D5 Open Source Hammer Project - It's Hammer Time!!!

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 1 - 20 of total 835 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 23, 2010 - 09:22pm PT

IT'S HAMMERTIME!!!

After a five year odyssey, we have finally arrived - it's hammertime! The last major steps in the journey are assembly and sales. Theron has the assembly task well in hand and Simon King now has the sales website up and live. And while we haven't gotten every last cost finalized, we've decided to go ahead and ballpark estimate a couple of lagging costs and round a couple of others up for contingencies so we can proceed with taking orders for the hammers. Most of these costs revolve around some final materials shipping and the difficulty in anticipating final credit card charges. See the cost list below for details.

In short, the hammer manufacturing cost came in at $67, a fixed donation to the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation (ALCF) at $15, and CC handling & shipping at $18 combined for a final shipped sales price per hammer of $100 which still brings it in as a great deal on a classic climbing hammer. After much discussion among the team on how best to address both additional contributions to the ALCF / Khumbu Climbing School and requests for specific hammer numbers without turning the sales website into a nightmare for Simon we've come up with the following approach:

Twelve hammers will be donated to the ALCF / Khumbu school directly so that its students can benefit not only from your generous donations, but also from some of the hammers themselves. The cost of these hammers is built into the manufacturing cost of all the hammers.

Hammer order form options start with a $100 hammer base price with no additional contribution above the built-in $15 one. It then also provides for additional contribution levels should you be able to further assist the ALCF. Donations amounts beyond the presented fixed levels can also be arranged by contacting Simon directly via email and he'll generate a special SKU for you to use to do so.

There will also be a place on the form during checkout for specific hammer # requests. If you want a specific hammer # you should specify that during checkout - but here's the deal - if we have more than one person request a specific number, the person donating the most, in contributes the most to ALCF will get that number. In the case of tied donations, the first order submitted will get it.

Hammer numbers 1 - 10 are in a special pool; if you want to try for one of these hammers please specify that during checkout and orders for those ten hammers will be settled based on the top ten highest donations received before midnight December 7th for that pool of number requests. Hammer numbers 11 - 277 can also be requested and duplicate requests will be settled the same way. We hope this approach works to everyone's satisfaction as it's the fairest way we can think of to address such requests in the context and limitations of the sales website and our sanity.

So, without further ado, the D5 Open Source Hammer Project is proud to announce this limited run of 256 D5 Hammers authentically recreating John Middendorf's classic big wall hammer design is now on with specific hammer serial number requests ending at midnight on Sunday, December 7th (sales will continue until all 256 are sold). The ALCF and the D5 Team look forward to your order and many thanks for your patience and perseverance in seeing the project through to completion.

-The D5 Hammer Team

Order your hammer at Simon King's e-com site: The Vershke Group. Please read the ordering instructions carefully - particularly if you are requesting a specific hammer number. We anticipate assembling the hammers on the weekend of December 4th and shipping them sometime in the following week.

Also note that Simon has lots of other great gear and gifts available for sale on his site including A5-related t-shirts and Theron's hooks and hangers!

---------------------------------------------

D5 Open Source Hammer Project Costs

The cost list as of 11/23 looks like this with the estimated items annotated with an '[*]', rounded items marked with an '[+]', and as yet undetermined items marked with an '[?]':

Manufacturing / Head Tangs

304 Stainless Steel 13 gauge = 0.44
Blanking on Shear = 0.40
Drilling of Hole = 0.30
Bending of Angle = 0.30
Deburr = 0.15
----------------

Tang subtotal = 1.59 per tang (included in hammer costs below)

Manufacturing / Hammer

Forging of Hammer Head = 18.35
Milling of Hammer Face = 7.50
Drilling of Carabiner Hole = 9.00
Sharpening of pick = 6.50
Logo Punching = 1.10
Serializing = 1.60
Heat Treating = 1.93
Sandblasting = 1.00
Anti Corrosion Dip = 0.65
(2)Tangs = 3.18
Handle = 2.84
Drilling of Handle for Leash = 0.75
Leash = 2.72 [*]
(2) Tang Nails = 0.20 [*]
Tooling = N/C
Assembly = N/C
----------------

