Did I say Drop shipped? Correct that... I should have said "Drop KICKED"....

What a bunch of Gorillas these UPS folks are!

I swear, they all must have been grocery store sackers at one time.... you know them.... The ones who put your bread on the bottom and stack the cans on top.... yeah that's the ones.

Well, I don't have time to open it right now. The suspense will have to wait till later this evening.

The tracking number for one of the packages still shows it sitting in New Jersey, basking in the soot and smog from a local chemical plant, but alas, all 4 boxes did arrive just the same albeit a 2 day layover in beautiful Jacksonville, Florida. I guess the Gorilla team needed a rest from kicking the can down the street.

What was that slogan again? "What can Brown do for you?" Hummmmm, let me see now... Attached files

 

Thanks to the supurb packing by the PhlatCrew, nothing was broken! The contents of the mangled box were all intact. A bit of a crushed vacuum hose box and spindle box, but no damage to either items inside them.

Wasting no time, I inserted the build video and jumped right in, completing Step 1 with no problem.

As I approached Step 2, it called for inserting 4 Tee-Nuts into a piece of MDF. Unfortunately, there were only 3 Tee-Nuts in the bag and a 1/4-20 nut appears to be missing as well.

I guess the weighing of the parts bags still didn't catch it.

There are many more bags of parts, each separated by the step in which it applies. This really makes building the Phlatprinter very easy.

I do not plan on doing an inventory of each bag. I just hope that this is an isolated incident, but for those getting the kits, you may encounter a similar situation so be prepared.

I would have been truly amazed if everything had made it in the kit. It is a huge effort on the part of the PhlatCrew and being as this is one of the first ones out the door, it does not surprise me at all.

I will simply move on to the next steps as I am confident M&T will get the missing parts out in no time. Attached files

 

Flashsolutions, wait until the rest of the boxes arrive to see if anything else is missing, or if the missing piece got into another box. Then send M&T a list and I'm sure they'll take care of you. That will save them postage and save you time.

 

Got all 4 boxes actually. I did find a Tee-Nut in Step 3 which I used to finish up Step 2 but now I am on Step 3 and need it in order to continue.

The great thing about how they package the machine is that they put all of the hardware for each step in its own bag. So if you are missing a part for that step, it is pretty obvious. It is not like you have all the parts lumped into one big bag.

It is a supurb idea! It really makes the build easy. The MDF parts for each step are wrapped in separate bundles and clearly marked. So you pick up a package of MDF for the step you are working on and then pick up a bag of hardware to go with it. Brilliant concept. It is not like the older machines we built. It is sooooo much better.

I'm not worried about getting the missing parts. If it were a common part, I would just go buy it, but the Tee-Nut is different than what I have seen before at my local hardware store, so I will have to have that one sent out.

With the hundreds of little screws, and all the hardware such as bearings, washers, rods, backlash nuts, etc, I am in awe that they are able to work up such a great system for kitting all these parts in the first place.

Although I know they are striving for 100 percent success, the first ones out the door are bound to have some glitches unless you truly are Superman and Wonder Woman.

I know they were weighing the bags and such trying to avoid something like this, but you know, stuff happens. No big deal. I have 4 DVDs to watch, parts to paint and other things to keep me busy till a replacement part arrives.

I am excited just knowing that one day in the not too distant future, I will have a kick *** CNC machine running in my shop.

 

Flashsolutions, why is the T-Nut such a special thing? I used to use them all the time when I built with balsa and ply

 

UPS= Oops we dropped another one

 

The ones I am familiar with have pointed cutouts in them that sort of nail them into the wood.

These Tee-Nuts do not have those cutouts and they have a bigger area in which to adhere to the the MDF and sort of twist into place.

Could be that a hardware store might carry them, but I have never seen any quite like them or I would just go out and get one.

Mark is sending a replacement and informed me that I can find one in Step 12 which will hold me over till I get a replacement.

Mark was disappointed that the weighing did not catch it, but like I told him, I am estatic with the kit, not withstanding the little hicup.

When you look at all of the what seems like hundreds of little parts, all bagged and marked for easy building in a step by step fashion, you have to wonder how they do it at all. It is a huge undertaking!

I am sure that as they get a few more kits under their belt, it will go even smoother, but ya know, stuff happens and compared to the kits of 2 years ago, well let me tell ya, there is no comparison!

The parts fit like a glove, the slotted method for attaching screws is just supurb! All the parts are professionally labeled and the Build Video all make this one fantastic kit!! The parts are grouped in the order of the build and individually wrapped and hardware bagged with clear markings. What a joy to see a kit produced like this!

 

Wow! nice job so far on your paint job!

I have not actually gotten started on that. I just went out yesterday and picked up the spray cans for the colors I am going to use.

I will primer it and then paint it as I go. I got a bit ahead of myself because I had not gotten the paint purchased before the kit arrived, so now I have to take a few parts off what I have already put on, but that will be easy enough to do.

Having all the parts already organized by component area will be a huge help! In the past, I had to try to figure out which parts needed which color before I built it but this will be so much easier.

I will probably tape off the tabs before painting. After all, Phlatboyz supplied the tape, so might as well put it to use.

I am not going to be in a rush. This machine is going to last me a very long time and get a lot of use, so I want it to look nice. If only I could get the rest of my shop cleaned up... Maybe later!

 

Well, Score 2 more for the Gorilla Team.

Even though it was packed exceptionally well, Brown managed to break 4 pieces of MDF in two different cartons.

Looking at the well wrapped carton of large MDF pieces, I would have swore there could be nothing broken in it, yet I was proven wrong as tabs for two of the pieces were broken off. Attached files

 

Yesterday I was at the mall and saw a UPS guy unloading boxes out of the back of the truck, and yes, they were pretty much drop kicked. He literally picked one up and dropped it on the ground from 6 ft up.

I'm kinda scared to get my kit now, lol. I know Mark and Trish spent ALOT of time with each kit so I doubt there's anything they could have done. I sure hope there aren't to many kits with broken parts for their sake, it would be a hassle for them to cut individual parts!

- Jeff

 

UPS would send people over to help load up our planes. We would supervise and help make sure the load was distributed properly. One of the UPS guys was dropping and smashing the boxes around in the plane. My co-worker said to the guy, "what's wrong with you, are your retarded? You can't be doing that!" The guy took off yelling and screaming. We were like WTF? A few minutes later the UPS ramp supervisor came over and told us we needed to be a little more sensitive to what we say because they hired mentally challanged people to help load planes and do the sort during the Holidays. Talk about feeling bad. We never knew. From there on out everytime a package shows up to my house from UPS bashed up, it reminds me of that morning.

 

More broken MDF. I did not even see this until I started painting and the cracks showed up. There was another piece earlier on that had a small fracture but was so small I did not even mention it.

This makes 8 pieces of MDF that were broken during shipment by UPS.

Every box had broken parts. And it is not because it wasn't packed well. It was. This is just very bad handling on the part of UPS.

I did not unwrap and inspect each piece when it arrived because the beauty of the kit is that the parts were wrapped in steps to be unwrapped when you get to that step.

So as a result, finding the broken parts got strung out.

I hope everyone else has better luck. Mark will replace your broken parts, but it sure puts a hurt on your build pace.

Thank goodness everything was designed to be taken apart! Unlike the first Phlatprinters, where everything was glued up, this Phlatprinter is easy enough to disassemble and replace anything that needs it. Attached files

 

The part numbers are painted over now, but I think it was X1, X3, and ?? from what I remember seeing.

They were parts from Step 11 I believe.

This was the last set of MDF I opened. I knew pretty much what was in it and waited to open it last as everything else was painted and/or assembled.