It appears that I finally have a reason to send out an official newsletter! The first ever! I should ask Congress to make this a National Holiday, so y'all could get more time off...
First off, I'd like to say Thanks to all the T-Nuts.com customers that have purchased T-Nuts and stuff and have made this little project worthwhile. It started as an experiment and a challenge to myself, and seems to have worked. All because $2.50 for a Ryobi t-nut was too much. And at that price you could only get a few.
Well, almost two years have passed since starting this project, and three generations of T-Nut production have moved out my door and to your table saws. I am now on the 4th generation of production, each time making a small change. This time, ALL SILVER. No gold T-Nuts anymore! Not that it is a major difference, but silver does seem to go better with the BT3K! (Why it took me so long, I don't know...).
For those who have been waiting for these new T-Nuts, they should be ready soon. I did not anticipate that it would take this long to get them, if so I would have started them three months in advance, instead of one. Another lesson learned. Last week a couple delays were caused by the machinist's helper-- who had also made all my other T-Nuts, so he should know better-- who allowed some bad pieces to drop off the lathe.
They had to run another partial batch to replace the defectives. The whole batch should be going to the plater to get the silver zinc coating either today or tomorrow, and that process should take about 4-5 days. Once I get them, I start shipping right away. I have placed the T-Nuts back on the site in active inventory and also I am
accepting "advance orders" for them. Do be aware that your order status will be "Pending" or "Backorder" while in pre-order mode, and that there will be a short wait for your order to arrive. Once I pick up the new T-Nuts, I will change all order status from Pending/Backorder to Processing, so customers will know they are shipping out within a day or so from that time.
Now, on to a new subject. Over the past year I have also been asked frequently about knobs and other related items, so I started investigating the option of offering those too. And I have found a couple sources of knobs and adjustable levers (which are really cool), and have been adding them to the inventory too!
Now here's the good stuff: A few woodworking supply stores offer the same things that I can get, only they charge, in my opinion, TOO MUCH for them. I know that Rockler and Woodcraft sell knobs and adjustable handles from Elesa (Italian made), but they only offer a small selection (make that very small selection) of what's available. I have Elesa's entire catalog available to
T-Nuts.com customers, so much that I can't even get it on the site fast enough. The inventory and options that I will have will give you quite a bit more flexibility in your setup that you'd find elsewhere.
Just as a comparison, Rockler has 4 distinct adjustable ratchet lever options available (Woodcraft, online, has 2). T-Nuts.com currently has 51, and that doesn't even include the "yet unlisted" Elesa products, and the rest of the J.W.Winco (USA) items and GanterGriff (Germany) items that I haven't had time to list yet. Nor does it include the options of stud length for each lever!
The Elesa product line is just one, and it trails slightly behind the J.W.Winco items that I also have available. J.W.Winco (JWW) is another manufacturer of items (USA Made) that woodworkers find at other stores (and still pay too much for). JWW also distributes German and Italian made items that I have available, but also have not yet listed on the site. I'm getting there, it just takes time!
(The catalogs from Elesa, just for knobs and handles, etc, are an inch thick, and the catalog for JWW is almost 2", and that's not counting the 1" casters/wheels catalog and the separate clamps catalog and the separate Elesa hinges catalog and.....It's like a woodworker's jig supply toyland!)
A quick note about JWW and Elesa: NOT made in CHINA! (Personal note: I don't like "Made in China" and in duscussion with John Winkler, CEO of JWW, they don't either. I will try my best to keep that stuff off my site. I'd rather support "Made in USA" and then go to elsewhere if I have to, but not China.)
Off my soapbox now. I have not yet finished the setup for Elesa products on the site, which is why they show $0 for a price and no inventory. That should be changing within the next few days, however. I do have yet to add many more items, both for Elesa and JWW, so please check back once in a while for updates. JWW items that are listed with a price are available,
so they can be ordered (and already have been by a few). If you see something from either company that you would like, please let me know. Both companies have links on my website.
Also proud to announce a "pending corporate merger" with Micropreciis. I have been in contact with Andrew Perella, the manufacturer of the Micropreciis Fixture Blocks for the BT3K, and we are working together so that his fixture blocks will be available through T-Nuts.com. Check back in a week or possibly more, and the Welcome page should have some news about Micropreciis Fixture Blocks availability.
Well, that's about all I have so far. Check back to the site occasionally to see what's new. I never planned to use the newsletter option for T-Nuts.com very much, as I don't like to bug people with email, so I will post most new info on the main site. I don't like using an email box when a website can do the work, but this time a newsletter seemed appropriate (and I even told people I would send one, so here it is).
As always, your info is encrypted, your email protected, no spam, no annoying dinnertime phone calls, no junk mail in your mailbox. Just cool stuff for your table saw!
Happy Woodworking!
--Jeff
Coming soon:
Casters (a whole lotta casters)
Linear actuators (you can make some cool jigs with these, and a bunch of other creative stuff)
Hinges (not your regular hinges!)
Leveling devices (got feet?) (couldn't resist that one)
Handwheels (how about one with a digital readout?)
Quick-release Tube and Swivel Clamps (does "Folding Outfeed or Infeed Table" sound good?) |
