Hi All,
I'm really sorry to hear the unhappiness with some of the engraving. As I've said all along, this project is a bit of community service for me- trying to do something good for a community I love. I thought, hey, I've designed and produced products before for work, Merlin did an awesome job on the Blackbird weights, but is otherwise occupied, so I decided to tackle it. I've been as transparent as possible the whole time... and I've tried my best to use the same diligence I would use on a work project for this one.
Brass manufacturer- had samples made in stainless steel, checked the measurements with them like 100 times and test fit in my own boards before ordering production - went well.
Countersinks- unexpected step as you know, but I had evaluated a CNC shop here in Tucson for manufacture of the plates and ended up going a different way, but went back to him when we needed countersinks. Didn't plan for the almost $900 this cost, but the outcome was good. I had him test run a couple pieces before giving him the lot of our brass and liked his performance - went well.
Polishing- qualified the polishing house here locally and had them test polish a couple pieces of brass for me to evaluate their work before ordering the whole stack o'brass polished. I'm not crazy about the amount of the polish that was left behind, but the brass came out shiny and nice for the most part. I've spoken with them about not leaving the polish behind if we do another round of weights - went mostly well.
Engraving- I visited a few shops and picked a local place that does trophies and awards of all kinds. They took the files Gaiden generated and we posted and they said they would digitize them, which cost us about $70 per file to turn the artwork into an engraving file. I looked at a lot of their work, which includes things like a dude's portrait engraved in a plaque for his 50 years at wherever... it looked amazing. Due to being behind schedule and travel, etc., for this step, I trusted that the engraved work would look like the files and didn't run one of each before ordering the lot. I'm not sure what technique they used or why the engravings did not come back exactly like the files. In person, the Eagle/ Viper, TC-V3 and Jetfire look ok and pretty true to the graphic- in outline at least. The Lightsaver is the one that I am the least happy with, there are definitely some wobbles in the lines. I cut the corner of having a few pieces test run and it's bitten me/ us.
I wish that I had a resolution to make this better for everyone. If I had the coin and wouldn't get divorced because of spending $1000 on something I'd go and re-polish them and re-do the engraving. But it's just not a feasible option for me. I really apologize for that- once again, my only goal here was to have weights done that everyone loved - myself included. I'm a customer here too, I just want my Duck boards heavier.
That's my mea culpa. All I can do is continue to share the process and in the case of the Lightsaver, why it's gone not perfect and share a bit of your disappointment.
Unfortunately, I don't have any extra un-engraved weights to swap out. I have one or two extras of one or two models at this point, the rest have been picked up. Sorry about that.
And I don't take your disappointment personally. I hope you all know I've done my best to make this awesome for everyone, thus why I've made this in no small part an open journey where I've tried to share an much of the good/ bad/ ugly with all of you. I've been part of what, 50 group buys over three years...? I've learned a TON having now run one. It's just like at work, constructive criticism only helps things get better next time and I never take it personally (unless of course it's a YOU SUCK comment). Like I outlined, I missed a step of due diligence and it does suck. Getting brass made, fitting well and polished, I was just enjoying some cautious optimism that my first GB would end up with everyone being happy. You'll have to trust me when I say it bothers me more than I can tell you that's not the case, but if y'all want to ride again with me next time, I'm willing to make sure it ends up 100% awesome for Orion v3.
Have a good weekend. Many shipping notices to come.