Out of curiosity, why not make the product before the sale? From what I can see it is a fantastic product, but the "you will get it sometime", may turn some customers off. Maybe Amazon Prime just has me spoiled, I dunno, my hand is just pestering me about my P-16 order.
That is a very good question and i'm glad you asked it. My short answer would be that demand outstrips supply but that doesn't fully answer the question.
My long answer would be:
I've always promoted Super T more as a specialty shop focusing on fine craftsmanship rather than on re-selling mass produced goods that are ready to ship the moment I get them in. All of my parts arrive as "raw" machinings. As a consequence, a great deal of time goes into the preparation of each unit, which only allows for a limited number of units to be produced during a given time period. I'm not able to just order more from bulk suppliers to meet demand. Since there are limited units available, people are allowed to get in line to receive one. Much like you would when ordering a custom gun, knife, or what not from a custom manufacturer.
Each part has to be inspected and measured for proper run out, outer diameter, length,inner diamerter, squareness, length etc. Often i'll need to shorten a body or square off a mating surface in the lathe that isn't true. Once all the parts are deemed ok, i then press in the center posts to the correct post height and then rough assemble the units.
Once rough assembled, i chuck them in the lathe and spin them. This is when i begin the surface prep work as well as matching the end caps to the body so there are no ridges. Depending on how poorly the caps line up in raw form, or how bad the machine marks and scratches are in the raw bodies and caps, i can spend up to two hours per unit just doing surface prep work, this is what contributes heavily to the labor and time into each unit but it's what makes Super T's work stand out.
Once the bodies and caps are surface prepped and aligned, the units are completely dis-assembled, washed, and then re-assembled, button fitted and test fired. Due to my extreme .... retentive nature, no one, save me, does the final assembly, testing and inspection. If there are any knicks, scratches, mis-alignments, etc., back in the lathe it goes!
Granted, i could hire more help than myself and one part timer, but then overhead increases and my ability to strictly monitor quality control goes down. It's always a fine line between output and quality. I suspect as Super T continues to evolve, i will find more quality help and let go of a little of my obsessiveness
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I got my 16340 today!It's 
