Hi There- Its John here.
CopperCore is the last part to produce and as such - the topic of this communication. The first batch of CopperCore oven blanks is back in our hands for final machining.
We’ve had a very lucky week so far and things are looking remarkably good. Considering the number of things that could have cocked up but didn’t I remain super optimistic. I’m late on “Late January” delivery but we are producing Anvils that will ROCK early February!
The CopperCore oven blanks that didn’t get welded last Friday were finished Monday. I picked them up Monday afternoon and drove them to the vacuum brazer. The brazing cycle, which is 14 hours long, was completed overnight Tuesday and we had cooled parts ready for pickup by 4pm Wednesday. Unfortunately Toronto was in the middle of a snowstorm alert yesterday afternoon. The snowstorm didn’t amount to much but we waited until this morning to pick them up anyways.
We cut into one of the CopperCore blanks before lunch to verify the integrity of the brazing process. That blank was perfect. No voids in the copper. You can bet I am S&*#ing my pants about this. There were three sources of copper blemishes in the Founders version. They were 1) clamping marks marring the copper 2) tooling tear-outs using the wrong carbide inserts and 3) voids in the CopperBlock section of the oven. We have nailed 1 and 2 by changing the clamping and tooling and practicing on blanks left over from the Founders version. Eliminating the voids are likely a function of other process parameters that, respectfully, I am going to keep proprietary for now. Since folks are now trying to “copy” the Anvil I have to become a bit more guarded. As we start to process more blanks tomorrow we will know if we nailed the copper void problems.
Transfer of the machine programs I wrote for the CopperCore oven into the factory environment started today. The guys at the factory take my input for sure, but to be fair, rely a lot more on their experience than my enthusiasm. They have an amazing dedication to getting things into what they call Production Mode. It is routine for them to scrap 30-40 parts trying different combinations of drills, mills, boring bars etc. to get the accuracy and surface finishes they want. They accuse me of being a bit of an “old woman” and fussing over them too much and I have to keep reminding myself that building perfect parts to match the blueprint is their full-time job and they are good at it. Anvil is a snowball I pushed off the hill. The Factory is turning that initial momentum into an avalanche.
The CopperCore ovens are being run on three machines located in a tight cell so we can do the first operation on number one, pass to the second, and then the third will yield a final part. Once we have the programs running smoothly we will be producing several finished ovens per hour. This setup is going to stay in place until we have satisfied the Launch Replacements, Late January pre-orders, and then we will launch into the Wait List. Hopefully anyone reading this email who wants an Anvil will have one on the way this month. January has seen a significant investment by both Vestratto and our manufacturing partners into ensuring Anvil is not only the best it can be, but can be made reliably, and in high volume. Many of you have told us Anvil has been meeting your expectations. It is our goal here at Vestratto to not just meet, but to exceed your expectations. To blow them away! I want Anvil to be your favourite vape! After being retired for so many years I am having fun again. We’ve started the Non-Revolution Revolution.