Drivel Starved Nation;
This week, the new owner’s of Bridge City Tool Works are opening their doors to customers old and new in Montclair, CA.
My good friend, Jack Xu, is flying in from Nanjing, China, Consuelo is flying down with her new baby, and there are quite a few DSN members showing up for the free food. No surprise there. The new BCTW team will all be on hand for the meet and greet. You can read more about it here.
Oh, I will be there as well along with my wife, who’s company is building the new BCTW website scheduled to go live in Q1 2019. Rutager West is flying in from Minnesota to talk about his new BCTW legacy repair business.
It is completely surreal to me to be attending this event for the company I founded. I’m not sure what to think, but I am looking forward to seeing everybody. If you can attend, please do!
COUNTERSINKS PRE-ORDER UPDATE: Two weeks ago, I got a call from the company who is grinding the single flute countersinks. Keep in mind, I’ve been calling the owner every week since the first week of August wondering why this job was taking so long. First they were busy. Next, the ONLY GUY who could run the machine was dealing with a dying parent. Then the collet could not hold the shanks because of the 120 degree flats. Then it was “impossible” due to all the machines were slammed.
Interestingly, when I started Bridge City in 1983, my unwritten rule of business, actually my personal creed, was to conduct myself in such a manner that I would never be on either end of a lawsuit.
This company really pissed me off and I informed the owner that a signed purchase order is a contract and I called our corporate lawyer, basically because of all the lies. My lawyer talked me off the cliff and the job has been yanked and moved to a new supplier. That is the bad news.
The good news: this job will be done in the next 2-3 weeks. Consuelo and my daughter Ashley will box them up and get them out to you ASAP. I will still be in Dallas, but I will monitor this closely–I do not anticipate any further delays, nor a lawsuit.
That leaves the Universal Gages, and I don’t have anybody I can trust to assemble them prior to laser etching. So they are my first priority when I get back in late Nov.
That’s all for now, and I hope to see you in Montclair this Saturday.
-John
Sadly I’m stuck on the East Coast dealing with the mundanities of a new job that requires a move.
I was gonna go and test the new guys for troll resistance. Have fun.
dude,
got my countersinks today. question: the pics indicate the countersink dimension as well as bridge city tool being imprinted around the flat facing of the circumference. when you had to change the manufacturing company, was that detail given up or omitted? my set has no reference as to which one is which and no bridge city attribution.
dave
Dave,
The grinder could not guarantee how much of the rim would be consumed in the cam grinding so we had to nix the laser. That, and the one I looked at as a test was so small it was close to worthless.
They are actually easy to tell apart, the 60 degree is obvious. The 82 degrees appear acute and the 90 degrees look “fat”.
Sometimes in renderings the reality is not achievable as demonstrated in this case.
So it is not an oversight.
-John
“First they were busy. Next, the ONLY GUY who could run the machine was dealing with a dying parent. Then the collet could not hold the shanks because of the 120 degree flats. Then it was “impossible” due to all the machines were slammed. ”
The only excuse missing”: the dog ate the homework. I for one have run out of patience. It is now more than “2-3 weeks” since this report.
Mr. Ree,
We have shipped them all. I’d rather refund your money than be called a liar. It has never been about the money for me.
And by the way, thanks for regurgitating my words, I would never have said them if they were not the truth.
If you have not received what you ordered, which is my interpretation of your post, please let me know, john@bridgecitytools.com. I will fix it.
I’m too damn old for a public lynching.
-John
john,
could see the rim remainder was rather narrow so can understand the issue with the laser engraving. you still on father/grandfather assignment or back in portlandia?
thanks, dave