Hollow Wheel Manufacturing & Shipping Update #20

Hollow Wheel Manufacturing & Shipping Update #20

 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. 

Fact of the day: 114, the number of days it takes a container ship to sail from China to America, which is longer than ever.
Unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic are still upon us and supply chain issues, especially if you are making things overseas, are still heavily impacted.


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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