ANODIZING for aluminum poker cases

[Reptile]

those are both looking about 2-3 months out. we've already contracted the shop. oneproduct: you are completely in the right to finish the order.

imsto told me a few weeks...

[seferphier]

well, maybe let's just halt the order to see what other people's opinion and the cost of pulling out...

[Blackhawk19]

I think we should finish the order.  I'd prefer to have a more perfect case, but as mkawa said, we've already contracted the shop.  This of course depends on the amount of money we would receive back (original price - prototyping cost and all), and how much you value your time and doing 90% of the work and coordination to get to this point.

While imsto and treble are seemingly reputable, I think it's rather ridiculous that neither of them spoke up at any point in time to say that they had possible orders coming up.  I mean, this whole process has been going on for approximately 2 months and they both appear to be active enough that they should have seen it...

It seems rather common sense and decency to at least say something and save you a lot of development time for something they already clearly had completed...

[mkawa]

imsto told me a few weeks...

so a month until he starts taking orders, another month of production, debugging, working out orders, and a couple weeks to distribute. hence, 2-3 months. recall when this buy started, and check the date. it takes time to make things.

i'm not saying i won't be buying one of each of their cases, but i don't expect product from them for a while since they're both still in IC mode.

but you might say "oh, why does it take time to do all of this stuff?", well, read the threads for this buy. people waffle, ask for weird stuff, no one can decide on anything. it's a miracle we've made it this far, and at this point if we stay the course we will have product in hand in weeks. so i say let's do that. oneproduct can inquire on status and see if the order can still be changed slightly, but it's one thing to inquire and another thing to pull out completely. hint: the latter will make it difficult for him to deal with them ever again.

anyway, i want my darned polished blue case.

[ekw808]

lets keep this going, ill use the other threads to try to get one for my race

[WRXChris]

i agree with everything mkawa said.  I want my polished blue oneproduct case!

[emptythecache]

so a month until he starts taking orders, another month of production, debugging, working out orders, and a couple weeks to distribute. hence, 2-3 months. recall when this buy started, and check the date. it takes time to make things.

i'm not saying i won't be buying one of each of their cases, but i don't expect product from them for a while since they're both still in IC mode.

but you might say "oh, why does it take time to do all of this stuff?", well, read the threads for this buy. people waffle, ask for weird stuff, no one can decide on anything. it's a miracle we've made it this far, and at this point if we stay the course we will have product in hand in weeks. so i say let's do that. oneproduct can inquire on status and see if the order can still be changed slightly, but it's one thing to inquire and another thing to pull out completely. hint: the latter will make it difficult for him to deal with them ever again.

anyway, i want my darned polished blue case.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I'm 100% still in for this buy. I want my polished blue case too.

[Autolyze]

I also want to stick with this. I might end up getting one of the imsto ones too, but surely I'm not the only one who likes the human element in the cases here.

[oneproduct]

The shop is closed for Easter, but I contacted my friend whose dad owns the shop. I asked him to ask his dad exactly where they were in the process right now (nothing done yet, only ordered metal, or already working) and to ask him about some options including reducing the order count and what it would cost if things did indeed have to be cancelled.

I'm sorry for the confusion and awkwardness this is causing. This is a non-profit project and my main goal right now is to try to do the right thing and make sure everyone is happy, and that includes trying to not have people end up with buyer's remorse. For those who still want to order, I'll try to pursue the reduced order quantity option but for those who want to opt out I hope you understand if I can't provide a full refund at this point. Although I know imsto and treble318 were not intending to cause any trouble for me, their choice of timing is a bit of a problem.

Please be vocal about whether you like to keep your order or opt out, and for those who do decide to stay with this, please don't take it out on those that don't want to. If you want to opt out but would prefer to do so outside the public eye, feel free to PM me instead. If people don't say anything I'll have to assume that they're okay to keep with this.

[elton5354]

I'm keeping it.

[boost]

I'm keeping mine

Sent from a phone...

[Elrobo]

anyway, i want my darned polished blue case.

