Sold/Expired === Exotic Coating Service Update ===

[StrayLight]

This thread seems so deathly silent about this mess. Can anyone explain how this machine shop got away with ruining so many beautiful lights, with full pay? How can we avoid this in the future? IS IT TOO LATE TO DO SOMETHING?? *wonders if voice echoes into vast nothingness*

Amen... I almost feel like I'm talking to myself.

I have not called Jonathan yet. I'd like to better undertstand the extent of the problem before I know what to ask for in recompense. Perhaps other people are reluctant to speak up for fear of scotching the possibility of any future coating service, but I think we all need to know what was and wasn't done for this paid service. I can guess that people don't want to pile on because we know that Jonathan has had to pay out-of-pocket for some missing parts, but we have not heard an explanation as to why the machine shop wasn't made to eat that expense for having lost the damn parts in the first place.

For the record, my PD piston was among the missing parts and because (at that time) I didn't want to further burden Jonathan I told him not to worry about paying for its replacement. Needless to say, I'm now reconsidering the wisdom of that gesture.

 

[LuxLuthor]

Before you come to any conclusions, it may be that many got a satisfactory result, and don't have anything useful to say. It may also be that once they got their items or came to a satisfactory resolution, they have not felt the need to review this thread. Others may prefer to resolve their issues by PM/Email/Phone with Jonathan vs. the way you are doing it. If it is really essential for you to get eveyone's pulse who participated in this thread, then send them each a PM, rather than expecting them to respond publicly for your benefit here.

There is no reason to avoid calling Jonathan, given your legitimate issues. When I spoke with him several times, the details with the various steps, shop problems, delays, additional work required, proposals of best way to work things out were clearly laid out. You don't even know if he has the capability of re-doing some of your items or finding some other way to make you happy. For what it's worth, I don't think anyone owes Jonathan any special favors or contributions. I don't even know if he bothered to follow up with the shop that lost parts to see if their insurance would reimburse after paying their bill. Again, there is no reason to avoid calling him just based upon your own outcome.

 

[ivanchek]

Re: Guess I got lucky

I guess in light of the last couple posts, I'm just going to count my blessings and use the crap out of my 97% satisfactory light.

+1. My light turned out well.

Im sorry to hear that others weren't so lucky.

 

[iconoclast]

I received a package with most of my lights and parts, but I seem to be missing one AlTiN PD piston and I seem to have gained one McClicky switch.

I emailed Jonathan last week, but haven't heard back yet. So in the meantime, if you find yourself with an extra AlTiN piston and/or missing a McClicky switch, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[modamag]

Everyone, I've sent all the parts back from the coating.
If you have not received your light or anything is still missing please contact me thru email.

As a closing, I would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we tread through this run. It was not easy!

To those that have sent $1 here and $50 there.
Thank You. I'll need it to cover for the lost batch, incidentals and non payment.
But please no more as I already owe you enough. I can live w/o buying toys for the next 6 months or year but knowingly owing ppls I'll have to live with that the rest of my life.

iconoclast: Let me check if I have any pistons left. As for the switch and boot, I heard Don indicate one of the member asked him for one. Let me check who it is and we can forward those parts to him. BTW I didn't receive your email.

StrayLight: I appologize for not meeting "your expectation" as I mention in an earlier post "no Titanium parts are to receive polishing". Couple reasons:
1) I just wanted the parts back from the shop and didn't trust them after missing box.
2) Polishing is typically good with smooth circular part. Most of this run's Ti are either Don's or Data lights which will require customize setup and process to do properly for each light. Otherwise those pits and valleys will not come out right and all corners will be flat dull.

Now for your bead blasted parts.
Your parts had previous color anodization and some other coating that basically ruined the Ti coating process.
They had to be reomoved before putting back another layer.
The options were polish it off or BB them off.
Only mechanical means can cleanly remove this stuff. So I gave them permission to BB and do WHATEVER they need to get a proper coating.
This is also the reason why these took an extra month over everyone else.

