Titanium ‘Candy Can’

More Titanium Pens and Knives

Titanium + Leather and Knives

Wow! It’s been a LONG time since I last wrote a blog post.

But I’m doing one now …and that’s what matters, right? Cool.

I have a few things for you – so let’s crack into it…

 

Limited Salt-and-Pepper Shakers (only 20 available)

I have a handful of these Titanium Salt and Peppers shakers left going for 50% OFF (they were almost $200 and now are only $99). They are in stock right now and ready to ship.

Click here to take check them out.

I have no plans to ever make these again (these are the last of them) – because we are focusing on different products now. My loss is your gain 🙂

 

Titanium + Leather

In the next week or two I’m going to be doing my first ever collaboration.

If you’ve been following me for a while, then you’ll know we occasionally offer leather products in the form of pouches/cases for my various products (i.e. pen pouches, tweezer pouches, etc.).

I have had my friend Steph (her company is Kohi Point) do this over the last couple of years. She is highly skilled and professional and I have been working with her for a couple of years now.

Now, here’s the funny thing…

For around 11 years I’ve been looking for a particular style of leather bag (I know it was 11 years ago because I saw the style in Wellington, New Zealand when I first travelled there from Scotland).

In all these 11 years I have never been able to find one that was exactly the style I recall seeing (and I don’t even recall where exactly I saw the bag).

There were a few features I knew really made the bag close to perfect for me:

#1 – It was big enough to hold a standard A4 pad of paper …but no bigger (i.e. it is NOT a laptop bag)

#2 – There were no clips or magnets …just a large, simple flap that help itself closed with gravity

#3 – A clean and simple overall design

 

But here’s the crazy thing:

A few things have happened in the time I’ve been looking for this “holy grail” of bags.

Firstly, I’ve become somewhat proficient in designing things over the last few years – this has allowed me to design the bag I’ve always wanted.

Secondly, I have someone who can do high-end, custom leather work – and therefore bring my bag to life.

Thirdly, I’m “the titanium guy” …and so it is a no-brainer to design and make ALL the titanium “hardware” for my dream bag (which, to be honest, is incredibly exciting).

Okay, enough hype. Here’s the bag along with the custom-made titanium hardware:

Finally, after 11 years, not only is it the “holy grail” …but all the hardware is titanium to boot!

Here’s a shot of making the buckles for it:

Now, one more thing on the bag…

As far I am aware (and I could be wrong on this) no one out there seems to make high-end, hand-stitched leather bags with titanium hardware.

With this in mind — and the fact that I’ve had to design and make this specific bag because I could not find one in the 11 years I searched — my friend Steph and I are going to do a collaboration on Kickstarter for this bag with fully titanium hardware.

I’ll provide you with more details on this soon – but, hopefully, they should be launching in a week or two. Also, there will be at least two different colour options (possibly three). Oh, and we import the leather directly from Italy ourselves.

 

 

The “Candy Can”

Designed this while I was driving to pick up my son last Friday (and did the cnc machining over the weekend):

It’s a small, square(ish) container designed to fit into that “little square pocket” everyone seems to have on their jeans or pants.

I’ve been carrying it for a few days and it’s working even better than I thought it would.

It is, of course, titanium and the lid is kept on with a pure friction-fit. I’ve been testing it to death (and by this I mean putting the lid on and off hundreds, possibly thousands, of times).

If there is enough interest in this, then I will make it (so, yeah, let me know in the comments!).

Also, the dimensions are around 43mm (1.7″) x 25mm (1.0″) internal length and width.

 

And…

I think that’s all I have for you today (well, I do have a lot more… but I’ll try and get another blog post out to you later in the week – trying my best to start keeping you more updated!).

Oh, one more thing actually…

Take a look at this:

We’re currently in full production mode on the Flixx Knife.

The above photo shows some of the “hidden details” of the pocketing of the scales (handles) of the knife. Yeah, I know, I could have just left the inside plain because no one will ever see it – but it’s just one of those this I felt the need to make look good. Maybe I’m odd though 😀

We’re about to start shipping these in the next couple of weeks so if you want to grab yours then click here right now.

 

If you have any thoughts or comments, then fire away below (I WILL reply! :-D)

NEW Titanium Knife (“Friction Folder”)

Titanium Secure Storage “Cache”

Some time ago (well, three years ago ago!) …there was some discussion on a blog post I did about a design for a secure titanium “storage cache”.

