Progress Report
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Aug 03, 2018 at 11:05:36 PM

Hey Folks,

It’s time for another production update! Things are really moving along nicely, and we’re happy with how things are progressing. If you prefer an audio update as opposed to text, we discuss all of this in-depth on the latest episode of our podcast (also don’t miss the previous episode, all about manufacturing in China).

Production Samples

We received the 100 production samples from China a few weeks ago. Not only was this an important step to allow us to make tweaks before we go into full production, but it was also a test of this new manufacturer. And they certainly delivered! All of the dimensions, tolerances, and surface finishes are great, even better than how we specified. With these parts, we have been able to make some tweaks, basically tightening things up here and there to make the mechanism smooth and solid. Really minor stuff, usually tweaking things 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch, but we are sweating the details to make this pen the best it can be. Another minor tweak is we are coating the mechanism parts with teflon-infused nickel plating, which should help them operate even better. The click tester we mentioned in the previous update sure is coming in handy. We’ve run some of these samples over 100,000 clicks.

Feeling good about the parts, we have submitted a PO (Purchase Order) to the manufacturer. This is the go-ahead to begin full production. They are going to make the mechanisms first, followed by the bodies, so we have the liberty to make any final tweaks to the body if necessary. They are telling us it should take around 6 weeks to complete. It’s happening!

PVD and Cerakote

Now that we’ve submitted the PO, we will be able to sample and lock down the colors for the knock, choosing just the right shade of silver and copper PVD coating. As for the body, we’ve been working with Black Sheep here in Austin to develop a process for coating the pen bodies. We gave them the 50 sample bodies, as well as the 3D printed end plugs we made, and they will do some runs so we can determine how to best coat them at production quantities.

Packaging

We went back to the drawing board with packaging after reading some of your comments, valuing eco-friendliness and cost. We think we’ve come up with something really cool.

The packaging is two molded cork halves, held together with a “belly-band.” Cork is an extremely green product; it is sustainable, bio-degradable, and our specific cork is actually the by-product of a different process.

Here is the cool part though: the cork piece can be used as a desk tray for your Mark One. It’s actually really nice looking, something we could have seen existing as an accessory product unto itself. And it’s a solution for those concerned about their pens rolling off their desk!

There are still some details to work out with the packaging, so it might change slightly from what you see here (and the belly band isn’t designed yet), but we think it’s really cool. And, shockingly (to us at least), this packaging will end up being slightly cheaper than the cardboard tube we were originally planning on doing. Win-win.

Refills

Another surprising thing we’ve learned since starting this project: it is actually more cost-effective for us to purchase custom branded refills from Schmidt rather than off-the-shelf ones with the Schmidt branding. Go figure. So, the Schmidt P8126 refill you receive with your Mark One will be Studio Neat branded. Huzzah! We are also planning to sell packs of the refills on our website (and any backers that want to add refills to their order will be able to). Just providing an easy and cheap way for folks to get more refills as they need them.

Alright, that’s it for now! We’re pleased with how things are progressing. Hard to predict an exact timetable at this point, but we feel quite confident we will meet or beat our November estimate we had during the campaign.

Have a good weekend! 
Tom & Dan

Progress Report
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jun 06, 2018 at 01:46:24 AM

Hey Folks!

It’s time for a monthly update of where things stand with Mark One production. Let’s dig in!

Production

If you listened to the latest episode of our podcast, you know that originally we were planning to have Mark One made in the US, but submitted the engineering drawings to mfg.com on a lark to see if we’d get some quotes. We ended up getting several quotes back from China, and we were impressed with a couple things. One, the price was considerably cheaper, which means we could afford to splurge in other places, like the packaging. It also means we won’t have to raise the final retail price much (or at all). But perhaps more importantly, we have been really impressed with the “hustle” of many Chinese companies. They are incredibly responsive, often turning around quotes in 24-48 hours, whereas with some US companies we’ve worked with it’s like pulling teeth, often taking 3 weeks or more (just for a quote!).

So, we are tentatively moving forward with a Chinese company that came highly recommended. We have asked them to make 100 production parts, which should be in our hands within the next week or so. Once we check those out and feel confident moving forward, we’ll say GO on production. And, if it turns out this attempt is a total flop, we can always move to a more local US based manufacturer as a fallback.

Where Mark One is made may be an implementation detail that you couldn’t care less about, but the bottom line is if this works out it means you will get Mark One faster, and it should retain the Kickstarter pricing when we are selling it down the line. So, a win for everyone!

Cerakote

A couple weeks ago we visited a local shop (Black Sheep Arms) that does Cerakoting, among other things, to chat about Mark One and see if they would be a good fit for that stage of production. We came away impressed, and think they will be a great partner for coating all those Mark One bodies. They share our attention to detail and demand for high quality. They are also open to coming up with creative solutions together to make sure we get the best possible result. To that end, we have developed a custom “plug” that screws into the back of the Mark One. This serves the dual function of masking off the interior from any Cerakote spray, and creating a place to easily hang the Mark One (they hang many on a rack for coating and cooking in the oven). We will be 3D printing this part on our 3D printer with a special resin that can withstand the high heat of the oven. Fancy stuff!

Packaging

We’ve also been working on the packaging. Nothing to share just yet, but it will likely be a tube (similar to the old Glif packaging) with a foam insert to keep the pen protected during shipment. A sticker will be applied to the exterior to keep the tube closed and indicate what model pen is inside, and we are looking at some fancy foil stamping options to mimic the look of the knock on the packaging. Should be pretty cool!

