Drivel Starved Nation,

Since I am going to be out of the office for the next six weeks on a personal family matter, I just made arrangements for my daughter Ashley to help with partial assembly of the Universal Gauges while I am away. The first assembled UG-1 is pictured below (this is what they look like BEFORE they go our laser house for etching);

I have a hunch people are going to be suprised by the versatility of this unique tool.

Here is the latest info on all of my pre-order obligations;

1) KM-2 Kerfmakers have all shipped.

2) Scratch Awls pre-orders have all shipped.

3) The HP-10 Cove/Core Kits have all shipped.

4) The HP-6 mixed bag of pre-orders have all shipped.

5) HP-14 Scraper Planes have all shipped.

6) The countersinks are apparently causing an issue with our tool grinder. The flute is just ever so slightly undersized and this is causing the helical grind to crash into the cutting edge. On Monday I will get information on how long it will take to regrind the single flute to avoid the issue with grinding. At least now I know why this was moving so slow… I’ll update the status of this job next week.

7) The Universal Tools are in the assembly stage and once assembled, they will go to our laser house. They are at least four weeks out.

8) Pencil Precision was scheduled for 4th quarter 2018. I am now moving this to Q1 2019.

None of the projects listed “shipped” above were done on August 1st. This has been a crazy 7 weeks of work–I definitely feel like I have been working! One of the things about manufacturing; there is always an issue to solve. For example, the recent issue with the countersinks that I just learned could have been avoided, so I own that issue, and the fix.

Consuelo is working down the waitlists for the KM-2 Kerfmakers and the HP-14 Scraper Planes. We did not have many left over, but those at the top of the list will be notified.

If anything changes regarding the schedule, you will learn it here first! Lastly, I greatly appreciate your patience for my unplanned absence.

-John