Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to post a quick update on production.
Up until now, I have been waiting on material to come in, an agonizing wait for the boat to arrive with raw materials to provide to the injection molding manufacturer to begin production. I didn't really have much updates over the past month and a half, but now I do. Here goes.
As a recap, I am using material made in Germany. The material which I use for the "tread" is only made in Germany. I couldn't find a Chinese based vendor that had the data and quality, so I had to move countries. Not saying there aren't good material suppliers in China, I just couldn't find them myself. This, of course, means that it has to travel to China via boat to be manufactured, then on a boat again to California where we will pick, pack, and ship.
The material which I am using is not a high production item and so the factory didn't have enough inventory. I am ordering over 700kg of material. This payload is not something that I personally can afford to put on a plane, as such, it has to go on a boat. Fortunately, the arrival date is on the 12th according to my German counterparts. Chinese New Year is nearly over and so I will be working closely with the manufacturer to schedule the production.
Summary of what I have done.
- I have paid for all raw materials and they are in route
- I have made all necessary tooling adjustments and molds are ready to go
- The logo printing is finalized and looks really good (see last update)
- Box design is going to be kicked off as soon as everyone gets back from their holiday
Summary of what is next:
- I am going to send out an email to verify everyone's wheel pattern order (Kegel or ABEC... FYI, my wheels also work with Cloudwheels pulleys too). By default, they will ship with 2 ABEC and 2 Kegel, but for free of charge, I can make them 4 ABEC or 4 Kegel, but you have to speak up)
- I am going to send another email to verify your shipping address
- For those that ordered bearings, I will just make sure
- I have been validating the suspension inserts to make sure they do not pose any durability issues and so far so good. I am in the middle of also developing an insert that can help retain as much range as possible, but that will be shown in another update that I hope to publish by this Sunday. I still need to modify the tooling but I don't think it will cause any delays.
Below is an excerpt from last update as nothing really changed.
Timeline:
I have passed this timeline through to my vendors and they have approved of the timeline. I am trying my best to move up several tasks closer in order to save more time.
It's very difficult to estimate sea shipping. In some cases, sea shipping has 6-10 weeks, which this takes most of the time. Hopefully the ports will calm down and it can ship faster (in Pre-pandemic times it usually took 4 weeks).
We are almost to the finish line. Just requires a very close eye and constant communication. I appreciate the patience. You guys are the best.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Doug
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