Monthly Update
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 12:07:47 AM
Greetings backers! Time for our monthly update, and we’ve got a good one for you. Let’s not bury the lede: the machining phase of the production parts is complete! Here is the breakdown of where we are at and the next steps:
- We received a set of production samples, and thoroughly checked them all. See a short video of Tom doing that here. All the parts are to spec and look great.
- As mentioned, the production parts are complete. We are just coordinating the freight shipping, customs duties, etc. before we can get them shipped.
- Once the parts arrive here, we will immediately send all the bodies to our guy in Dallas to add the Cerakote, and half the end caps will go to Pennsylvania to be PVD coated in copper.
- While those parts are being coated, we will prep the mechanisms, which basically just involves putting o-rings in the right places.
- The lead advancers, erasers, and packaging have all been ordered and are either en route or in process.
Things have gone remarkably smoothly so far, but we aren’t counting our chickens just yet. That said, we think delivering well before the June 2023 estimate is probably likely :)
In the update next month we should be able to give a decent estimate for timeline for deliveries. In the meantime, hope everyone is enjoying some fall weather.
Until next time,
Tom & Dan
Monthly Update
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 04:24:43 PM
Greetings backers!
Tom and Dan here with our first Mark Three project update, and it’s a good one. Just yesterday we received the first samples of Mark Three parts from our supplier. Typically when we receive the first samples for a new product, there is something wrong that needs to be corrected, but amazingly, these parts are great! There is only one tiny change we are going to add to the end cap piece, but we don’t need to resample for that revision because it is so minor. So we have approved the parts, and they will begin production ASAP.
We expect them to take 4-6 weeks to complete the full production run, but it is not unusual for things to get delayed for any number of reasons these days, but that’s a decent ballpark if things so smoothly. They will send us production samples as the run is going so we can approve parts as they make them.
A wrench can always get thrown into the plans (like when we had to basically remake every part for Mark Two), but things are going as smooth as they possibly could right now. Knock on wood. I guess third time’s a charm.
Aside from that news, be on the lookout for the Backerkit survey to be arriving in your inboxes this week. This survey is how you tell us your mailing address, and the color Mark Three you’d like. You will also be able to add-on additional stuff, like more Mark Threes, or our other pens (Mark One and Mark Two) and our notebooks. All of the writing utensils are discounted on Backerkit, so we highly recommend taking advantage of this. The email from Backerkit will have the subject “Response Needed — Get your reward for Mark Three: A Minimal and Durable Mechanical Pencil.” If you are moving soon, still fill out the survey, you can always edit it later. We will send an email reminder when we are ready to “lock” the addresses and begin shipping.
That’s all for now! Hope everyone has a good week.
Until next time,
Tom & Dan
Thank you!
almost 2 years ago
– Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 04:37:15 AM
Hello Backers!
Just wanted to quickly say THANK YOU for backing Mark Three on Kickstarter. We can’t wait to get production rolling on this.
For now there is not much for you to do other than sit back and enjoy the journey. We won’t be sending out the Backerkit surveys to collect your shipping address, color selections, and add-ons until we get a little closer to shipping.
We like to send out project updates roughly once a month, so you can expect that cadence moving forward. If you want to follow along with everything going on at Studio Neat, we recommend following us on Instagram or subscribing to our Gazette.
That’s it for now. Until next time!
Tom & Dan
Wahoo!
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, Jun 23, 2022 at 05:26:36 PM
Hello lovely backers,
As of this morning we are fully funded! Mark Three is a go. We are excited to bring this mechanical pencil into existence.
We still have 29 days left in this campaign, so please, spread the word to anyone who may be interested in getting in early at a cheaper price, and helping support the first production run.
We also just added a Mark One + Mark Three tier, since they go so well together. Both the pen and pencil are discounted in this tier, so if you’d like to change to that, you can edit your pledge to do so! They will ship together once the Mark Three is manufactured.
Many folks in the comments have been asking about an add-on for a 0.5mm lead advancer. So we are looking in to that! If we do that add-on it will be after the campaign ends when we send the Backerkit surveys, so no action is needed on your part at the moment.
Thanks so much for your support, we are so excited to be bringing another writing instrument into our lineup.
Until next time,
Tom & Dan
