All the machines are now on test
I would hope to ship some machine today, Tuesday 19 February
While we have an inbox full of compliments for the machine and not a single dissatisfied customer, we have struggled with shipping damage, in particular leaking joints arising from vibrations during transit
We’ve taken a number of measures which have helped, but I’ve reluctantly decided to bite the bullet & make the most drastic change yet – one which I have pondered from before we shipped the very first machine as I suspected it might come to this but hoped it wouldn’t;
This batch of machine are going to be shipped with the top half of the group removed
It has numerous benefits in terms of greatly improving the odds of your machine arriving with you in good order, but it has an obvious downside – we are relying on you to refit the top half of the group
Refitting the group is dead easy so you should approach the task with confidence, but with utmost care. Do not attempt the task if you are under time pressure, or are being distracted in some manner
There are 4 machine screws with hex heads on them. A hex key of the correct size will be supplied with the machine
The group sleeve with have been lubed and covered with a plastic bag before shipping, as will the piston and spring assembly on the top half of the group
There are 2 messages that you must sear into the front of you mind before fitting the top of the group;
1. Do not cross thread the screws! if they aren’t turning smoothly on their threads stop immediately! unscrew fully and start again
2. Do not over-tighten the screws! you are only threading the screws into brass, a relatively soft metal
if you cross thread or over-tighten the screws you will strip the threads and have an expensive problem on your hands (new top half of group required)
if you are mechanically inept please enlist the help of a friend whom you know to be competent in mechanical matters!
the screws are not bearing any load worth mentioning. therefore they only need to be just tighter than finger tight so the can not work loose. that is all! nothing more!
the 4 screws all have right handed threads. to avoid confusion I recommend crouching down and looking up at the group from underneath to ensure you turn all 4 screws in the correct direction (i.e. clockwise to tighten when looking up at the head of the screw from underneath the group)
i have no doubt there will be some of you who are slightly anxious about this change. perhaps the need for it will be more obvious if we detail some of the benefits;
1. As it currently stands the box is big and heavy and has a high centre of gravity. As a result it is relatively easy to drop. This change will not only drastically lower the centre of gravity in the box, but it will also allow us to reduce the height of the box by almost 15cm. This will make the box much easier to grasp, thereby reducing the likelihood of the machine being dropped
2. The machines are conveyor belt loaded into the aircraft – a lower centre of gravity and a significantly reduced box height all help reduce the likelihood of damage
3. The the top of the group standing significantly higher than the top of the casing it effectively means that any impact that occurs where the top of the group is produces ‘point loading’ of stress onto the machine, rather than distributing the load over an entire surface area of the machine
4. The effect in (3) above is also to transmit vibrations down into the machine, which we believe is responsible for an unacceptable number of machines arriving at destination with leaky fittings
5. The 7kg mass of the group positioned as the highest point on the machine causes it to have something of a pendulum effect, that is to say it magnifies external force that strikes the top of the group
The top of the group will be packed in a separate box and lie in a horizontal position on the drip tray and be secured from moving around
With the reduction in the volumetric weight of the box, it means we now need to reduce the actual weight of the box. To achieve this the plumb in kits will no longer be shipped with the machine. Most likely we will ship the plumb in kit with the machine for the batch of machine being shipped this week, but not for any machines order since. Don’t worry, we will bear the cost for any orders already placed if we decide to ship separately
We appreciate if this decision to ship the machine with the top half of the group removed is viewed with apprehension by some, but in light of our experience to date we think you will find carefully fitting 4 machines screws to be a lot less of an inconvenience than having to open the casing and loosen then retighten pipe fittings in order to address leaking pipes, or in a limited number of cases to discover that you machine has suffered more serious damage in transit. I am high confident that this change will greatly increase the proportion of machines that arrive with their owners in perfect condition, and on balance I think this must enhance the ownership experience
If you remain nervous you are more than welcome to book in a time and we can hook up a video session via Skype and over-see you refitting the top half of the group onto the machine – we are more than happy to do this