I called it the “Ti-Vault” (not sure if this is going to be the final name though). If you were around back then you may remember this photo (I also talked about this in August 2017 as well):

Now, truthfully… this is the third time I’m revisiting it and I’m planning not to disappoint you this time (which usually happened by letting myself get sidetracked by other projects).

So, what I’d like to ask you is…

If you are someone who would use this, then do you have a size preference(s)?

What I have already done is spent some time thinking and size-testing the Ti-Vault concept …and I’ve come up with a range of FOUR initial sizes which I think will cover the majority of uses (I think!).

Here are some photos of the final design (you can see the security “key” has changed since the original):

NOTE: These are crude mock-ups and the final design will be a little more refined

Now, here are the sizes I’m proposing:

 

 

Some important things for you:

#1 – The plan is that every model will be double-ended (unless my machinist has some solid reasons for not doing this). You will be able to open either end of the Vault this way …yes, I know, it seems a little redundant (but I have a couple of good reasons for it …which I’ll get into later)

#2 – The wall-thickness is going to be around 4 or 5mm thick (which for a small titanium container like this is a little overkill – but a little bit of over-engineering never hurt anyone :-P)

#3 – Oh, almost forgot one of the most important things… the Vault will be 100% water and air tight. It will use a standard Nitrile o-ring where the cap fits on to achieve this

I think that’s it.

Also, it’s not going to be cheap to produce these …because we’re starting with solid Grade 5 Titanium round bar …and machining it away to produce the Vault. And, of course, this is somewhat of a niche product – I am aware of this.

In summary…

If the Vault is not your kind of thing – no problem (more products coming soon!)

If the Vault is your kind of thing …then what are your thoughts on sizes? What would you use? …or is there some other improvement you’re thinking of?

Open to anything and everything!

P.S. Remember… as the diameter of the design gets larger then the price will increase somewhat exponentially (because not only does the weight of the titanium we start with increase …but we have to spend even more time machining it away)

Thank you!

FOUR Cool New Titanium Projects

This is a long post (best to go and grab a coffee …or a beer).

In this update I’m going to show you some prototypes I’ve been working on …as well as talk a little about business and what’s been going on this last six months or so (and why you’ve not really been hearing from me!).

So, first up…

A Blatant “Sales Pitch”

As you may know – I like to “pitch” stuff to you. I make no apologies for it. And, more often than not, I like to do it relatively shamelessly (but only because I believe in what I’m pitching 100%).

So before we start getting elbow-deep in prototypes and such …I’m going to highlight a Kickstarter project for you to check out. It’s my machinist’s latest titanium offering.

It launched a few days ago and is already massively overfunded (I knew it was going to do well – but it’s doing even better than I thought).

Here’s the kicker though…

Don’t tell anyone, but, because I’m registered with Kickstarter as a “Collaborator” on his project  (i.e. I can make changes to the project page and such) I can see the behind-the-scenes dashboard. And the dashboard is telling me that a very high percentage of people pledging for his new, Fine Titanium Grater also backed his original grater project.

In other words, Backers were so blown-away by the original titanium cheese grater …they are absolutely jumping on board this new “fine” grating version.

Here’s what this new titanium grater looks like:

To check it out click here: http://kck.st/2JUrJOR

Again, full disclosure, I’m part of the manufacturing of this project. I will be doing the initial water-jet cutting as well as the final tumbling and surface finishing.

Okay, next up…

A Titanium Letter Opener (prototype)

I’m going to reveal to you an incredibly crude prototype titanium letter opener.

Before I show you the photos – I’d like to reiterate that this letter opener is the result of me learning how to use my cnc-milling machine. All my products are designed by me …but I work with my machinist to bring them to life. This titanium letter opener prototype is entirely me though this time.

Here’s a couple of photos of it fresh off the cnc machine:

Out of interest… those six holes are how I hold the initial piece of titanium down.

Once the machining was done I then snapped-off the six fixing points and then hand-ground around the edges. Once this was done I then tumbled and the result was this:

Don’t look too closely at it because you’re going to see the various machining “issues”.

The main thing I was aiming for was to make sure it functions 100% (if you know me by now then you know I prioritise functionality above everything else …and only then start ensuring the aesthetics of the design is going to work).

