were affected and 99% of you were completely fine with our decision.  We’re back on track and current orders will start shipping this Wednesday.  Your patience has allowed us us to take this step.

I want to say thank you to all of you who kept faith in us throughout the years.

Please remember to follow our twitter updates: twitter.com/stonecaststudio

Happy stone making!
Shawn Romant
founder
StoneCasterStudio.com
702-430-9033