BlackGround 10x Power Base production update

Dear esteemed clients,

The calendar moves on so ruthlessly! We are moving things as quickly as possible given all the holidays.

It seems everyone in the city is getting colds, soar throats, all sorts of viruses. But we'll get through it. Laser engraver just got over his fever and is back in action.

Just before Christmas we gave the freshly milled enclosures over to the lacquering company. We went over the task at hand. No promises were made to me there as to how long it would take, so the timing is in their hands right now. I reached out to them yesterday for a short visit to find out how much progress has been made.

They presented the work done only on sample pieces for now, to ensure the results will be as expected. They will do two lacquer coats minimum with a possible third or even fourth, with of course ample drying time in between. They quoted 4 hours drying time minimum between coats. So that means only two a day can be done. The work they presented me with was only one coat of lacquer on top of the color impregnation. They wanted to confirm the color. Here are some pictures. Looks nice so far!

There will be more silky shimmer to it once more lacquer coats go on. This is just the very first one so the wood still absorbs like a sponge. But the nice silky feel of the sanded Baltic Birch, pretty much down to a polish, is really something to behold!

There was some minor touch-up work to do in places first with a colour chosen putty, then the fine sanding procedure, almost to a polish, then there is the impregnation for the rich colour, and only then the first of the actual lacquering coats. So it's not as if it is one simple and easy procedure.

But I did tell them to please carry it out with priority. Thankfully I didn't get one of those "who do you think you are" looks, so I think it's ok. I talked not only to the head of production, but also directly to the two fine ladies who were going to do all the preparatory work up until actual lacquering. Together we negotiated down from mink coats to chocolate. I'm an ok businessman, I think. Gotta find that right balance!

In the above picture you can kind of start seeing the silky glimmer of the very edges of the wood. This is going to be so nice once done!

There is one "problem" that arose. One of the gentleman who does critical core work on the functioning BlackGround modules themselves fell ill with fever. But he has since overcome it as well. We have 50 units ready but that's only enough for 5 finished 10x Power Base units. He said another 50 would be ready by end of this week. This thing has been popular even only as a pre-order item already, so we have serious work to do. All ramp-up procedures are in place. Reacting quickly to demand, we took steps to accelerate certain production steps for the modules themselves. Especially to note are more high tech CNC 3D laser cutting procedures instead of semi-automated mechanical sawing as well as fully automated CNC lathing and threading work instead of hand lathing and semi-hand threading the contact posts. Polishing thereof is still a task done by hand, as well as ultrasonic vibratory bath and final high pressure steam spray and inspection, so that part can't be accelerated. But we are taking all the steps we can and I am happy to see the production time of the modules already pretty much halved.

We'll all do the best we can to keep the lead time as short as possible and everyone is in good spirits. Especially because they know how eager you guys were what with the orders coming in in a steady flow up until now!

Also, we have already ordered yet more wood for more enclosures because this entire first run is already sold out, and part of the second run is, too. The valiant guys at the wood milling shop were at it from 7am to midnight for that first run, because they knew if we don't get it finished we have to wait again for January the 6th! Which is our next scheduled day there again, so we'll do our next batch of milling on that date. The guys actually didn't finish at midnight, pooped out and not wanting to risk any mistakes, and came back in at 7am the next morning to do a final step which took another 2 hours. One thinks 'CNC' and would simply think 'fast action,' but when you look at the, what is it, 3m x 5m table, and that gigantic arm walking all around it, doing all kinds of intricate dance steps, you get to see reality in the face and the operations are so many and actually quite slow so as not to overheat the wood and tooling. Not quite a hot dog factory here but more of a high end sausage operation mixed with fresh greens from a garden that still uses soil.

I'm so proud of all these guys putting this thing together. By the time you get it there must have been some 28 human hands caressing or tooling this thing from all angles inside and out. Then there'll be the final job of assembly which itself still requires three days for the epoxy to harden. We've already made a box full of the needed Jumpers for interconnection within. Epoxy has also arrived in bulk. The polished brass trumpet-shaped terminals are being finished as I write this.

People, you have expressed great trust in LessLoss and we definitely won't disappoint! Thank you for your patience and support!

And any day now, the first review will be published, which, I'm told, is going to be a real treat! I'll keep you informed, of course.

A short reminder that you can still get a 394 USD discount and a free C-MARC™ Prime power cable to go with it (that's all you need for this unit) if you pre-order using our code. Head over to here and find out more!

Thank you all and Happy New Year!