Riggler's and Tskguy's M49 / M50 bodies

[riggler]

We're not going to have enough for the first batch. At least not yet. Tonight I am documenting each body, and once I go over with Eric and the machinist we will have a clearer plan. I might be able to get the screw hole fix done locally, which would save time!

 

[dandeurloo]

I am remaining cool, calm, and collected. Have been talking to Eric at length overnight and into this morning.

I am not happy with a lot of the headbaskets. There is one tapped screw hole in the wrong place.  I am taking one to a local machinist to have him quote adding the proper screw hole (for Dany's boards... which is something we reviewed over and over, argh...)

I am not happy with the solder job on some of the headbaskets. Some of them have deformation / not symmetrical, could have been from shipping, could have been just how it was assembled, etc.

It's hard to gauge how critical to be, knowing what's tolerable to you guys and what isn't. So I am going to use my head and say: "Would I want this body?"

Eric talked to the machinist and tonight I am going through every mic, assigning serial numbers to them, detailing the headbasket issues, and then they will be fixed.

Personally, I am not going to get upset over these issues, I am taking the Army adapt and overcome attitude!

It is impressive to look at them all together though. They are just massive things, heavier than I imagined, nice quality weight in your hand.

Thanks for the update. Nothing cool comes easy! 

 

[ddageek]

Riggler, Tskguy
No worries , Ill say it again If it helps send my 2 as a pair and put me towards the back of the line.
I have way too many projects on my plate and these things are going make me push everything else aside!

Eric

 

[riggler]

It is humbling that you guys are so cool about these delays. It really is. I know there have got to be some people out there that are disappointed they are not shipped out by now. Eric and I are doing everything we can to make sure these are as good as they can be!

 

[Steph.B]

Just like Eric said above, no stress guys, but I understand that you (and we) want the most possible quality and good finish out of this microphone bodies.  8)

Now, looking at the picture you've just posted, I can see why you are dissatisfied over them. A fair amount of the mesh looks not right, for instance the one at the right bottom looks good on the front side but not flat enough on the back side. The one one the left bottom looks good. The one in the middle looks too "round" and the one at it's left back looks a bit bending backward (but it could simply be a matter of perspective)

I wonder how the machine shop have done the work to bend the meshes ? I think we all remember remember this video where they make a U87 and where the 3 mesh are put on a press to make the final form. I assume it was done by hand on a form for our microphones, correct me if I'm wrong.

I have a lot of projects in parallel as well so I can wait before having my M49/50 bodies and trade my place in the order of shipment if necessary. I also want to be sure to have a mic body that meet all our expectations.

Courage,
Steph.

 

[riggler]

We did use a press / die on the mesh. Investigating the issue, as some are really close!

Currently grading the bodies...

 

[Steph.B]

Good luck finding what went wrong at the machine shop.

It's sad when you see the quality of the microphone bodies on the pictures first page of the thread, buy you and tskguy must be the sadest ones, having a couple of sleepless nights since then. 

Again, please, don't let these issues torture your mind more than needed ! 

Cheers,
Stéphane.

 

[Phrazemaster]

I am remaining cool, calm, and collected. Have been talking to Eric at length overnight and into this morning.

I am not happy with a lot of the headbaskets. There is one tapped screw hole in the wrong place.  I am taking one to a local machinist to have him quote adding the proper screw hole (for Dany's boards... which is something we reviewed over and over, argh...)

I am not happy with the solder job on some of the headbaskets. Some of them have deformation / not symmetrical, could have been from shipping, could have been just how it was assembled, etc.

It's hard to gauge how critical to be, knowing what's tolerable to you guys and what isn't. So I am going to use my head and say: "Would I want this body?"

Eric talked to the machinist and tonight I am going through every mic, assigning serial numbers to them, detailing the headbasket issues, and then they will be fixed.

Personally, I am not going to get upset over these issues, I am taking the Army adapt and overcome attitude!

It is impressive to look at them all together though. They are just massive things, heavier than I imagined, nice quality weight in your hand.

Question - it looks like some of the meshes are at 45 degree angle...on original it's 0 degrees...is that just my eyesight or did they do some of the headbaskets differently?

Curious; they look great.

Mike

 

[riggler]

Nope they are all at 0 degrees per original. (Inner most is at 45)
It's hard to see from the angle in the picture with the reflections I think.

4 left to grade... Sick today on top of it. Gotta love life! Talked to Eric today, we have a plan brewing ....

 

[riggler]

We have had good communication with the machinist today! They are going to take the bodies back and we are detailing the problem areas right now.

 

[jpalden]

I would buy two bodies of the 3rd run.
BTW - any chances to get the corner angle of the bottom right like the original M49?
Cheers,
Joachim

 

[riggler]

Okay, they are shipped out and headed back the machinist as of yesterday. Joachim, I am going to have to look at my drawings. I know I did have to make some concessions when I reworked the base for the Binder connector. I will check it out.

I have been recording non-stop. Tonight and tomorrow it's Midori!

So now we have enough for round number 3. Again, once we know this first batch is good to go, we will accept moneys for the next... thanks!

 

[riggler]

Okay I looked at that corner angle and we have it in the production pieces. The prototype just came to a sharp point, the production units have that fillet with a bit of vertical like the original. I don't have a body here to take a new pic, but I found a reasonable picture that I already had:

 

[jpalden]

Perfect man!

 

[riggler]

Okay, machinist has received the bodies... Will keep you all posted!

 

[chunger]

You guys must be furious right now!  The original sample looked great and now this.  I hope it all gets sorted out with the machinist.  Good work at a fair price is hard to come by these days.

Thanks for pushing the project along despite the setbacks.

 

[Phrazemaster]

By the way Danderloo put out a kind of feeler in another post for the latch lake mounts. He says we need about 20 takers so if you guys are interested I would chime in at the end of that post. He did not setup a separate feeler but you can use this link:

http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=54004.0

He won't be able to say pricing or anything until he has a solid number to go to them with.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Phrazemaster]

Hi Riggler, any chance for an update? Love to send you my money for round 3 this year for tax purposes

Mike

 

[jeri]

So what is the current status on these?  It's been a month since they were returned to the machinist for rework.

 

[tskguy]

Hey all,

So after a month of nothing from the machinist I am sad to say the timeline is yet to be determined. I say this because to perfectly frank, he is being an ass hole. After the very very long and drawn out back and fourth with this guy he seems to be now hiding behind a large amount of poor excuses. We just received an email for the first time today after being very patient and honestly it was a joke. He isn't taking any ownership of the condition and quality of his work. I am doing may best to keep this out of the legal system but unless some things change I fear that may be where this ends up. If anyone knows a good attorney that would like to do some work as a favor I think we all would be very grateful. Now I do not want it to go there. So in the mean time I am working with a local moderator to hopefully help resolve the issue. That process is slow and I know everyone's patience is wearing very thin. I cant express to everyone how stressful and sucky this situation is. If anyone on here as some good ideas please let us know. If it comes down to it I will be flying out there to appear in court. If anyone is near the Portland Oregon area please contact me, I may need your help!! As soon as I have more information I will share it with the group.
Thanks again everyone... :-[