Hi Guys. Its John here.
Wednesday’s Anvil drop for humanitarian relief was a total success. Every charity order processed had the time stamp of 12:01pm. That was pretty cool to see. I trust that there was some enthusiasm for Anvil as well as the opportunity to support the Red Cross :) We know from the Cart Activity log that several others tried to participate. Honestly it was a bit like watching a 100m dash to the checkout. For those of you who were disappointed we thank you as well and stay tuned for future charitable activities. I’m sorry we didn’t have more units in the program.
Last Week’s Drop
We had All of the orders from last weeks Anvil dropped in the Post Office by Thursday morning. We believe we may have discovered why there is an untimely lag in receiving tracking information. Canada Post actually trucks their consolidated shipment in bulk to the US border and only upon receipt by USPS is any individual parcel scanned for tracking. The time from the Toronto Depot to the border may be determined by how long it takes to fill their truck and not necessarily when we drop it off? We tried to explain the delays by stops at Tim Horton’s but that would be way too much coffee. The Post Office definitely isn’t Fedex overnight. Like you, we have no visibility until USPS scans the parcel. We appreciate the frustration some of you feel having seen the parcel shipped from us but not yet received by USPS. If you would like we can add some premium shipping options in the future that will track door to door like DHL and UPS. Fair warning. These are not cheap and sometimes, in our experience anyways, not significantly faster.
This Weeks Drop
We are dropping again later in the week. Likely Thursday. We have found it works best to get everything ready and organized so that when we receive an order we are in a position to get it out within a day or two. We aren’t likely to change this anytime soon because our production is still running in batches that fall short of the growth in the Wait List. We have doubled production for April. We appreciate your continued patience and enthusiasm to join the Anvil Community.
Maintenance Kits and Maintenance Tool
Spare parts kits are now on the store. We intend to maintain our policy of open source so that you can maintain your Anvil without needing to purchase from us.
For those of you that want to source your own o-rings the maintenance kit includes:
Condenser - 5 X 1mm Viton - 3 each
Airflow Valve - 8 X 1 mm Viton - 4 each
Mouthpiece Lock - 6 X 1 mm Viton or Buna Nitrile - 2 each
Heat Shield - 12 X 1 mm Buna Nitrile - 1 each
Vestratto screens are size compatible (0.320” diameter - 0.01” thick) with Legacy screens available from many industry sources.
The materials for the maintenance tool have arrived and samples of the screen extraction blade have been cut from the same titanium sheet we use to make the Spiral Filter. We are tweaking the design to make the tool more functional and robust and going into production this week.
I got asked how does a Snap Disc work?
When you heat your Anvil you know its ready to draw when you hear the distinctive ping of the
SNAP Discs located in the little pocket at the bottom of the herb chamber. A Snap Disc is formed from two nickel alloy foils roll bonded together. Each alloy has a unique coefficient of thermal expansion. The resulting 0.007” thick bi-metal foil is then stamped in a press into a concave shape. When the Snap disc is heated one of the layers expands faster causing a build up of internal stresses until at the activation temperature, with a loud SNAP, the disc instantaneously transforms from a concave to a convex shape. The precise temperature that this SNAP occurs is controlled by the selection of the bi-metal, the precise concave shape and the stamping process. When the Snap disc cools the process is reversed causing a “cool-down” SNAP. Just to show you how common and useful SNAP discs are I am quoting from the TRUFLEX website. SNAP discs are “widely used as thermostats in small appliances, in protection devices to keep electric motors from overheating, in controls that turn tea kettles off when water starts to boil, and many other applications where you want to sense and react to changes in temperature.” Using such a reliable and proven technology in the Anvil in cooperation with the CopperCore oven has proven to be a winning combination.
The SNAP discs in the Anvil are located in the herb chamber. They always SNAP when the herb chamber gets to the ideal temperature to generate vapour. Estratto (roast) is controlled by the location and intensity of your torch on the outer during heating. The CopperCore will rapidly integrate the total stored heat over the entire oven once you stop torching so you don’t need to worry about hot spots or uneven extraction. A couple of PRO TIPS 1) Pack the herb chamber looser to start. Anvil is convection biased and you should take full advantage of the excellent flavour retention at even the richest extraction. 2) Set your torch to an intensity to SNAP in about 40-45 seconds. Too slow you cook the herb and lose flavour, too fast you can outrun the built in thermal lag and combust. Folks who have used the Anvil for a while go much harder/faster but that needs practice.
Cheers
John