Production and Shipping news!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 12:55:54 AM

Hello! Hello! This is the one you’ve been waiting for! After months of hard work, we are thrilled to announce we are only two weeks away from starting the shipping process! 

We started receiving batches of finished Oloids this week. We’ve been spending some time on the manufacturing facility making sure the quality of the pieces coming out meets our standards. We’ve had to send back a few pieces for rework but nothing outside the normal ratio. So everything is going great with this process :)

We also received the first brass and copper units and they look beautiful! We were originally planning on doing a copper plated alloy, but in the end we decided to go for a solid copper alloy. We think it looks and feels much better! Here are some pictures of the process:

There is one small issue we are still addressing though. The Black Oloids have been giving us some headaches since they have to receive a final chemical treatment after they are brushed and polished in order to turn the steel black. This process is called Black Oxide. We first receive the finished steel Oloids, and we take them to a different facility to apply this treatment. 

We ran a first batch of brushed and polished Oloids and the finish was highly inconsistent. There were some spots all over the pieces and they did not look good at all. We talked to our supplier and they said it might be because of some soldering they did on the pieces to fix some small holes they had. They made a few more samples, added a special treatment after soldering, and then we took them to the other facility again to do the black oxide process. 

The brushed Oloids came out great! The finish is smooth and sleek. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the polished Oloids. There are still inconsistencies on the finish so it doesn’t look perfect and shiny as we were expecting. We are still looking into this issue, trying to figure out why this is happening and what we can do to prevent it. However, this process is taking some time and we want to start shipping as soon as possible. 

We are considering two options: one would be to hold all Black Polished Oloid orders until we figure this out, and the other would be to just make all black Oloids in brushed finish and prioritize shipping time. And we guess it would be better if you guys tell us what you think about this.

Here are some pictures of how both Oloids look. If someone selected the polished finish but like the brushed one enough, you can still edit your Backerkit survey to change your selection. Doing this would definitely simplify the process for us and ensure a faster shipping time for your order. 

But if there are people who still want to get the polished and are willing to wait, please let us know so we can make a decision quickly! We also plan on closing the surveys by the end of this week. So please, if there are any other changes you want to make to your order, do it as soon as you can so we can start arranging everything for shipping. 

We are aiming on sending the first batch of Oloids to USA in two weeks, where all Oloids will be packed and shipped to the rest of the world! We’ve read some of your comments saying you want to receive your Oloids soon because you are planning on giving them as a gift. Other backers have kindly offered to wait a little bit to let others get them first if they need it sooner. So if anyone needs us to expedite their order please let us know so we can include you on the first shipping batch.

Thank you, and we look forward to hearing back from you!

-Pat & Team

Production news and surveys!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Jan 22, 2018 at 05:36:12 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

More production news!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 10:33:13 PM

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great start to the year!

The Oloid production is moving along, but things slowed down a bit on the factory last month because of the holidays. In addition to this, we had to send back the whole first batch for rework, since we noticed some inconsistencies on the casted parts.

The finishing process has also taken some training, because although the finish for both polished and brushed was 100% defined, each worker needs to learn how to handle the pieces while sanding and polishing in order to nail the exact finish. And it’s not as easy as it looks! They have to do this while making sure the shape of the piece is not altered in any way, so they needed to actually understand the geometry of the Oloid and it took a lot of trial and error for them to get it just right.

Fortunately, everything is running smoothly now. The factory is back at full capacity and Oloids are being casted at a nice rhythm with minimal number of reject parts.

We are now getting everything ready to start sending Oloids to USA, where the rest of our team will take care of fulfillment. We are already processing the orders and preparing the files to start printing shipping labels and packing lists. There are still about 200 backers who haven’t answered the survey yet. Please use this link in case you did not receive it in your email: https://oloid.backerkit.com/ or send us a private message if you have any questions regarding your order.

Thank you, happy new year!

Pat & Team

Production News
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 12:07:13 AM

Hello!

This will be a quick update to let you know how production is moving along.

The Oloid trees are already being casted as we showed in our previous update. We are currently making a big batch of stainless steel pieces, and then, we will make the brass and copper Oloids at once.

The bottleneck will be the polishing process; first because they are made by hand one by one, which takes longer than casting. Second, because the manufacturing facility ran out of the sanding discs we chose for the last phase for both the shiny and brushed finishes. They have other materials available but those were the ones that provided the best aesthetics, so we decided it was best to hold on a little bit. The supplier confirmed they will send the discs next week. We hope they will arrive quickly so we can resume the process as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, this delay means we won’t be ready to start shipping Oloids for at least two more weeks. We know some of you were hoping to receive your orders before the holidays to give the Oloid as a present. We thought it would be a nice idea if you can give your loved ones a card to let them know their gift is coming. So we designed a nice card that can be printed or sent digitally. We will custom-make them to include the recipient’s name and a message by you. If you’d like to get the card, please send us a message through Kickstarter and we will be happy to make it for you :)

Thanks to everyone who already responded the survey! If you haven’t answered yet, please try to do it as soon as possible so we can start processing your order. if you didn’t get yours, you can use this link to retrieve it: https://oloid.backerkit.com/

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We’re here to help!