Long story short, the design worked very well (although, truthfully, it could do with a little bit more of an edge).

Right now I’m waiting for more tools for the milling machine to arrive so I can continue with improving the machining of it – hopefully it will be ready in a few weeks.

Let’s talk business…

“Magnus, What The Hell Happened To You The Last Six Months?”

In the past I’ve usually been fairly frequent in my emails and blog posts to you (as well as updates to Kickstarter projects).

But, over the last six months (actually, it’s probably a lot longer than that), I all but disappeared.

Truthfully, it wasn’t intentional… it just sort happened. From what I can tell (doing a post-mortem of sorts) I think I just got a little overwhelmed by business and the projects I had taken on.

At one point I had five (yes, FIVE!) projects I had to fulfill and deliver to customers (this was a combination of three kickstarter projects, one website pre-order and a product for my machinist’s Kickstarter project). Totalling literally thousands of individual products to be tumbled, assembled and shipped.

The workload peaked late last year just before Nathan — my first full-time employee — came on board …and only now (this week) are we getting the last of those projects out the door.

Here’s the thing…

I don’t think it’s coincidence that, for the first time in months, we’ve finally caught up with the projects …and I’m also sitting here writing this long, detailed blog post about everything that’s currently going on (and really enjoying it too! :-P).

I can confirm there has been a LOT of stress and such (but not as much as you’d think perhaps). The real “killer” is that this is a manufacturing business with monthly expenses and having such a massive backlog of projects to fulfill stopped us producing any new projects …and the knock-on effect of that was no money coming into the business. Now that gets a little stressful for sure.

I might do a more in-depth post or video on this another day (if you’re interested of course) …but, for now, let’s just say I was a little “overwhelmed” for the last few months …but things are back on track now. Happy days. 😀

Onwards!

Now, coming soon…

A New Kickstarter Project

Yes, it’s been some time since I launched a Kickstarter project – but the next one is not too far away.

The project is for a titanium carabiner. What makes this carabiner unique is, as you will see, the gate mechanism (some people may call this the “spring” or “lever”).

This design is one I initially prototyped a couple of years ago …but let myself get side-tracked by various other projects. In hindsight this is a good thing because the quality standards of what I produce has gone up since then (as well as my design skills to a degree). The result is something I’m fairly exciting to share with you if I’m honest.

Here’s a couple of photos:

There have been a bunch of very good titanium carabiners on Kickstarter over the last few years (I’ve backed most of them I think). And out of those there have been some very minimalist ones …with great aesthetics. However, of the ones I pledged for and received, almost all of these had a crazy amount of “side play” on the gate.

So while these carabiners looked like they would function well in a photo …the gate turned out not just to go forwards a backward …but also side-to-side …which is crazy because it compromises the entire functionality of the carabiner.

Long story short:

This new gate mechanism I’ve designed has no side-play whatsoever (oh and it’s buttery smooth too!).

Okay, enough of a “pitch” on that carabiner – I’ll let you know when it’s launched.

Finally…

More In-House CNC Machining

Earlier this year I designed and made my first product where I did the cnc-machining myself (this was the Tank Bottle Opener).

I’m bang in the middle of the production run of my second in-house cnc-project …the “Bruiser” Titanium Pry-bar.

Truth be told I’m actually taking a little bit of a hands-off approach to this one and having my employee Nathan tackle the production of this. He’s never done CNC before (but he does have experience with designing on CAD software …so, for Nathan, it’s now about learning to physically machine products).

Yes, I know, I barely know cnc-machining myself …yet here I am “teaching” someone else to do it. I only know a little more than Nathan ….and, hopefully, he’ll blaze past me in terms of knowledge and ability in the coming weeks and months (so I can focus more on designing and writing blogs posts like this! :-D).

Here’s the CAD progress we made today:

The red block above is the “fixture” that the prybar blanks will be fixed to for machining. As you can see we have simulated the prybars on there.

We made more progress than we thought we would get done today and managed to get some machining of the actual prybars done – here is a shot of the raw water-jet cut blanks:

And here are a couple of shots after the first machining operation (part of the outside has been machined as well as the keyring hole):

We’re hoping to have a lot of these Bruiser titanium prybars fully cnc-machined by the end of the week and shipped next week (they are on pre-order on the website and you can still get them here right now).

I think that’s all I have for you today.

