Backers,

Well it has been a few weeks since our last update, and we unfortunately do not have any exciting news for you. We are having countless difficulties with our injection molding vendor and are trying very hard to push through it. Sometimes in design and development your hands are tied and you are at the mercy of a vendor to deliver on their promise. Now here we are, and as a result we're not delivering on ours and we sincerely apologize for that. 

Believe us that we have learned a lot through this project and will definitely not make the same mistakes twice. We should have something for you to see in the next week or so.

***The shipping address question***

Many of you have moved or are moving and are asking about shipping address updates. We will be sending out another update before we ship that will let you once and for all update your most current address. Please, the KS email platform is terrible for communication. We will direct you to another email when we get near our shipping date.

Thanks again for the support!

Jon and Joe

Hey guys,

We know this project has tested your patience and we want to thank you again for your understanding. We have surely had our setbacks and it has definitely been frustrating, but we are moving forward everyday. Even though a small announcement, we have received the machined aluminum and anodized adapter that we added to the project midway thru. The parts looked great on the first try! So that's done. 

Tooling and Production

We are still in the process of tooling refinement and are working to dial-in the inter-connection of the parts. We have also had some issues with materials and we are trying to get that kink worked out as well. What can I say, it's a process and it takes time. That's the reality of product development. 

Grumpy Folks : (...........     

We know that a handful of you guys are getting fed up with the time it's taken for this project to deliver on it's promise. We apologize, but the challenge we have created for ourselves is something that simply takes time to process out. We are at this point because we are devoted to solving the problem and our bigger promise of delivering a quality product still stands. I hope you guys can understand that. 

Have a great week! : )

Jon & Joe

Hey guys,

We just received first shots of the Orbit. We have a few adjustments to make before production begins but things are looking pretty good considering this is just a preliminary run. Textures will have to be finalized, wall thicknesses adjusted and a few other details that have to do with insert molding the threaded inserts. The intricacies of our ball and socket design are not trivial and we are working closely with our vendor to button up all of the issues. We will keep you posted as we receive a more dialed in part. 

Details: 

Cup side with brass threaded insert. An additional cost but well worth it.

A look at how the band will interlock the cup to maintain a constant grip on the ball side of the joint but flex enough to allow you to pop it out.

We are having a few issues with the ball side of the orbit. Wall thickness and material selection are posing a few issues, but we should be able to process them out in production. Notice the "sink" marks on the ball due to uneven cooling and shrinking.

We will have more for you soon as we begin to dial in the fit.

Thanks again for being patient.

Sincerely,

Jon & Joe

Just a quick update that we are scheduled to receive first shot production parts next week. From there we will will begin to make any last minute adjustments that need to be made. Not the greatest images, but here are the core/cavities of the final tools. 

We will have pictures as soon as we get them out of the box. We are just as anxious as you are!

Thank you all for being so patient. We are getting closer and closer.

Jon and Joe

Tool Design 101:

This is just a quick update about our injection mold tool production. What this is telling us is how our molder went about designing the tool that will produce the Orbit components. We are in the process of tweaking a few things. Let me explain...

Some things that we are concerned with is where the tool will be "shutting off". This means that when two halves of the tool come together, there will be a visible hairline or witness mark. Common practice is to try to keep all of these "blemishes" in non-cosmetic portions of the product. We are examining this and making a few adjustments.

Also, every tool includes ejector pins that "eject" the parts off of the tool once they're molded. These ejector pins also leave a faint witness mark or blemish on the part and need to be strategically placed in order to minimize scarring the surface. A few of these needed to be repositioned as well. 

So... although not the most exciting, tool design is definitely a very important part, seeing that every shot that comes out of the tool will be exactly the same.

We are definitely approaching the home stretch! : )

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Jon and Joe