Big trouble with using Find/Move/Rename Actions multiple times

Question

Hi~
I have a folder with a lot of JPGs in it.
For simplification, let's say this folder contains exactly 1000 JPGs. The JPGs have been renamed numerically 1 through 1000 while still preserving the original order the JPGs came in straight out of Camera.
I want to separate the JPGs by putting them into different folders (i.e. "untitled folder 1", "untitled folder 2", "untitled folder 3", etc.). I want to put 20 JPGs in each folder. The first folder will contain original JPGs 1-20, the second folder will contain original JPGs 21-40, the third will have original JPGs 41-60, ...and the last folder (untitled folder 50) will have original JPGs 981-1000.
I also want to rename all of the JPGs in each folder numerically, 1 through 20. For example, untitled folder 3 will contain original JPGs 41-60, but I want to rename them to 1 through 20. This is very important - the original order must be preserved. As an example, let's look at untitled folder 3 with JPGs 41-60. "41.JPG" must be renamed as "1.JPG", "42.JPG" must be renamed as "2.JPG" ... "60.JPG" must be renamed as "20.JPG".
I want this to continue until I have 50 separate folders, with each containing 20 JPGs, all of which are sequentially numbered 1 through 20 while still preserving the original order.
I gave this a try on Automator with no solid results. The sequence of actions I put together were as follows:
1. Get Specified Finder Items (JPGs 1-20 from the folder containing the 1000 original JPGs)
2. Move Finder Items (to the new folder: untitled folder 1)
3. Get Specified Finder Items (original JPGs 1-20 that are now in untitled folder 1)
4. Rename Finder Items (The settings for rename are as follows: Make Sequential, Add number to = "new name", "item name" is deleted and then I press return, Place number = "before name", Start numbers at = "1", separated by = "nothing", and the rename Example looks like "1.xxx"
These setups are repeated again for JPGs 21-40, and again for 41-60. Importantly, I modify each action to make sure it gets the correct JPGs from the correct folder.
I wrote the action to last for the first 60 JPGs (I wanted to test it before writing the rest of it, which would take a long time!)
The results I got are as follows:
-Original JPGs 1 through 60 have been removed from the originals folder containing the 1000 Original JPGs. (so far so good)
-Original JPGs 1-20 from the originals folder have been moved to "untitled folder 1" and renamed 21-40 (not good... I wanted them to stay the same: 1-20)
-Original JPGs 21-40 were moved to "untitled folder 2" and were correctly renamed 1-20. Then, these were unexpectedly moved a second time to "untitled folder 3" (not good).
-Original JPGs 41-60 were moved to "untitled folder 3" and were renamed as 21-40.
Summary:
The final result was that Untitled folder 1 contained original JPGS 1-20, incorrectly renamed to 21-40. Untitled folder 2 is empty. Untitled folder 3 contains original JPGs 21-60. Original JPGs 21-40 were correctly renamed 1-20, whereas JPGs 41-60 were incorrectly renamed 21-40.
I feel like I have reached the limit of my knowledge with Automator, so I need your help!
Thank you very much for at least reading this!
~Michael

Answer 1

First, be careful of the forum you post in - there are Automator forums for both Tiger and Leopard. Your profile shows you running Leopard, but this reply would apply to Tiger as well.
Most actions return the results from whatever it is that they do - in the case of Move Finder Items, the action returns the items that it moved. In your example workflow, when you follow the move action with the Get Specified Finder Items, you double up the list of items to rename, so there is some extra renaming going on. Most actions have an option to ignore the input from the previous action, but getting rid of the Get Specified Finder Items action from your workflow should clear things up.
Automator will work for your workflow if there aren't too many items, but if you really have thousands of files you might have better luck with an AppleScript.