Any comments or such? Then fire away below…

(Note: Recently the blog comments were not working – but you should be able to post fine now!)

Titanium Heavy-Duty Pry-Bar

I have two things for you today…

#1 – Recent Shipping Issues

If you’ve ordered from me within the last couple of months and you’re one of the few who have not received your order (or confirmation of it being shipped), then your package may possibly be lost (or possibly just really, REALLY slow) …and, of course, I will re-ship to you again.

I trialled a new shipping method for a while and it’s not reliable (mainly in terms of speed …but sometimes packages simply did not arrive). I am no longer using that method and have since gone back to using DHL Express (which continues to prove itself as fast and reliable).

Also, I am still somewhat behind on answering emails as my customer support person moved on and have been doing it myself again (but, if I’m honest, having a tough time keeping up with it while keeping the rest of the business running as well). Getting there slowly and steadily though.

If you’ve not contacted me yet (or if you have already contacted me and I’ve still not managed to get to your email …and you want to give me a “nudge”) – then you can contact me here.

(Also, if you’re a Backer of one of my Kickstarter projects and are still waiting for your shipment to arrive then also do contact me)

 

#2 – New, Heavy-Duty Titanium Pry-Bar

I’ve just put a new titanium pry-bar deign up on my online store here: https://store.magnusx.com/pages/bruiser

This new, chunky pry-bar is made entirely in-house – machined on our own CNC mill (which we’re trying to use more and more).

For more information head to this link here.

A NEW Spinner and (Possibly) Tweezers

So a few things for you today…

In the next month or so I will be launching a new titanium project – which will likely be a set of tweezers. I’ll talk more about them soon …but, for now, I’ll just mention that they will be very “pocket friendly”.

Before I talk about the new spinner I’d like to mention the shipping of various products (well, the products/projects that are running late):

#1 – Titanium “Click” Pen from Kickstarter –> This will start shipping towards the end of this current week (all the shipping labels are now printed and it will take at least a few days to pack the 1000+ pens and pencils)

#2 – Titanium “Air” Spinner from Kickstarter –> Will start shipping out two days from now (again, the shipping labels are all printed and just the final packing to be done)

#3 – Titanium PillPots from Kickstarter –> These are now fully finished and will be starting to do final quality control and fitting o-rings next. We still have some lids to sand (because there was a problem with the cnc-process). A few more days and sanding will be done on those.

Oh, one more thing…

The ‘Ego’ Fidget Spinner project shipped a few weeks ago. Most people have been receiving theirs around the world – and I think it will be another week or two until pretty much everyone has received theirs. If you’ve not received it yet …then please give it a little longer. Thank you.

The NEW Spinner

Now, I’m going to be honest here (as I always am)…

Part of the reason for launching a pre-order for another titanium fidget spinner is purely demand from previous customers of the ‘Ego’ fidget spinner.

As you know, this is a business (as well as being a way to design and make whatever crazy titanium product my heart so desires!), and so if I have a whole load of people demanding and pleading I make something …well, it just makes sound business sense to make it, right?

Take a quick look at this video from almost a year ago:

 

The spinner in the video above is the basis of the new spinner I’m about to launch …hopefully in the next 48 hours or so.

The spinner will be a pre-order (because I don’t have the titanium material on hand right now and, as you know, I have to import EVERYTHING here in New Zealand). The pre-order will allow me to gauge numbers better and, also, give you an “early bird” discount because I don’t have to hold these in stock (they will be made to order).

Here’s a couple of screenshots of the above spinner but further-developed and closer to what the final design will be:

Right, I think that’s all I have for you today.

If you have any thoughts or comments then please do fire away below.

Updates and Shame

This post includes a whole load of updates, apologies and other stuff for you…

I’ve screwed-up over the last few months in so many ways it’s depressing – some of it in my control and some not so much in my control (but I still take 100% responsibility for all of it). I’ll talk about this in a minute – but first, I’m going to cover a few updates for various products first (both pre-orders and Kickstarter projects).

The ‘Ego’ spinner

The ‘Ego’ spinner pre-orders started shipping around 1 week ago from here in New Zealand to all around the world. They are now 95% shipped.

You may or may not have received an automatic email notification about this. I’ve had issues with my usual shipping method and have had to use a new company and as a result there is no tracking.

I know MANY of you have requested tracking – unfortunately I’m not able to provide this right now (until I get a better shipping method in place). I am sorry about this.

