Shavehorse Kits and Adjusters - Production Update

I've gotten a couple emails the last few days asking about the Shavehorse Kits, so I thought I should give everyone an update. My water jet cutter expected to turn this job around within 2 weeks of the time I ordered, but they did not expect to have to wait so long for material. After a little pestering from me last week they admitted that the materials were still en route. Today I learned that the massive sheet of 1 inch thick 6061 T6 has arrived safely at their Hanson, Massachusetts shop and is next in line for their machine. I expect they'll have all the parts cut and out the door this week or next. When they arrive here I'll still need to drill and countersink some holes, then lap the sides and pack them for shipment. I'll be ready for those final steps when they get here.

I haven't been twiddling my thumbs while I wait. A couple weeks back I sent my only adjuster prototype to Hendersonville, TN to be installed in one of my horses at Greg Pennington's shop. Peter Galbert was scheduled to be there and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have both he and Greg evaluate the tool. Some of you may know that Pete came up with the adjuster, and the he and I worked together to to develop two versions of the part. Pete has been using the prototype I had made of his version in his own horse, but he's never used one of mine. You can see a little video of it in use on Peter's Instagram and some photos of the install on Greg's Instagram. During the course of the trial Peter noticed it was a little harder than it should be to adjust the height in the forward position. We discussed the possible causes of problem and I went to work on a solution. After considering a few different solutions I've come up with a change to the design that solves the problem without changing the performance of the rest of the horse. It's also a modification that can be done by current owners of this latest version of the horse (more on that later).

Of course I already had 50 sets of the drawings printed. There was some discussion of including an addendum to the drawings but in the end I decided to reorder updated prints for 2 of the 3 pages. That order went out today and should arrive long before the adjusters get here.

I initially expected to get all the preorders shipped by the end of this week, but that's obviously not going to happen. My current goal is to have them out the door in time for all the domestic orders to arrive by Christmas, but that may be cutting it close. I'll update you (a little sooner this time) as things progress.