Going with this, I want my dang case, I didn't wait all this time (while trying to hunt down a new poker for myself) just to have the whole thing thrown out the window, and oneproducts relationship with these people under the bus.

[oneproduct]

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[elton5354]

You're a hippy?

[Autolyze]

We have similar freaky long spider fingers, oneproduct.

[oneproduct]

You're a hippy?

I think I look kind of like a psychologist or something haha.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 47621[/ATTACH]

But yea, my hair is getting a bit too long now.

[WRXChris]

We have similar freaky long spider fingers, oneproduct.

haha you read my mind, I also have similar freaky long spider fingers!  I think that's why I prefer mx reds!

[boost]

I think I look kind of like a psychologist or something haha.

(Attachment Link) 47621[/ATTACH]

But yea, my hair is getting a bit too long now.

I thought bbm poses were played out. LOL

Sent from a phone...

[metafour]

I agree that their timing is imperfect but I'm with mkawa. I'm staying with this case.

[oneproduct]

I thought bbm poses were played out. LOL

Sent from a phone...

lol probably, but it's awkward to just go to someone and say "hey, can you take a picture of me?"

[mkawa]

if it wasn't clear already, i'm keeping my order.

[ekw808]

You sir have handled the situation like a true Canadian

[net2522]

So, we need to buy more poker then   lol


I'm still in!!

[jonnybastard]

Yeah I'm still in this for sure, would be a shame to see all your hard work go to waste oneproduct, plus these will end up being the exclusive cases what with such a small run of numbers and imsto's ones starting back up again

[ekw808]

pretty stoked for this case

[ekw808]

I hope this isn't dead

[Gawkbasher]

Yeah I don't think we're going to be dead because I'm keeping mine too.  This is going to be a damned awesome and unique case.  I think Reptile is the only cancel so far, right?

I also think imsto's case is about 2 months out and I'll probably get one of those too.  Not interested in that other machined case though.

This case is going to be awesome.

If you think about it really, this is a case that was completely designed by/within this community and is much more customizable than any of the other offerings.  It's also a great example group buy where we got something manufactured for ourselves.  I want to support that and I think this is a very compelling product offering compared to imsto's case.

[net2522]

Oneproduct~~~

[oneproduct]

Yup, still going with this. I spoke with them and they already ordered all the metal but I told them to make a few fewer cases since we had a few people opt out, but it shouldn't affect things much. For those who did opt out the refund will come but it may be a bit as I try to get everything sorted out. I also have two exams in the next 6 days so I'm a bit busy at the moment but after that I'll be free to give this as much attention as it needs.

[mkawa]

thanks for the update oneproduct!

[oneproduct]

Not all that exciting, but the screws I ordered arrived today. I'll be giving out 6 per order which is the 5 you need for a Poker + 1 if you intend to use it with a Pure or just a spare otherwise.

In other news, my parallel programming final exam is tomorrow! ARSOITENRDONDUVOPUFFOKVWFENO!

[net2522]

Good luck with your exam. ARSOITENRDONDUVOPUFFOKVWFENO!!!!

[jonnybastard]

Woot glad these are going ahead, good luck with the exams!

[KyesaRRi]

Good luck man!

[mkawa]

good luck dude!!

[oneproduct]

Aced it. One more exam on Monday then I'm clear! Summer job starts the week after though. On the bright side it's video game 1st party requirements testing (which is actually not as fun as it sounds, but by no means bad either).

I read in the mods forum about people using the white pocket/sleeve of spongy material that the Poker keyboard comes shipped with as a way to pad the hollow part under the PCB to reduce flex and then it occurred to me that that would probably be a good insulating material which is also inexpensive and easy to get. It would at least be better than what I was originally planning to use, which is the same thing that imsto's case used.

[kaiserreich]

Aced it. One more exam on Monday then I'm clear! Summer job starts the week after though. On the bright side it's video game 1st party requirements testing (which is actually not as fun as it sounds, but by no means bad either).

I read in the mods forum about people using the white pocket/sleeve of spongy material that the Poker keyboard comes shipped with as a way to pad the hollow part under the PCB to reduce flex and then it occurred to me that that would probably be a good insulating material which is also inexpensive and easy to get. It would at least be better than what I was originally planning to use, which is the same thing that imsto's case used.

