Ok. I've answered all PM's and E-mails and am working on me second cup of coffee, almost time to go to work!
Perhaps I should take a moment to explain the reasoning behind the changes?
The models I have made in the past were all but two things, they were not build friendly or repair friendly and if I keep making them that way the price is going to jump up significantly and soon too!
As I am not yet ready to start charging $200+ for the base price something had to change.
Over the months of building these mods I have kept notes of suggestions, complaints and my own thoughts on what should be changed.
The mod should be easier to hold, some people have actually sold theirs because they were afraid of dropping it and there have been ALOT of drop repairs I have had to take the time to do on the Cutlass mods. When I get the last of the repairs in the mail today I am going to have to blow a full production day doing nothing but repairs.
There is a tried and true reason most hand held items conform to a certain size limit, e.g. flashlights, baseball bats, etc, etc, comfortable in the hand and able to firmly grip them. I want that in a mod and so apparently do many other people.
Build friendly layout. No more hollowed out end caps with components glued inside making it impossible to repair. In the long run this will make repairs cheaper for you and faster for me.
Arthritis. Yes even this is a consideration and I have had it for many years and it has begun seriously affecting my hands. It is painful and difficult to hand route hour after hour, to sand and chisel wood. I would like to make the machines do the stressful work for me and that will allow me to just do the fine detail and finish work. This will extend the lifespan of Redskymods for hopefully a much longer time than if I have to keep doing things manually, who likes to be in pain all the time?
More wood availability. The smaller the piece of wood you want, the more options are available and seeing how all models are now 2" x 1" it also opens up the " 2x2 Turning Stock" class of wood which is a major bonus.
The 1.5" side access panel width allows me to use any "Knife Scale" blanks as both end caps and side panels. Take a look at both "Turning Stock" and "Knife Scale" under the 'Lumber' category on e-bay and you will see that wood options have suddenly grown alot! Arrr!
If the only Variable I have from model to model is the height then I can allow people to order any model during pre-orders and not have to change machine setups which is a VERY good thing
Hardware choices. Things change over time and the current trend is what I try to answer, why make a mod few people want. The current trend seems to be a move away from the 14500 battery, the limitations of the simple 3.7v mod, but a smaller big battery mod. Tanks are also the current rage so that also needs to be addressed.
Price. I have gone months without changing the base price of the mods. Converting to these designs means I can go for a while yet without raising prices and still have enough profit to keep going. A win for everyone.
Please believe that I do want input from you and your thoughts about the mods, but also consider that I have spent hundreds of hours with CAD programs, writing CNC programs, creating prototypes, test fitting components, altering designs and repeating the process again and again trying to fit as much as I can in as small of a space as possible while still allowing me access and room to solder and run wires. On top of all that it has to be pleasing to the eye.
So many factors go into the design as I am sure you can see and I'm sure I have left some out as well.
Lets bump this post on occasion when a question about 'why' can be answered by it and I can keep working, lol
Yo ho!
Edit: Oh yes, I almost forgot. One of the major benifits to converting all the models to CAD designs and CNC programs is when there are new hardware choices available I can adapt them into current models, quickly and precisely and so keep updating the designs without loss of time. (Like the current 2-3 week R&D downtime we are suffering through).
