Hello All,
Been meaning to find some minutes to sit down for an update on all that's going on- sorry it's been a bit.
Things are going very well for the most part. Manufacturer is working away on our brass and will be shipping on the 27th.
There is one potential bump in the form of a newly added next step. The manufacturer I've gone with is water-jet cutting the brass. That is lovely for cutting the metal, but does not lend itself nicely to detail work. In Merlin's run, he had a nice countersink around each screw hole so the screws sit flush against the brass weight. I have gone slightly beyond the suggested thickness for the weight, as provided by Duck. Side note, Merlin's were as well, and they fit perfectly, so I'm not worried about that, but if we then don't have countersinks, I'm nervous about metal screws in dangerous territory for bumping against PCB underbellies. I THINK we would be ok still, and thought about doing nylon screws so we don't short anything, but then decided that just isn't the way to go, let's do this all right. SO, long story short, I have found a CNC shop in Tucson that will cut the countersinks for us. I did go back in and do an 11th hour analysis of doing the whole thing at the CNC shop vs water jet cutting the brass and then CNC-ing the countersinks. It was still more cost effective to water-jet cut the brass as planned... but I'm effectively through my safety margin. I've been part of enough GBs that I expected something like this (Jordan and I say they aren't unplanned expenses around the house- we expect an AC to fail or a pool pump to go south - both summer events for us by the way - we just don't know what it will be or when), so I did build in a bit of safety net. I was hoping to not need that and pass that over to shipping... but at $1/ hole (the bigger weights have 6!! And seems an ok place, the other place in town quoted me $4 a hole!?!), this chews up that net. Onward without a parachute!!
This will also add two weeks. Sorry about this, but the CNC shop is slammed and for the price, I have to wait for them. CNC shop has us on the schedule and the brass will be shipped directly to them, but it's going to take a bit of time.
From there, I'll take them for polish, and the polishing shop is ready to roll. Then will start shipping the un-engraved and take the others for pretty picture/ word carving.
Updated timeline:
Brass ships: 8/27
Countersinks done: 9/14
Polishing done: 9/21
Shipping un-engraved: Week of 9/24
Engraving done: 9/28
Shipping engraved: week of 10/1
Whew, time flies.
Thanks for everyone's interest, kind messages and fast PayPal payments. We're about 80% paid for... if you still are waiting to pay an invoice, no worries, but please do clear that up asap as we have these other services to pay for. If you need a lot more time, also no worries, just please send me a note. I start to get nervous that all the kids are getting... BRASS for Christmas if I'm holding too many of these bad boys.