This update originally went out via email on April 28th.

TLDR;

It's been a hard month for Simple Machines Made Simple, with even more delays. But we are closer than last month. And we now have 10,000 books on a boat! (The fast one.)

First, some good news

I had a few cartons of books Fedexed to my house, just so I could check to make sure that we're not screwed (besides the actual screw). There weren't any unfix-able issues with any of the books I received (there's an issue with the wheel I outlined below, but I'm on it!). And the books look really good. I've sent out a few books to guys trying to prove that they're "dad material" to their girlfriend, and if he misses her birthday, will likely be lonely the rest of his life. (If you're emailing me wanting to get an expedited book --that's the bar.) Here's one of the early reviews:

This is an actual review. I know it reads like something I would make up, but I would never use 10 exclamation points in one line, not even in a work of fiction.

The Wedge Problem

A month ago, the update was, "books are rolling off the assembly line, and everything is great." I'm happy to report that the first half of the books are on a boat. But not without a lot of trouble.

Literally the evening after I sent out the last update, maybe 4 hours later, I got a message from the manufacturer:

Gives me PTSD just reading these again..

This was a gut punch. I assumed everything was fine and dandy and that in a couple days they would be finishing all the books. Instead they were requesting that I remake all the plastic wedge pieces! An emotionally trying moment.

A bit of context: the wedge page has several different parts that work together. One of which is a frame that goes around to hold everything together:

These parts were made back in December, and then sent to the book manufacturer, who had them sitting in large boxes in their warehouse for 3 months. When they went to pull these out of the box and assemble the books, they found that they've all been bent out of shape.

Long story short. It took a couple weeks, but we figured out a solution. For most of the parts, if they glue it down on all the corners, then it'll hold its shape and do its job. We also rushed a bunch of new plastic pieces to make up for the difference, and I started therapy again.

The Wheel Problem

A few of the early boxes were Fedexed to me so I could check and just make sure all the books look and work okay. I had a few concerns which they told me they had since figured out. The biggest issue was that some of the wheels didn't spin as freely as I would like them to. But they assured me that they'd figured it out, so I didn't worry too much at that point.

When they told me they finished the first portion of books, I followed up on the previous wheel issue. Surprise! It actually hadn't been sorted out. Of course, they jumped to blaming the problem on the plastic parts being deformed. Fortunately, I have a handful of books that have this exact issue, so I was able to do some diagnostics myself.

Warning: my wife says this next part is too technical, but I'm leaving it in. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you're not in the mood.

If the wheel was deformed, then you would expect the point where the wheel rubs against the book to be fixed relative to the wheel; so the rubbing would move around with the wheel. What I was actually seeing was that the wheel was rubbing in the same place on the book, no matter where the wheel was in its rotation. This would happen if the wheel is mounted crooked on the axle, rather than the wheel being deformed itself. I popped off the wheel from the book, and could see that the bearing was mounted slightly askew. I can't find it now, but I remember seeing a video they sent me with someone installing the bearings with a mallet to get them into place. I think that is the source of our problems, and have suggested that they use an Arbor Press to put the bearings into place to make sure they are installed level.

Communication with the manufacturer often consists mostly of badly annotated pictures like this.

But there are 10,000 books already on a boat now, so it's up to me to fix any books with misaligned wheels. Those of you who were around for the early days of Computer Engineering for Babies know that it's very on brand that I'd have to rework 5,000 books in my living room. It's a great excuse to buy a new tool, so I now own an arbor press. And I'm also going to design a bearing removal tool, as the one I bought on Amazon was too big and clunky for these tiny little bearings.

What about those first books? Before the wedge issues?

Those books went on a boat too! But to cap it all off I got this message last week:

"Just received feedback from the local forwarder, the Chinese custom department required to inspect the container carrying these 116 cartons of books, so the delivery date will be delayed."

Recap

You're going to get a really amazing book that will likely rekindle relationships. You just have to wait a little longer. I know we're already several months over budget, but it will be worth the wait, and I promise I'm the most frustrated person in the room right now.

What material can I share with my kids in the interim?

While you wait for your book to arrive, I made a Google Slides presentation for my kids yesterday about the importance of shutting doors. You can review the slides here:

Cheers,
Chase