I use bubble wrap =)

[oneproduct]

Finished my last exam, hoorah. Few things:

1. I sent an email to the metal shop to see how things are coming along with them, so hope to hear back from them soon.
2. I'm going to start looking into getting all the shipping materials and details sorted out. If anybody is planning to try to do combined shipping with someone else in the same country (other than US for which we already have mkawa as a redistributor to save on shipping costs) try to let me know so I can get some boxes big enough to ship out multiple orders in them for that.
3. I just saw treble318's glass beaded and powder coated case and it's pretty nice looking. I do think that the polishing option for these handmade ones is going to be their cool distinguishing feature for those who like the shiny bling look.
4. For those who requested to opt out, I'm planning to give a full refund so you can expect that in a week or two once I get some accounting finished up. If you really need it sooner feel free to contact me and I'll see what I can do. At this time though I can't really allow anyone else to opt out because I already told them the readjusted order count.

[net2522]

oneproduct  I want This!!!  Powder Coated Matt!!!!

[mkawa]

congrats oneproduct!

anyway, it's worth noting that the only finish that treble can do is bead blast + powdercoat. the selection we're getting here is tres cool.

[oneproduct]

Ya, I think both brushing and polishing are much cooler looking than bead blasting in terms of a finish and I think anodizing is cooler than powder coating.

I've never really been a fan of the matte look though, so bead blasting does provide that for those who like it. The coloring place told me that apparently anodizing doesn't work so well with bead blasting though because the surface is not as even.

[net2522]

matte FREAK!!--------------ME

[emptythecache]

I feel like you might be in the wrong thread.

[Omerta]

Any chance of doing a HHKP2 aluminum cases Group buy?

I've love a red matte/carbon fiber HHKP2 Case.

[emptythecache]

you might be in the wrong thread too.

[oneproduct]

So I looked into shipping a bit more and these are prices I found sending a single case to New York (and which should be pretty representative of everywhere in the US within a few dollars):

Expedited Parcel - 4 business days ~ $18.36
Small Packet – Air - 4 to 10 business days ~ $15.67
Small Packet – Surface - 6 to 12 business days ~ $12.66

This is using Canada Post, which is generally the cheapest option for sending things that don't need rush delivery. People in Canada can probably expect something around this or a few dollars cheaper.

To send 6 cases to mkawa costs about $42 using UPS, which is about $7 per case, but then when I look at the USPS site it seems that that $7 + domestic shipping won't really beat the individual Canada Post prices, so I'll probably send them out to the people in the US individually, which means you'll get them faster too once they're ready to go.

For international people, anything other than Canada Post is pretty much out of the question. I checked Purolator, UPS, TNT and DHL and their prices start at about $80 to send something across the ocean because they only do rush delivery. Using Canada Post, I get something like this to Germany (UK and the rest of Europe is about the same):

Small Packet – Air - 6 to 10 business days ~ $34.82
Small Packet – Surface - 4 to 6 weeks ~ $15.85

So it's possible to get a cheap price, but it will take awhile to get there if I go with that.

Thailand is about $1 more than Europe.
Australia is about $2 more than Europe.

Just wanted to give this as a little heads up. If anybody across an ocean finds something faster/cheaper I'd be happy to use it. While $16ish dollars seems like a good price 4-6 weeks is a long time to wait for mail.

edit: I'll be out for most of the day but feel free to ask any question either here or in a PM to me as always.

[mkawa]

there are <6 of us left in the US? :/

sounds like direct is the way to go.

[net2522]

Is it ready to ship out yet?

[Gawkbasher]

Now to decide if I want you to glue it for me or to do it myself.  I really wanted to give it a good inspection/appreciation and then do it but my lazy vibes are kicking in.

[mkawa]

for those who were waiting for me to come ip with an attachment solution, i've pretty much settled on using 3m command strips if my plates need to be attached. i'm pretty sure you're all capable of using adhesive strips yourself, so i wouldn't worry too much about your case not passing through me