It's time for the second episode. Been too long since my first newsletter.
🔥 The Chaos
It's been a busy time in the lab. Met with another pro shop and demonstrated my products. Looks like I'll have another partnership.
To the theme, there's been plenty of chaos since I last posted an update. Printing profile tuning, having to move my business address, it's been crazy.
One of my favorite filaments, PETG-CF, decided to give me fits with a more complex design. That forced me to even further fine tune the my printing specifications. It was numerous hours spent but the results will speak for themselves. PETG is considered an 'easy' filament to print but what I've discovered is that for a 98% print, sure, it's easy, but I don't settle at 98%. I don't feel comfortable providing something that is only 98%. That's just not how I roll (sorry, couldn't resist the pun).
As for the business, my local village has an antiquated ordinance on the books that doesn't allow any production whatsoever. Their definition is any raw material turned into a good that is then sold to the general public, or any items assembled into a good that is sold to the general public, is not allowed. They acknowledge the need to change their code but in the mean time, I have to move operations to my second location in Apple River, IL. Their loss I suppose.
⚙️ From the Bench
I have plenty of news!
The RDTL pitch gauges have arrived! This has been a project of mine since the start, back when I had an Etsy shop. I finally resolved the challenge of keeping the calipers symmetrically spaced. I didn't want to just copy what has been done before so I settled on a spur gear and rack. I have not seen this done before and it works fantastic. I was able to keep it compact enough to fit into a reasonable size while still maintaining high accuracy. The two-gauge set can measure the pitch of bores from 1/2" to well over 1-1/2". Jamie from Kaiser's Bowling Supply commented to me that he can't measure pitch of the balls that come in with an IT drilled into the ball. Well, that's no longer a struggle for him. He has at his shop one of my first productions of my pitch gauges. They're now for sale in my shop!
The second update from my lab is that I'm now able to incorporate a curved bore, relief, and pitches into my printed IT thumb inserts. Oh, and I will soon (after validation) be able to offer them for Turbo IT setups. This was a major breakthrough for RDTL. I'm excited to see what this will mean to the bowling community as a whole. For decades bowlers have been limited to a drilled straight bore thumb hole. Our thumbs are perfectly straight so why shouldn't our bowling balls' thumb holes match our physiology? Think of holding onto a can rather than a block. A curved hole just makes more sense and should feel more natural.
I'm also working on a table-mount drill bit carousel. That should be available soon in my catalog. I'll be offering both column mount and table mount options for a RDTL 41-bit+ drill bit carousel. Stay tuned for updates.
Remain fearless! (Yes, another Pink Floyd reference.)
