Weekly Update April 7, 2019

Well, my weekly update has now been over a month. I have had a few setbacks with broken tools (this week I broke 2 tools totaling over $75 in less than 10 minutes). I have also had to spend more time on my “day job” so I have had less time for working on Woodkeys projects. In the interest of full disclosure (since some have asked), I do not work on Woodkeys full-time. I do not have a traditional 9-5 job so I’m not exactly doing this in my free time, but I do have other commitments that often consume the majority of my days. That has been the case for the past couple of weeks, unfortunately. I am working on getting some help to get things done faster, but that will not be an overnight process.

Some people have asked for an online order queue similar to what some others have done. I will look into that, but at this point that will just be taking up more time to maintain. I am looking at some options that will improve my current workflow along with providing feedback to everyone, so hopefully that will be available in the future.

I’m leaving this next paragraph here from the last update since it still seems relevant:

First of all, sorry for this long overdue update. I tend to focus on getting things done and neglect/forget to post updates. I am planning to make weekly update posts. If you want to see little bits of progress in a more real-time manner, I try to post more often to my Instagram.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through this process. It has been quite an adventure. I couldn’t do it without your continued support.

Now for the updates:

Big Series Aluminum

Waiting on anodizing. I dropped the ball on this, but I will get an ETA by Tuesday.

Big Series Brass

Waiting on polishing.

Big Series Wood

I haven’t had any time to work on these as planned, so the following still applies. Production is coming along, most of the exotic 1-key cases are done machining. The remainder should be finished up next week. Then they will need to be sanded, finished, and packed. 2-key and 3-key cases will follow.

Wood Planck Cases

These are mostly complete, but I had an issue with cutting the USB ports. I had to scrap a couple of cases due to misalignment and I broke a brand-new endmill. That was replaced and I should have those finished up soon.

Custom Orders

I am working through these as quickly as possible. I did get most of the wood blanks cut a couple of weeks ago. Most of my attention has been spent on the aluminum work lately, but the APX cases should should be on autopilot for a while so I can return my attention to these.

APX Cases

This has been my primary focus for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, setting everything up has taken much longer than I expected. If you’ve been following on Instgram, I posted some pictures and videos of the pallet in action. I have a couple of tweaks to make, and then it will be churning through all the orders.

Scarlet Bandana

Stuck in the queue behind APX. I will be working in some test cuts to make sure everything is ready to roll as soon as the APX boards are done.

Meira

I dropped the ball on this one as well. I will revisit it this week and see what is needed to get it back on track.