9.11.04

This is the latest development - the machine shop has informed me that etching the LionHeart logo on bare aluminum would produce a barely visible result, if at all. This is because the etching is normally done after anodizing and actually removes the darker anodize color to reveal the shiny silver color beneath.

Thus I am thinking to offer a significant portion of the LH run in bare aluminum with NO logo. This would result in two advantages:

1) I could get the bare aluminum bodies quite a bit sooner

2) I could take off another $11 from the cost, thus making it $164 per light. Battery and charger would still be $55 for a revised Full Kit price of $219.

The cost reduction would need to be based on a finite and significant number of units ALL made the same way (simply CNC'd and sent to me, no logo etching)...I can't get into doing several iterations and the attenuately tangled options web this would weave, as the additional sorting and accounting would take more time and trouble and I would easily earn back that $11 cost reduction.

So I would be interested in seeing how many might go with this idea. You'd save $11, you'd get your LionHeart sooner, and you'd end up with an unlabeled, sterile, stealth LionHeart in a bright, machine-finished aluminum color pretty much like the one in these pictures:

My wife says this finish makes it look like jewelry...

So regardless of what finish you might have indicated in your initial preorder, you can change it now if you want to go this way (and we get enough people on board). If there is indeed enough interest I can work out a last-minute order change with the CNC shop but we must hurry as they are cutting metal Right Now.

Machine shop report -

Only the specific (but very complex) cuts in the head, as well as the radiusing of the bezel to hold the lens o-ring, need to be done now. Then most will go off to the anodizers and then laser etchers, while some will be sent straight to me for the Fast Track build up. Here's a pic of a set of Actual Pieces so far, as sent to me by the CNC shop just this morning:

As you can see there is no channeled hole yet milled into the head/control-module component for the switch, and it next goes into the CNC milling machine for that. Also note the slightly raised rim around the bottom of the battery tube. On anodized versions this is where the logo will be etched so that the rim protects it from scuffing, etc., such as when set on end during candlemode - "We will degrade no LionHeart logo before its time!"

Thanks.

The Pilas are on their way to me. Everything else short of the bodies is all in place (boards, UCL lenses, silver particle-impregnated electrical conduction grease, tailcap Belleville springs, split-tube stakes, 27.5mm reflectors, T-binned Luxeon 3s, Ceramique, wiring, etc.) - just waiting on the dang Fast Track (and the subsequent HA3 Natural) bodies...*SIGH*...

UPDATE 10-15-04:

Just got off the phone with the CNC shop and the machine finished aluminum Fast Track bodies will ship the middle of this coming week. Takes maybe 3-4 days to reach me so early the following week they should be in my hands.

I will start building a few myself, slowly, to work out the most efficient way to set up the "HAT production line" and the first event will be that coming Sunday, with any completed and tested units we manage to finish to begin shipping the very next day, with small subsequent batches to ship daily thereafter. We will be doing all we can to minimze the wait period and besides, we need to get these all out of the way to make room at the work stations for the HA3 body assembly which should be following close on the Fast Track's heels!

UPDATE 10-22-04:

The Fast Track bodies have just shipped from the CNC shop! They are in the air as of right now, winging their way to me encased in nothing more than their shiny bare aluminum finishes...

UPDATE 10.24.04

We be rollin'.

If a pitcher is worth a thousand words, here's a couple thou for ya:

Of course what you see here is being worked on by my lonesome right now (in fact this is what I did just tonight, after coming home from my regular 12-hour shift) since the first HAT Build Party is not scheduled until - Halloween!

First the bad news - the Pilas are not yet here. They are just about done being manufactured and JS Burly's informed me via telephone today they should be shipping from the factory in Hong Kong directly over the water to Hawaii this Thursday, October 28...

But depending on how many of these Fast Tracks I can complete before then, I will ship to those who ordered just lights alone (those who already have Pila chargers/batteries).

And the good news at least is that the LionHeart build process is faster than the VIPs, as I might have mentioned earlier.

Just so you don't think I'm sittin' around, twiddlin' muh thumbs...

Must turn in now, as I start work in about - four hours. Sheesh.

G'night all... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz