Month: May 2022

Wednesday the 25th,

This was supposed to be a very happy post, where I tell you, I have placed an order, and the sample was supposed to be here by the end of June and then the first order to land in Australia by early August, but nothing of this is going to happen, because …

Well I don’t want to say I have been scammed, but this is how it feels at the moment, I have been negotiating with a company called Shenzhen Bergek Technology Co.,LTD and we’ve been sending emails back and forth for four days, discussing the quotation and the production time line, and after agreeing on all the point’s, I placed the order, signed it and transferred the money, and I get a response, that they can’t owner the quotation, the sales has made a huge mistake, and quote without the 3D drawing, only on the product description and a 3D drawing of the Aluminium parts, because they approached me first to do the CNC work, and when I sent the product description, they said we can make the whole product for you, and it will be a very competitive price, which it was, but then they didn’t owner it, like a car sales man, they lure you with the demo that was always sold by the other sales or the manger’s wife is driving it for the day.

So whatever you do in China, don’t deal with Shenzhen Bergek Technology Co.,LTD, they are time wasters, and especially Lexy Zhang, she doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about, she is nice and polite, but clueless, with a sales engineer title under her name.

Anyway, these were my sad news, but I have another supplier, actually two, and maybe on Friday when I publish this post, things wont be as grim.

Friday,

It’s still grim as, things ain’t moving forward, today I almost placed an order for 500 grinder, but I don’t think the supplier was legit, couldn’t find him on Alibaba, and the invoice doesn’t have a business license number, this sourcing business is a nightmare, my previous experience is sales not purchasing.

So based on that, and moving forward, I decided to change my strategy, i will order one piece for now, and then maybe 10, to use as samples so I can generate wholesale orders, and then I will place an order, this way the risk will be minimised and I won’t be throwing my hard earnd money in the bin.

So no pictures today, I still don’t have refund from the Bergek, they are taking their sweet time, and I’m filing a complaint with Alibaba first thing monday if I don’t have refund.

Peace out ☮️

Friday Late night:

After publishing the post, I have received a refund confirmation from Bergek and ordered a prototype and payed for it, it should be shipped next week, nothing like changing strategies.

And they just informed me, that they will start production tomorrow, this is moving forward now. so worst case scenario, I have prototype in 2 weeks, best case end of next week,

Now I don’t know what to talk about next week, maybe I will start talking about my second product.

Later ☮️

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Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where We design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture), and at the moment I’m working on the Mighty Grinder project, It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty and Crafty, uses a similar filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome.

Things are moving forward, doesn’t feel like it, but progress is there. In this order. 🙂

Last week after my post, I had to edit few details on the CAD file, but nothing major, I upped the size of the storage by 5mm, making the total height of the package 75mm, Now you can store a decent size bud in it.

In the picture below you can see what will come in the box.

Below the section analysis so you can see through the walls. Super vision lol

Looking at the right figure, the grinder, you can see how it will grind into a filling aid device, which can then be used to fill the mighty or the crafty and then you can use the base of the extra storage as a grinder base, which will serve two purposes, one as a base for the grinder, and two if you want to use the grinder as a normal grinder and not grind into the mighty/crafty filling aid

Then when you are finished using the filling aid, you can use the lid from the spare storage for the filling aid, and walla you have a stand alone filling aid and a grinder.

Production wise, I have been trying to make this bad boy in Australia, but the manufacturing rates here are ridicules, no wonder we closed all our cars plants.

So I went to China (not physically), I have been trying to source a manufacturer through Alibaba.com, and honestly the response is overwhelming, many companies had contacted me and offered to quote, so I’m waiting for all the quotes to come.

And after talking to the factories, I believe I’m set on the material.

The plastic will be Peek just like the mighty and crafty, Peek is black, so same colour also

The grinding plates will be made of Aluminium, 6061 or 6063, looking also into anodising the Aluminium, to give it a better finish and longevity.

The middle transparent part that we use to scope the herbs, will be made of acrylic, but I kept it solid, and not shell only, so it’s heavy and feels nice.

I’m coming close to the target supply price, not there yet, and it has to be the right quality but as Jerry Seinfeld said the wheels are in motion.

That’s all about production, but I have news about marketing, I posted about the grinder on a facebook group called Storz & Bickel users and the response was amazing, people want to buy my grinder, that made me very happy, 😃

Obviously, you can tell I love it, I love that my product idea is well received, I’m looking forward more now to launch this product. and make it as high quality as it look.

Peace out ☮️

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Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where We design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture), and at the moment I’m working on the Mighty Grinder project, It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty and Crafty filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome.

As I’m getting busier, I will commet myself to a minimum of one post per week just to keep you updated, maybe soon I will be able to post more, especially when the prototype phase is over and I have more time, to work on the second product, and sales, I think it will be one post per week, lol.

Okay; let us talk business, the first plastic prototype has arrived few days ago…

And to be honest, I wasn’t impressed, I think it need to be a bit more elegant, plus I had some feed back from a manufacturer regarding some details that will make production easier so I have been doing some changes, nothing radical, although the renders might look like heaps has changed, I believe those upgrades will make it look far more expensive.

In a nutshell, I ditched the rings, and used the 2mm to thicken the walls, played with couple of measurements, added engraving, and changed the Peace sign look, but the over all size is still the same.

Now, if you look closely at the section analysis, you can spot most of the upgrades,

First all the walls gained a minimum of 1mm of thickness, this will make the grinder stronger and will feel better when you hold it, the smoth outer wall will set more comfortable in the hand, even the aluminium walls have been beefed up, and in this design the logo is engraved on the aluminium plate and it is visible from the lid, I think it will look sick, again we shall see.

The herb catcher dimensions have been changed, and I’ve changed the middle fastner method, but the major change was due to a manufaring chalange, in the picture below you can see the old top cutting plate,

And this can’t be done on a CNC machine because of the sharp corners, so I was asked to add fillet, and make smooth corners, which got me thinking, why don’t I use the fillet as a feature, I was always worried about the number of cutting teath, so I took this opportunity and added three extra cutting teath and this is the new top cutting plate.

I think it will look sick, and it’s thicker, which mean it will be stronger, with three more cutting teath.

You can see the new top plate clearly in this render, the grinder’s walls are thicker and the outer smooth wall is giving it a more elegant feel. Maybe it’s just me 🙂

The new filling aid is shallower, as you can see in this picture, and the new central cone, is looking neater, it seals the filling piece completely when grinding so no herbs can go inside of the transparent bit, which is sealed at the top.

This theard picture is a clear example of the new wall’s thickness, at the moment I’m aiming to use Peek plastic, so the grinder will have the exact same finish like the Mighty & Crafty vaporiser.

I saved the engraving for last 🙂

As you can see in this render, the aluminium inside the plastic look sick, I mean this will be one special grinder, when you put it on the table next to your Mighty or Crafty, it will look cool 😎.

Obviously, I still don’t have a functioning prototype yet, there were some hiccups with the factory in China,

Honesty; I’ve been looking at, and talking to factories, and I’m learning a lot of things about production, and how to prepare a CAD file for production, special considerations and requirements I wasn’t aware of regarding CNC capabilities, and rules of plastic molding.

But all and all, I think the progress is good and maybe by the end of the month, I will have my first functioning prototype.

I have nothing more to report, folow us on instagram.

Peace ☮️

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Good News, I’ve orderd the plastic parts of the prototype, and waiting on quotes for the metal parts, and this is the final design

Heaps of changes in the last few days, and especially today after showing the design to an engineer, and taking all his feedback onboard.

This is ready for prototype now, so I’ve ordered the 3d prints, Haha

Soon, I will be grinding my herbs with my mighty grinder, and the first grinder made especially for Mighty and Crafty users will be born.

So excited.

You will hear back from me very soon

Peace ☮️ for now.

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Hello,

Very soon for comfort, I know, but I have changed the logo,

If you read yesterday post, I mentioned in the last paragraph that I’m not liking the logo, and today we have a new logo,

I know, things happen fast here in Cloud Riders, where we design and prduce accessories for Storz & Bickel, and the grinder prototype is just around the corner, 🙂

But back to the logo, here it is:

I believe this will look much nicer on the box, just a white box with our name and logo, and the name of the product, simple, cost effective and discreet.

The CR will be engraved on the lid of The Grinder, that’s why I had to finish this befor ordering the prototype.

Well, that’s it for today, soon I will be grinding my herbs and getting a perfect blend directly into the Mighty filling device with my grinder prototype, exciting times 🙂

Peace ☮️

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Hey, What’s Up?

Check out these nice renders of the grinder that I’ve done yesterday.

I think this is look fantastic, but that’s just me, 🙂

I’ve done some minor changes today, and I believe I’ve reached the final design, now it’s prototype time, so yesterday I’ve sent few inquiries and researched few 3D printing, and laser cutting joints, priced the prototype, which is looking very responsible.

I’m going to show it to couple of friends before ordering the prototype, just need to sleep on it for few more nights, I keep on coming up with improvements every day after I’m done working, I was thinking I want to change the top to be transparent, so the user can see the herbs, elemenating the need to open the lid.

I still don’t know how to do that production wise, so maybe I will come up with something or it will be version two.

These renders are from yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, some changes has been done, so it’s looking a bit different now, will upload new renders soon.

I don’t know if I’m married to the logo yet, I guess this is the perfect time to consider changing it.

Well, that’s all for now, Peace ☮️