He's skint.
Ricky i am not skint.
Guys here's the situation: The tool that makes univalve is way overdue, i not realising what was entailed in the size and complication of the tooling.
It turns out that the tool weighs 500KG and a lot of parts are made of beryllium, a very hard to machine metal, which is needed due to its ability to heat the cool very quickly. so the plastic mouldings keep there shape.
Sorry if this info seems boring but i do not want anyone guessing my situation.
All i now is, it is finally finished and due to be moulded next week.
I hope it will come off the mould ok if not it will go back to tool maker to tweek again.
Now that's really interesting.
We've commented on this before. Tool and Die makers are very good at taking orders, and then giving a completion date they have no intention of keeping. The figure that seemed to keep everyone happy in my experience was 6 weeks. Its short enough to keep the customer in expectation. Anything longer would cause a customer to reconsider his options. It was also a good time period used in the motor trade. A special order from the factory was always 6 weeks away or less. It was only after the 6 weeks was up that a new expected date was advised.
IMO Steve has merely passed on the info he was given in all honesty believing it to be a genuine time of completion. He also needed to give a satisfactory reason to the speculation as to why the beloved (to me) Aquadapter is no longer available.
Your spot on, i was told 5 to 7 weeks at the end of august, so you can imagine my irritation.
The tool guy i use is very good at his job, but each couple of weeks i contacted him he said it would be finished.
I phoned him in the start of December and he reassured me it would be finished before christmas.
It turns out he had his fingers in lots of pies and my tool went through a couple of tool designs because of material and nature of plastic.
It really is criminal how some tool makers treat you, but you can't rush them.
I have a saying now, that a tool makers week is 4 weeks, so if they tell you 5 weeks x it by 4.