Click Machine

We want the Mark One is last a lifetime. To that end, we’ve built a little machine to test how the click mechanism wears over time. You can watch a short video of it in action here:

Once we have the production parts back from China, we will run one to see how well the parts stand up to repeated use. We plan to click it a million times, which would take about 2 weeks, hah. We may even set up a live steam of the riveting, zen-like machine in action over that period.

Next Steps

As mentioned above, we are waiting on those 100 production parts back from China, which should arrive in the next 1-2 weeks. Once we have those in hand we can measure and test, make tweaks as necessary, and hopefully push the button on production shortly thereafter. Having the production parts will also allow us to send some to Black Sheep to do some Cerakote tests with a real production part and our custom 3D printed plug, and make any refinements as necessary.

That should be it for now, thanks for following along! As always, follow along on Instagram, our Gazette, or our podcast, if you want more frequent and in-depth updates.

Until next time!
Tom & Dan

More Details on China
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jun 06, 2018 at 01:30:47 AM

Hey Folks,

Wow, we were not expecting that response to our last update! Thanks so much for your comments, it made us realize we did a poor job communicating our decision, so we’d like to take another crack at it.

We want to make one thing perfectly clear: the thing we care about above all else is delivering a quality product to you all. Potentially moving some production to China is not a decision we are taking lightly, but we firmly believe it is the path to creating the best product for you.

Aside from the advantages we laid out in the first update (namely, potentially a faster delivery time), here are some ways in which moving to China will increase the quality of the product:

• We are able to use a higher grade aluminum. Previously, we planned on using 6061, now, we are using 7075, which is as strong as many steels. We couldn’t afford to use this grade if we were making the pen stateside.
• We are able to nickel-plate the mechanism. This, along with the higher grade aluminum, should make it much more robust, as well as feel better when the mechanism is engaged (the metal will slide better with less friction).
• The knock is going to be made out of PVD coated titanium. We had previously planned to do nickel and copper plated aluminum. This will be much more durable, and we are opting for titanium over steel (another option) so the pen stays well balanced.
• Moving to China allows us to do a small “test” production run, which is what we mentioned in the previous update (the 100 units). There is no way we could afford to do this in the US, but this initial run will allow us to really tweak and hone all the dimensions to make sure everything is calibrated perfectly and working exactly as we want.

In summary, we believe that the choices we’ve made thus far are going to result in a much better product for you all. Hopefully our track record of past products is evidence that we care deeply about delivering quality stuff.

When we were investigating this company (they are called Global Metal, by the way), we asked for some feedback from US based companies that have used them in the past. Here is what one person said:

“Global Metal has treated us better than any company in the US ever has, they have held very tight tolerances and they actually went above and beyond what we asked from them. We have used them multiple times and everything they have made for us has been absolutely perfect. I've been in manufacturing for 30+ years and this is the most reliable company I have ever worked with in terms of quality and price. Do not hesitate to use them.”

An upside of this pen being constructed of machined metal parts is that quality verification is simple. Everything is specifiable (dimensions, tolerances, surface finishes, etc.) so if the part is not up to spec, we simply reject it.

We want to reiterate that we are prepared to abandon this plan (and eat the cost we’ve already invested) if the quality is not to the level we expect, and move production to a US based manufacturer. But we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think it had a chance to make the pen better.

Thanks again for your comments, we should have been more clear about our decision making process in the first update. Apologies!

And you can definitely expect this will be the main topic of discussion on the next episode of our podcast, so look forward to hearing our expanded thoughts when we next record.

Until next time,
Tom & Dan

Thank you!
about 6 years ago – Sun, May 06, 2018 at 11:59:52 PM

Thank you thank you thank you!

We are still recovering from the whirlwind finish of the Mark One campaign, which is officially our most funded campaign ever! Definitely not something we foresaw, so thanks so much for making that happen!

We are looking forward to sharing the process with you of bringing Mark One into existence. Our general strategy is to post a project update roughly once a month. We don’t want to inundate your inbox with every little bit of news, so we like to package it up in a less frequent but meaty update. If you are interested in more frequent updates, follow us on Instagram and make sure you subscribe to our podcast (we are recording a new episode on Tuesday, in fact).

Some folks have been asking about how to add more pens or notebooks to their order. This will all be handled when we send out the backer survey, which we usually send when we get a little closer to shipping. This is when you will make your pen color selection as well. If you know anyone that missed out on the campaign and wants to preorder, they can do so here.

Thanks again so much for supporting us, we are super pumped to have you all along for the ride. We think you’ll be really happy with the result.

Until next time,
Tom & Dan

Black + Copper
about 6 years ago – Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 09:45:40 PM

Greetings Folks!

We’ve heard you loud and clear in the comments, and have decided to offer all 4 color combinations for Mark One. This means you’ll be able to choose between:

• Black body, Silver Knock
• Black body, Copper Knock
• White body, Silver Knock
• White body, Copper Knock

Don’t worry about deciding now, you’ll make that decision later on when we send out the surveys to collect your shipping address.

In other news, we recorded an episode of our podcast yesterday where we discuss progress on the Mark One. Have a listen here!

We’ve still got 23 days to go in this campaign, so please help us spread the word! Perhaps you have a friend who would be interested in the new color options. :)

Until next time,
Tom & Dan