Good news to those of you who have already put your order in. Due to a recent change in events, I will be financing the remainder of the orders needed to begin manufacturing. I contacted the various vendors yesterday afternoon to get the ball rolling. I will work on putting together a schedule over the next few days, to provide as accurate of a time frame as I can, for when I think we will be able to start shipping product.

For those who haven't yet made their payment to reserve a specific order quantity, just as a heads up, the group buy price will no longer be available at some point in the future. However, I'm not sure just when that will be at this point.

 

I spoke with the extrusion company yesterday and they informed me that they are working on the die tooling to create the profile for the clamps. The expected delivery is around the 15th of January. However, they said that if things continue as they are now, an earlier delivery could be expected. I also spoke with the shop who is manufacturing the mounting bases, and all of the cutting has been completed and all of the parts are now with the shop who is performing the bending/welding services. I will personally go check in with the shop either this afternoon, or tomorrow to see how things are progressing.

Because of the lead time on the extrusion, I am estimating a worst case scenario of roughly the third week of February for orders to start shipping. I hope it will be sooner than that, but I would rather give the worst case scenario than to end up shipping later than I said I would.

I will continue to update you guys as more information becomes available.

 

I just got back from checking out the bending & welding operation and I have to say that I'm very pleased with the work. The bending is being completed on a press using a die so the accuracy/repeatability is excellent. All of the bases should be complete around the middle of next week.

 

I just got the word that all of the bases are done, I'll be picking them up in the morning.

 

Man, what a mess. I wish I knew before, what I know now. I found out after all of the parts were formed that they could use something called die rubber for an additional $0.25 per part, which would prevent the die from causing the marks that you see on the previous pictures up above. I've never had parts formed on a die before, so I just didn't know any better. I've spent the entire weekend polishing the marks out of the parts before I take them to be tumbled. I'll wrap up the remaining 36 pieces tomorrow and then take them down to be tumbled on Tuesday.

My garage is a disaster, everything is covered in aluminum dust...

 

I finished polishing all of the bases this afternoon and dropped them off to be tumbled. I should have them back sometime Wednesday so that I can take them to be anodized before I leave town over the weekend. I will also check in with the extrusion company to see if I can find out where they are in the process.

I'll let you guys know when I have more information on that.

-Brian

 

I just got off of the phone with the extrusion company and they are expecting the custom die to be delivered just before new years. The expected delivery for the extrusion is January 15th, but they thought I might receive it as early as the 8th.

 

I got them back from tumbling this afternoon. I plan to drop them off for anodize tomorrow morning, but I need to talk to them to see if I have enough to meet the minimum lot charge requirement. If not, I will wait until I'm having the clamp halves anodized and do them all at once.

Unfortunately today brought some bad news for me. I'll be leaving to go to work on Monday morning, but I am supposed to be home by New Years. The only good thing about it is that it is coming at a time where it will not impact any of the progress on getting these done.

Here's the tumbled parts. Enjoy!

BTW, don't let the pics fool you. The parts don't look very smooth, but they are actually very smooth. They finished them with a pretty fine media.

 

Dropped them off for anodize today. Should be done around the first of January.

 

After re-reading my last post, I just thought I should clarify that only the bases will be done around the first of January. Sorry for any confusion.