It appears that its all coming together now for The New Math. You'll be calculating B4 + Kit = X - 6 very soon. We have experienced a million little problems in the past two weeks and things are behind where we had hoped they'd be. The press that molds our parts broke down. The C.N.C. mill that is making the battery strap mold broke. Twice…

The company making our threaded inserts broke their little 4-40 tap several times and had to run much slower than they thought they could. Then the plating company had trouble because the inserts are so small. We believe we can pick up the inserts Wednesday August 23 rd. Then we've got to put them in bags for you…

Dan and Chris couldn't get their final set-ups to us for the manual until they returned from the Euros, and Paul is moving back into college. No sooner did Paul get his computer set up than the power went out for a day.

So it's one thing after another, but as you can see we're moving forward. These little bumps in the road are frustrating for both of us, and we apologize for them, but one by one we're facing and solving the problems. We have the full production run of the following parts in our hands as I write this: Box labels; Decals; Hinge pins; Motor plates; The boxes & little plastic bags, Most of the hardware; The tranny and anti-squat shims; Both toe-in bars, Motor plate supports; Both bottom covers.

J Concepts has shipped the first batch of bodies and wings which we should get Thursday. If you've ordered a K.B.K. body, your body will be in Dale's hands on Friday. As you can see from the photos, we will pick up the transmission cases and wing mounts on Wednesday. The nose pieces should be trimmed and ready by Thursday, and the chassies, while not the full production run, are enough for the Pre-Prod orders and the first week or so of business. They'll be trimmed and ready Thursday or Friday.

The mold is in the press and the full run of shock towers will be Wednesday and perhaps some on Thursday morning. They must go to a different machine shop to have the ball stud holes drilled, but we think they'll be ready this weekend. After the shock towers are finished, the control arms, which are made from the same material, go into the press sometime on Thursday. Control arms should be finished Friday.

We finished writing the instruction manual at about 2:30 AM this morning -- hope there are no late-night mistakes! -- and it goes to the printer first thing Wednesday morning. The printer says they can finish it by Friday afternoon.

So it looks like everything will be together Friday August 25, and we'll be ready to start bagging on Monday. Except for the battery strap & posts, and servo clamp & posts, all in the same mold.

You'll recall in our last story we talked about how the tool & die shop had used the wrong C.A.D. for the battery strap. The servo clamp & posts are perfect, and the battery posts are perfect. The Boyz are using them now and they fit great.

With several thousand dollars worth of aluminum here, and a lot of good work in the clamp and all the posts, the tool & die shop decided not to throw away the existing mold but rather to cut pockets in the cover and the ejector and make inserts with the correct C.A.D. As they got into it they realized they would have to move a cooling water line, which added several days to the project, but it was still cheaper for them and faster for us than starting over.

Their C.N.C. mill broke twice along the way and we lost several days. It's very difficult indeed, and errors too often occur, if you try to move a partly-done project from one mill to another. Just too hard to re-establish the identical start point. So we just had to wait for repairs, a day or two each time. It's also time for various operators to go on vacation. And we're not the only work in the shop -- it's all got to be kept moving along even though machines are down and people are on vacation.

As you can see, work for the battery strap is almost finished; the inserts must be secured and the water lines finished. They may be able to run battery straps and etc. on Friday afternoon, but Monday is more like it.

We'll be there when the first battery straps are made. We'll put a pack in a chassis and put the posts, strap, and etc. on. Then we'll throw the thing on the ground, flip it up in the air, do every unreasonable stupid thing we can to break it. If it survives 5 minutes of this, we'll run production.

If the strap breaks or the batteries fall out, we'll see what we must do.

So here we go: Let's assume the battery straps are good on Monday, and they can make and trim enough parts for us to go. As I write this we think all the other parts will be in hand by then. We'll start bagging parts and boxing Kits that afternoon and all orders should be shipped by the end of next week.

Those on the Pre-Production Special list, watch your E-mail for a confirmation that we've debited your card. That means your X - 6 will be shipped within 24 hours. Those not on the Pre-Prod list who want The New Math, E-mail chazz@2wdrc.com and your Kit will be in the second batch shipped. For everybody, if you haven't done so, order your spare parts for shipment with the Kit by E-mailing Chazz. We'll add them to your debit, put them in the box with your Kit, and ship the parts at no extra shipping charge.

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