I'm glad you are interested. Things are going swimingly as long as I have some control over the process. Pretty soon though, the CAM file is going to China to make the tool and after that my influence will be limited. I really would like to have them by August.
Here is a picture of the printer. I can't tell much from it but it is something to look at.
After the lens (AKA->SLA: Stereo Lithography Apparatus) was printed it was checked for fitment. The lens is in place with the other components of the lens housing
The lens is not clear because it needs to be polished. They are polishing it now and checking the measurements very closely.
------------------ Goody
The beauty of a solution lies in its simplicity
[This message has been edited by kgoodyear (edited 05-30-2018).]
david@rpmproto.com is going to polish the lenses and decorate the lens. We have a good confidence level on the decorations. If he is satisfied with the fitment we are going to print the driver side lens. If there is some tweaking that needs to be done that will be done and then the driver side will be printed, polished and decorated.
Wow! Nice to see a physical part indeed, that is AWESOME!
I am a bit confused though and just don't understand the process.... Are the lenses are going to be 3D printed? From reading, I gathered you were having a tool made to do injection molding. If you are using the file you printed from to make a mold, what is the point of the polishing the lens and cleaning it up? That would just clean up errors that may be in the file, and after polishing and correcting the lens, you would have no idea if there were errors in the file........
Wow! Nice to see a physical part indeed, that is AWESOME!
I am a bit confused though and just don't understand the process.... Are the lenses are going to be 3D printed? From reading, I gathered you were having a tool made to do injection molding. If you are using the file you printed from to make a mold, what is the point of the polishing the lens and cleaning it up? That would just clean up errors that may be in the file, and after polishing and correcting the lens, you would have no idea if there were errors in the file........
I just can't wrap my hear around it
My project lead David tells me I'll have some more information and pictures coming my way soon!!! Tell your friends to watch this thread!!!
I don't know if this has been asked but do you have any type of patent pending on the part? My concern is that the China company will keep the design specs and begin mass producing these on Ebay to steal your business. I've seen it happen many times with overseas manufacturers.
Yeah, there is. We have made the right 3d lense and the fitment was almost perfect. They made the changes and we have sent the file to the tool maker along with a sizable chunk of seed money. I've been given a date for the "T1" (first run tests) lenses but I would rather keep that under wraps.for now. Confidential resources say the date is very promising and an excellent turnaround. I feel I will not have a product to sell at the 35th meet but will have T lenses for people to look at. At this point, I'm not sure I will go since I may not have a product.
From the tool maker: "IT was very smart of you to build the prototype to check the fit. alot of people want to skip that step. Remember in the 'old days' we always built complete prototype tools first, [because] we were using wood patterns to duplicate from"
The tool maker is very pleased we went forward and spent the extra money to print the two lenses. He said it makes his job much easier and therefore faster. Keep in mind even after the tool is made the lenses need to be shot, decorated and shipped back (on a slow boat) to the states.
I have encouraged my team to try and take more pictures so I can pass them along to Frugal Fiero Fans.
------------------ Goody
The beauty of a solution lies in its simplicity
[This message has been edited by kgoodyear (edited 06-08-2018).]
I don't know if this has been asked but do you have any type of patent pending on the part? My concern is that the China company will keep the design specs and begin mass producing these on Ebay to steal your business. I've seen it happen many times with overseas manufacturers.
My first though was--we're dealing with China here. I'm not sure a patent would make one bit of difference to the Chinese. IMSA, keep in mind my team and vendors are stateside and they have made certain obligations to me that could hold them responsible if your concern were to come to fruition. Another point is that this is a VERY narrow market. It is my understanding that "the government" is cracking down on this kind of piracy. That being said, we are dealing with the Chinese.
We would not be where we are if we were to have the lenses made stateside. Labor is sadly prohibitive and there is no way I could afford it.
------------------ Goody
The beauty of a solution lies in its simplicity
[This message has been edited by kgoodyear (edited 06-08-2018).]
I feel I will not have a product to sell at the 35th meet but will have T lenses for people to look at. At this point, I'm not sure I will go since I may not have a product.
You should still come for other reasons, like just to have a good time and see cool cars.
Bring the T lenses if you want and show people progress, and even if you physically don't have product you may be able to show them off and get hype going, and possibly release a date that they may be for sale.
Many people are not on this forum anymore and might not even know about this. Facebook has a bigger market. Even if you don't post on there, bringing the T lenses to the 35th, someone might see them and make a post about them and you may touch a whole new market.
You should still come for other reasons, like just to have a good time and see cool cars.
Bring the T lenses if you want and show people progress, and even if you physically don't have product you may be able to show them off and get hype going, and possibly release a date that they may be for sale.
Many people are not on this forum anymore and might not even know about this. Facebook has a bigger market. Even if you don't post on there, bringing the T lenses to the 35th, someone might see them and make a post about them and you may touch a whole new market.
Ok. Sure hope I can find a room still. I can't help but think at the very least I will have T lenses.
It looks like I got the last suite for the 35th Anniversery show. So I will be there. I may or may not have product to sell but I expect to have first run "T" lenses to show.
Wow the most comprehensive detailed thread on the forum. I bought one of the last sets of originals a decade ago still in the plastic and modified my old ones but wow I would be all over these if didn't have new originals.
George and the team can quickly go over my head. I thought you might find this step interesting. As we learn more I'll pass it on. I have found out doing some front end loading and learning has helped keep things moving and on budget! The pictures show just one lens but one is just the reverse of the other. ------------------ Goody
The beauty of a solution lies in its simplicity
[This message has been edited by kgoodyear (edited 06-14-2018).]
Looks pretty good, but you may want to go with a thicker mil mask to cut down light bleed through even more..
What lighting is being used to test it? If it is a stock bulb I would go a bit thicker, but if it is a higher wattage bulb being used you may be OK.
Love watching your updates!
Railshot: I spoke with George and the team and they said it was a 100 watt LED Flood light. Now, if that is what I think it is that is a lot of light. This means the banks of LED's are consuming 100 watts and that is a lot of light. When they pulled the masking off the lines were nice and crisp.
Hey guys! David and George went to visit the tool maker today and will be reporting back tomorrow. He promises pictures and information we have all been waiting for.
First of all, great job getting this far. Secondly, there seems to be some blur in the one picture, rather than transparent. The top pic seems to have some waviness in it.
[This message has been edited by tshark (edited 06-29-2018).]
First of all, great job getting this far. Secondly, there seems to be some blur in the one picture, rather than transparent. The top pic seems to have some waviness in it.
Keep in mind I have never even seen the actual lenses. The imperfections could be an optical illusion or from the 3d printing or the polishing. I, however am not speaking from a position of an expert but I will pass your comment along to my project lead. Watch the thread for a response.
First of all, great job getting this far. Secondly, there seems to be some blur in the one picture, rather than transparent. The top pic seems to have some waviness in it.
This is from my project lead:
"Keith, in regards to the concerns mentioned. The top picture is blurred and maybe not the best pic quality. Also, these are prototypes are made of a clear SLA material that have imperfections. The finish on these prototypes are a representation of the finish product, but do not refection of the quality on the production parts. The two processes are completely different. We are excited with progress and the direction of the reproduction of these complicated parts.
On a side note, these prototypes are 10,000% better than anything that is on most of the Fiero’s that are still existing."
Given the project is coming along quite well and the results are spectacular, on the marketing side, do you have a projected sale pricing on the new lenses?
I have a set lined up for purchase and just may hold off depending on where the $$$ fall.
This is huge! Thanks for all the hard work! 
I can't wait!