Happy holidays to everyone!

Pat & Team

LAST DAY!
about 7 years ago – Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 12:34:22 AM

Hello there, our campaign is about to end and we are getting ready to start making Oloids! 

Production

We are glad we started the manufacturing process super early, since we’ve received 50 times more orders than we originally expected! Both the regular size and TOTEM Oloid molds will be finished by Friday. After that, we just need to make some tests to green light production, and we are confident this will allow us to make the 3000+ pieces that you guys have ordered so far without affecting our timeline.

Logistics

We’ve been answering to all of your questions regarding pledge upgrades and we will make sure everyone has an answer before the campaign closes. Please let us know if you have any questions or if we somehow missed an earlier message from you, we are here to help! 

We also want to let you know that you WILL be able to make changes to your pledge and add extra items when we send the surveys after the campaign ends. It will be a very smooth and easy process so if you find it confusing right now you can definitely wait for that moment. 

Rewards! 

And we believe we are still on time for a new announcement! We are adding two more rewards to the campaign: 

The ALL METAL Collection: We are making a special edition package that will include one Oloid of each material: The stainless steel, The Black Oxide, The Brass, and The Copper. It will come in a nice wooden case, not just a stand, and it will have your name and backer number engraved or a custom message if you prefer. 

The Elemental Collection: This is a VERY special edition that will never be available for retail. So this is only for our Kickstarter backers. We want to bring you as close to the production process as possible. So, the Elemental Collection will include one Oloid from each stage of production: 

Stage 1: Wax Oloid (exactly the way it comes out of the mold) 

Stage 2: Raw Steel Oloid (right after the casting process) 

Stage 3: Polished Oloid 

Stage 4: Black Oxide Oloid 

This collection will also come in a special edition wooden case with your name and backer number engraved or any custom message you want. 

Both collections will be available in regular and TOTEM sizes. You can change your reward selection to get The ALL METAL Collection or The Elemental Collection, or if you want to add it on top of your current pledge, here is what you have to do: 

To add an ALL METAL Collection (regular size): 

USA and Mexico: add MXN $2700 to your pledge 

Rest of the world: Add MXN $3200 to your pledge 

To add an ALL METAL Collection (TOTEM size): 

USA and Mexico: add MXN $5400 to your pledge 

Rest of the world: Add MXN $6200 to your pledge 

To add The Elemental Collection (regular size): 

USA and Mexico: add MXN $2900 to your pledge 

Rest of the world: Add MXN $3400 to your pledge 

To add The Elemental Collection (TOTEM size): 

USA and Mexico: add MXN $5800 to your pledge 

Rest of the world: Add MXN $6600 to your pledge 

The only bit of bad news is we won’t be able to make the Oloid in different colors. We made many tests and none of them came out as expected. The problem is with the Oloid`s shape; since It is a continuous curve surface, there is no place to grab it. Most processes for adding color work with electricity and require a contact point, this contact point doesn´t get colored and often looks like a burn mark. Other products get away with it by placing the contact point on a hidden surface, like the inside of a product or inside a hole, but the Oloid has none of this. Black oxide process is not a problem because is purely chemical and requires no contact points, so it leaves no marks. 

We can definitely keep trying but for now we won’t be able to offer a different color as a reward. If you guys have any suggestions on different finish methods that could work for the Oloid we’d be happy to hear you out.

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And here are some Kickstarter projects we want to recommend:

A Minimal Mechanical Pencil that will Last a Lifetime 2.0

My friend Andrew recently launched his second campaign of this beautiful mechanical pencil. I think you guys would like it; it would look great next to your Oloid ;) CLICK HERE for more info.

mobu | The World's Most Versatile Cable Clip

Our friends over at Version 22 have just launched mobu, The World's Most Versatile Cable Clip. With mobu there’s NO MORE tangled earphones, NO MORE cables slipping off your desk, and NO MORE wasted time winding and unwinding cables either! Clip them together and save hours of time fumbling around. Take a look HERE.

BASEbelt: Next-Gen Storage Solution for an Active Lifestyle 

Created by fellow Oloid backer Paul Watkins, BASEbelt is a Cargo Pocket Storage Solution Designed for Military Survival and Refined for Civilian Comfort use in Outdoors, & Fitness.  CLICK HERE for more info