Everyone have a different taste and liking. Maybe to rectified the situation ask if anyone wants to trade for BB AlTiN light.

Dog Chaser: I gave you one of my clip. I still have two clips from this run that ... just doesn't look right. I think the damaged was already there before I got them. But I just can't find the original owner of these. So what I did was gave everyone good clips from my inventory. That's the reason why some are BB/polished. Here's what one of them look like.

 

[StrayLight]

StrayLight: I appologize for not meeting "your expectation" as I mention in an earlier post "no Titanium parts are to receive polishing". Couple reasons:
1) I just wanted the parts back from the shop and didn't trust them after missing box.
2) Polishing is typically good with smooth circular part. Most of this run's Ti are either Don's or Data lights which will require customize setup and process to do properly for each light. Otherwise those pits and valleys will not come out right and all corners will be flat dull.

Now for your bead blasted parts.
Your parts had previous color anodization and some other coating that basically ruined the Ti coating process.
They had to be reomoved before putting back another layer.
The options were polish it off or BB them off.
Only mechanical means can cleanly remove this stuff. So I gave them permission to BB and do WHATEVER they need to get a proper coating.
This is also the reason why these took an extra month over everyone else.

Everyone have a different taste and liking. Maybe to rectified the situation ask if anyone wants to trade for BB AlTiN light.

Jonathan, I appreciate your posting here and replying to my concerns, but I have to take issue with several parts of your explanation.

First, I resent the implication that "my expectations" were anything out of the ordinary. I simply expected that the services offered would be the services rendered.
They were not.

If you said previously that no Ti parts would be polished, I cannot find any mention of it in this thread. Below are the pertinent quotes regarding polishing that you did post:

StrayLight:Anything with scratches we'll try to remove.

stevevh: The polish is required if your light have sharp edges which might cause to the coating to flake although rare but I've seen it before.

Guys here's a general rule of thumb for the lights... If it's a Ti light and is scratch or contain sharp edges then I'll send it out for polish.

The next to head in is the Titanium stuff. This will take 2-3 days in polishing then to the PVD shop.

I've also dropped off batch 3 (Ti) for polishing.

I've read through this thread repeatedly and I can't find any statement that Ti parts will not be polished. While I understand (though don't agree with) your reasons for ultimately not having them done, I also cannot find any mention of these reasons before yesterday.

Drywolf: No bead blast this round.

This is your only mention of bead blasting I found in this thread. Is it unexpected then that I would be unpleasantly surprised to find some of my lights bead blasted? Though I've made my disdain for bead blasting obvious, I can deal with the knife pocket clips being finished so. They did have previous coatings, and the LT27 bezel was flame anodized.

However, I am calling absolute BS about the LunaSol27 head. I purchased it directly from Don and it had no coating whatsoever. None. Zip. Plain Ti.

Aesthetically you have ruined my favorite light for no reason. Why?!

By your own statement, there was an option to polish instead of blast, so why no communication before making such a drastic alteration? I have asked about trading parts with other participants of the run, in this thread. No takers so far.

Jonathan?

 

[modamag]

We can keep trading post. However I believe it's much more efficient that we talk in person. You all have my phone number. Give me a call to address your issue.

 

[iconoclast]

I suspect that the clip in your picture was one of mine. It's not obvious by looking at it, but it's actually tapped to fit the mount screw of a camera tripod. (yeah, the thickness means less than a full thread turn, but it actually works.) I probably should've swapped it for a "normal" one before sending it in, but if it survived the coating process I'll gladly swap it for a standard one. The other oddball clip you mention I can't account for.

I don't know what happened with the email, I never received a bounce or mail failure message. I'll try to resend again and followup there if possible.

 

[Dog Chaser]

Jonathan,

No worries from my end. Thanks for helping me out.

I would love to see a side by side shot of the AlTiN vs. DLC. I was torn between the two and went with the AlTiN. I'd love to see a comparison now that the run is done. Anyone? Thanks.

 

[Iliger]

Received Colossus head in chrome and other parts. The coating is perfect!
Thank you, Jonathan!