A few people have been asking about updates. Quite frankly, I am embarrassed to say that there are no updates to post about lately – I haven't had as much time as I anticipated to work on my runs this year due to some major business changes. Now, before you get out the pitchforks, tar and feathers, let me explain.
My runs are important to me and they will be finished. At the present time, I am sad to say that I cannot give updates or completion dates for any of them, but rest assured I have been and will continue to work on the runs and hope to have some more significant updates available as soon as I can.
I have never made it a secret I have a 'Monday to Friday' job and do my saber runs on the weekends. True, I have never divulged the exact nature of my M-F job, but I have always maintained that my runs are done on weekends and when I get chances to fit them in during a slow week. This will come as news to some, but a handful of people know or have guessed as much – but for the past 7 years, I have been pretty much the sole machinist for Tim at The Custom Saber Shop. With Celebration, the new movie coming out and renewed interest in Star Wars and light sabers, Tim's sales have taken off. We have dealt with some out of stock issues in the past but have always gotten past them. But the past year has seen a continual growth in sales and I find that I can no longer keep up with them. I have been working 7 days a week for the past 8 months just trying to keep Tim's stock up as much as I can. Tim and I started talking earlier this year about how to deal with this and a plan was hatched. You already have seen the first result of that – Tim relocating to Idaho (Idaho Falls to be more precise). I no longer run Orbital Machining out of my garage. I am now a full time employee of The Custom Saber Shop. I moved my equipment to Tim's shop and I maintain the production half while Tim runs the store half. We will be expanding in the future to add more machines and equipment. I have Tim's two custom work machines that I am in the process of learning so I can turn them into second operation machines and we are looking at options to add another main production lathe. It will take us time to get everything in place and we hope to tackle the out of stock issue as quickly as possible and add in new parts as we are able, as well as expanding the MHSV2 line and completing my current runs. The extra/new machines will also allow me to complete my runs sooner than if I were to run them on my single lathe and mill. We are just asking for patience while we get all our growing pains sorted out.
As we believed it best to keep our partnering quiet until it was all worked out and completed, I have not been able to address people's concerns over my runs (lack of updates and vague answers to certain questions). It has been decided that now would be a good time to finally make this announcement and inform the community and my run participants of the current state of my affairs.
You may have noticed that I am no longer a moderator here on the FX-SABER forums. I no longer go by Wat Tambor. I asked to be removed from the moderation staff and returned to my former user name and title. There are a few reasons for this change, but suffice it to say the main reason is to avoid conflicts of interest.
I have no intentions of leaving the hobby anytime soon. My stepping down as a moderator and lower forum profile have nothing to do with me trying to 'ditch out'. I have just been busy with the merger, move and making parts. I do thank everyone who is in on one of my runs for their continued patience and I will be updating / completing the various runs as soon as I am able to.
Please, do not email/PM me about TCSS business, TCSS stock questions, TCSS custom work, TCSS part sizes, or TCSS new part ideas. In short, please refer all TCSS related questions to Tim at TCSS.
I will, however, be more than happy to answer any questions about items relating to my past and current runs.
I would like to close by offering my gratitude to those who have supported me these past 9 years, and I hope to keep up with the highest quality work I can for years to come.
Erik