Ok, good news!

Just talked to Brandon on the phone, and the water cutting company dropped off the cut blanks for the fascias. He says they look great. We're getting together tomorrow, so I should be able to post pictures tomorrow evening.

Remember, these are just the blanks. We need to make sure everything is ok, then they'll need to be milled to put the final details in, as well as the voids on the back for the lens and the upper lip of the sled (those that are unbent). After that, we'll put different finishes on them to serve as samples. At that point, we'll start taking orders.

There's also a bit of a suprise in store, as one of the things we were working on has come through nicely. Anyhow, the pics tomorrow will show you all what we have.

We're getting much closer folks. Almost there.

Ok, Brandon and I had to postpone getting together until tomorrow, but I had him send me a scan of the fascia blank. It looks pretty good. You'll also want to note that there is more than a fascia in the picture...



Yep. We should have the handles ready at the same time as the fascias. It looks like we'll be offering people the option of buying the fascia with a matching handle or just the fascia, without the handle. We'd offer just the handle, but it would be cost prohibitive to produce them seperately, as there would be a lot of wasted metal stock. If a lot of people order fascias without handles (meaning we would have a surplus of handles), we might reconsider.

I'll try to post better pictures tomorrow...

Okay, I think a want one (set). Gorgeous looking!

Can I have it chromed, please?

Cheers

Im definetly 100% in. Just wondering what are you able to "add on" to the fascias as in chroming and other stuff like that. If not the normal silver looks sweet.

Mark, Qtqc, thanks for the kind words. Brandon and I are both quite happy with the quality of work from our cutter. It's good to see that others are happy with how things are coming..

Please remember that the example above is still in a fairly rough state, and there is a bit of work to be done on it yet. It still has to go to the shop to be machined. So the final product will be MUCH better, with a great deal more detail.

We also have a bit of engineering to do on the handle, as the blank for the handle currently doesn't have the detail necc. to attach it to the hinges. That should be completed very shortly.

This, of course, all comes after we take the time to make sure everything is right with the blanks. Brandon doesn't have an empeg (yet) so he can't test fit the blank. We'll do it when we get together, which as I said earlier should be tomorrow. I don't believe there should be any problems, though; we must have measured every feature of the fascia 100 times.

In the event that there are problems, we'll correct them and run another test batch. Believe me when I say our first concern is that everyone gets the best product we can possibly provide.

As for chrome finishing, Mark, we should be able to make it happen without problem. However, our guy doing the mechanical finishes says he can get a nearly chrome finish through polishing. I don't know off the top of my head which would be less expensive. Either way, we'll do any finish people want, if possible. The cost would, of course, be no more than our cost to have it done.

So that pretty much answers Qtqc's question, too, in a way. We have a ton of possible finish choices were working on, but I want to keep from giving specifics until I have a final word from the finishers.

Nice! I'm sooo interested in a brushed alu set...

That looks absolutely gorgeous !! Very nice work ! can't wait to see the end result !!

Great stuff! I can't wait to see the finished article!

Ok, so Brandon has brought over the test batch, and we've taken a few (incredibly amateurish) pictures for everyone.

This is the extent of the test batch, all together....

Ooooohhh.. . player porn!

And a different angle on the batch....

A comparison between the original fascia and the new one....

A comparison of the thickness of the two fascias...

The fascia blank (sort of) attached to my empeg...



The knob is installed, but the buttons are not. More on that in a minute...

A few different angles on the fascia blank...

Not amaturish in the least. That red backdrop is pretty cool, actually.

And finally, a picture of the handle blank...

Thanks FireFox! Very kind of you to say so, but I won't quit my day job to work as a photographer.

So that's it for the moment. Here's the first thoughts Brandon and I have on where we're at...

1) The blanks look very good (thanks to our cutter), and are actually fairly light for being somewhat thick.

2) The blanks fit quite well on the empeg, the screw holes line up just right. They should allow a very small amount of adjustability to allow for slight variations in peoples empegs.

3) The blanks may be just a skosh too thick. We're gonna look at it and decide. If necc., we can take a bit of thickness off. It's hard to tell right now because, when "installed", the lens spaces it out a bit . This is because the void to hold the lens hasn't been milled yet.

4) We can't install the buttons yet, as the angle in the holes has yet to be milled. Hence the lack of buttons in the "installed" pic.

5) It may seem as if the screws are sticking out in the pic showing the fascia blank on my empeg. This is because they are , indeed, sticking out. We have to have the "countersink" area for the allen screw heads bored out when the unit is milled.

6) The notch for the handle (the one you use to raise the handle to remove it from its sled) needs to be added during milling. We didn't forget it. The angle on the back of the handle will be done at the same time.

7) Surface detailing, of course, still needs to be done.

8) Brandon has pointed out that we may have to change our plans as far as selling the fascia without the handle and vice-versa goes. The handle was designed with the new fascia in mind, with no thought to allowing a "mix-and-match" situation. Using the new handle with the stock fascia would look pretty bad. Likewise with using the new fascia with the stock handle. We'll give it some more thought, but neither of us think it would look right.

That's about all we can think of for the moment. We'll keep everyone updated as things progress. I know it has been a long wait, but we are getting there.

I'm going to have to say that I was initially skeptical, but, right now, it looks excellent. I'll wait to see what the finished version looks like, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't tremendous. Keep up the good work, and I hope you make some money on it.

Maybe I should go back a read everything again, but since your making a new handle have you though about putting a small piece of rubber on the back of the handle to help stop it from rattling?

Wahoo, progress! Looking good webroach, I can't wait to see the finished product.

I was curious are these faces going to have a bevel around the edges (in the front) when they are done or just straight regular edge?