Guys,

 

When you're busy, you're really freaking busy.

 

I would say that I could have missed my calling and been a great Marine.  The past few weeks I have been running on minimal sleep and busier than all get out.  

 

Here is my new ride, an old one at that.

 

 

It's a Hawker 700, with full EFIS, very nice upfront but it's still very loud, making me break out my old David Clark's and wishing it flew more like a Falcon than a polished brick.

 

Here are some robotic arms and brackets for a California based company.

 

 

 

If you notice, we can get very clean cuts.

 

This is just the beginning.  We had an engineer in today who completed a number of CAM toolpath's for us and helped us optimise our cutting.  Most of this is software.  A change here or there can make a huge difference in the finished product.

 

Doing the OEM projects enables us to work under pressure, doing a number of different complex parts and get paid for it as opposed to dreaming up a schedule of when we'd like to work on stuff.

 

Today we set up a fuel tank tool path.  Its going to look freaking awesome.

 

The end plates and top plate will now all be cut into a single steel block with the same correct profile as we had before.  All of the sight glass and fuel fuller locations are pre-drilled.

 

This should be a significant improvement as you get a full one piece fuel tank that is ready for detail.  It also improves weight as our traction motors need it for adhesion.  

 

Also, because we do our own machining and tooling, we can have everything and anything we want to do done in a few days.  Right from the GP9 and up.  Also others.  

 

Keep up the support, things will be coming along quickly.

 

The ribbon connectors for our (decoders) shipped yesterday.  This is a $2000 order because we had MOQ and they were special ordered.  The ribbons we got initially were way too thick, these are about half the size and are very flexible.

 

With the PCB layout just about frozen, we're able to also start design of the hood weights.  We already have the steel on hand to do new fuel tanks, frames, and of course design and cut hood weights.

 

So with the (decoders) firmware almost done and next week the start of sound recordings you'll see something ready for layout testing.  

 

We are also getting some ABS stock in hand to start machining new hood samples and other parts to prototype before we start mould designs.

 

Don't worry about locomotive kit orders, anything superseded by new parts will be replaced.  There is a good reason we've been delaying shipments.

 

The first two tablets hit India today, hope Ingersol Rand follow's up with an order, it would mean a lot of locomotive kits or injection mould machines.

 

As stated a few months ago now, the side-frame modifications are also done, just waiting for some business to pick up so we can pay for them to be released.

 

All the best,

 

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes / rti - Micron