Your ‘Ego’ spinner should arrive in 2 to 4 weeks (on average). If it does not arrive then let me know …and I will sort out a replacement for you.

 

The ‘Click’ Pen (Kickstarter)

This is another project I’m delivering late on (and have, quite rightly so, received a lot of “feedback” for this).

These are almost ready to go and will start to ship next week.

As a side note…

I’m not going to give any excuses here …but the reason for the unreasonably late shipping on the pens for Kickstarter is a mind-boggling amount of “issues” arose. It was frustrating, disheartening and costly.

 

The ‘PillPots’ (Kickstarter)

This project is another late project (again!)

Progress stalled for a couple of months because of significant issues trying to sand the bases of them.

However, we’ve managed to solve this and production is now ’round the clock and *fingers crossed* shipping will start in the next couple of weeks.

 

The ‘Air’ Spinner (Kickstarter)

This project is the latest one I’ve launched and is pretty much on track to be shipped on time (should be at the end of this week …or, possibly, the beginning of next …but no later).

Here is a photo of the “in progress” from a few days ago:

And here is how they look ready and waiting to ship (400 in the boxes below and another 200 being assembled today and tomorrow):

 

I’ve Screwed-Up BIG TIME!

The way I’ve run my business over the last few months has basically been a complete “car crash”.

Dozens upon dozens of frustrated and annoyed customers have contacted me over the last few weeks and months – almost entirely because of the delays (in the projects I mentioned above).

I’ve let my business get into a bit of a mess (albeit temporary) …and customers are paying the price! It’s shameful and everyone (EVERYONE!) deserves a hell of a lot better than I have been giving. What I mean by my business getting into a “mess” is essentially:

— Taking on too many projects at once and falling behind (because I was a one-man-show)

— Poor forecasting of money coming and going out got me into awkward corner with my cashflow

— Not being vigilant enough on the inevitable “issues” that arise when creating each new product

— And so on…

 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been buckling-down and putting in the time and effort to get these late projects out the door – and I will be doing the same for the next few weeks too.

However, my communication has been completely lacking on this front …and I knew this as each day passed that I did not provide an update for each project.

There is a chance you’ve experienced this with other Creators and Makers, right? They’re running late on a project and they just kind of go off the radar. You want an update from them (anything would do!) and you just get silence.

The reason for this is shame. Shame is a very powerful thing. In the last few weeks I’ve not provided any updates …and it was because I was ashamed of what a mess I’d made of things. So what did I do? I buried my head in my work and just focused on getting on with getting the projects out …even which I knew I SHOULD have been providing updates. Yet I didn’t give updates.

It is “damage control” right now on the huge number of people I’ve let down. 2018 will be the year of building trust again with customers and treating business like business.

Titanium Cheese Grater

Before I get into this post…

The Titanium Cheese Grater I’m about to show you is not my project. Nope.

This is my Machinist’s project on Kickstarter (click here to check it out):

And, yes, it’s made from one slab of Grade 5 Titanium:

In the past I’ve mentioned “my Machinist” – but I don’t think I’ve said much more about him.

Basically, you know all the titanium products I design, make and sell? Well… although I do the designing, cutting and surface processing/finishing …it’s Warren, my machinist, who is the “CNC Ninja” and does the machining.

And similarly,

On this Titanium Grater project of Warren’s I will be doing the initial titanium supply and cutting …Warren will do the CNC-machining …and then I will be doing the final surface finishing.

The first time I tried one of these Greater prototypes I said to Warren, “I need one!”.

There are a number of reasons this Titanium Grater is so good …but there are three things that do it for me personally:

#1 – Compact and easy to clean (no need for those huge “box” graters)

#2 – I typically only grate a small amount each time (again, there is just so much mess and “overhead” with those big “box” graters)

#3 – It’s will literally last decades (I am pledging for this Titanium Grater on Kickstarter myself …and it’s the last grater I’ll probably ever have to buy)

…there are a bunch more reasons this is such a phenomenal grater – but these are the core things that “do it” for me. 🙂

To support the project on Kickstarter (and get it for significantly below final retail I might add!) then click here: http://kck.st/2w8Ce9T

Titanium Cheese Grater

If you have any questions about it then Warren is fairly fast to answer in the comments section on Kickstarter project page (and I will also be able to answer there as well).