Hammer subtotal = 57.32 per hammer

Khumbu School Hammers

12 Hammers = 687.84 divided by 260 sellable hammers
----------------

Khumbu subtotal = 2.65 per hammer

**Manufacturing / Shipping**

Heads from Ajax Forge to Theron = $153.24
Heads Heat treat roundtrip = $180
Leash shipping from Fish Products to Theron = $50 [*]
Handles from Seymour Products to Theron = $90.00 [*]
----------------

473.24 / 260
----------------

Shipping subtotal = 1.82 per hammer

Manufacturing / Combined

Hammer subtotal = 57.32
Khumbu subtotal = 2.65
Shipping subtotal = 1.82
----------------

Rounding for contingencies = 5.21 [+]
----------------

Manufacturing subtotal = 67.00

ALCF Fixed Donation

Khumbu Climbing School Donation = 15.00
----------------

Running subtotal = 82.00

Sales / Shipping

USPS Flat rate shipping in U.S. = 10.70
Rounding for materials and handling = 2.30 [+]
Khumbu Climbing School hammers shipping [?]
----------------

Running subtotal = 95.00 [?]

Sales / Credit Card

CC charges are 4% + $0.48 and can float between $3.60 to $12.00
depending on order quantity and donation
----------------

Leveling Rounding = 5.00 [+]
----------------

Running subtotal = 100.00

Final Price

Total = 100.00

[Note: There are 256 hammers available, but the serial numbers range from 1 to 277 due largely to hammer heads which didn't make it and the twelve for the Khumbu Climbing School. Overall the run turned out pretty good given we were originally shooting for 250 of them]

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:39pm PT

Thanks, Theron, Joseph, Ed and Simon!

Joseph, what about shipping to Canada?

I take it that we can pay by credit card, without being signed up for PayPal.

Can we perhaps agree from the outset that it would not be in the spirit of this fine undertaking to "bid up" the price on certain hammer numbers, or at least not too much, just for the sake of being mischievious? Perhaps Ed should now delete his fine lists, just to prevent such silliness.

Prod

Trad climber

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:40pm PT

Going to pay right now...

Prod.

Captain...or Skully

Big Wall climber

leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:40pm PT

And what about folk without credit or debit cards?
Are they just screwed?
If my hammer gets sold out from under me, I'm gonna be pissed.

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2010 - 09:41pm PT

The list matters in so much as it might be good to take a look at who wants what and respect that to the degree possible though we already have some conflicts. We've struggled with this aspect of the project since it came up and have accommodated the desire to have them serialized. But we have had to draw the line at our settling conflicts over number requests without some objective means of doing so. Again, this might not work for everyone, but it seemed a way to both deal with an unanticipated aspect of the project and attempt to help the ALCF at the same time. Our apologies if that doesn't meet some folks expectations.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:42pm PT

I wonder how high we can bid up the price for FatTrad's hammer?

Edit: It's #176. Rumour has it that it will be a 'special' hammer, worth much more than the base price.

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2010 - 09:45pm PT

And what about folk without credit or debit cards?
Are they just screwed?

Send Simon an email explaining the situation and see if he can accommodate your order by snail mail or paypal. We've tried our best to deal with this sales side of the project with the least expense possible and Simon has been more than gracious and kind in providing a way for these sales to happen without the process being a logistical nightmare.

Again, our apologies if this doesn't meet everyone's expectations, but this isn't a commercial venture, and none of use are making any money at all from the effort.

I'm gonna be pissed.

That's possible, but certainly not in the spirit of what we've tried to accomplish here and specific # requests were never part of the original plan.

Captain...or Skully

Big Wall climber

leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:55pm PT

I don't give a green goddam about numbers!
I just want my hammer. Msg sent to Simon. We'll see how it goes.

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2010 - 09:59pm PT

Sorry, Capt., I misinterpreted you meaning. I'm guessing Simon can come up with some way to accommodate you.

Captain...or Skully

Big Wall climber

leading the away team, but not in a red shirt!

Nov 23, 2010 - 09:59pm PT

Thanks.

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2010 - 10:02pm PT

Also, note, the sooner you can order your hammer the smoother shipping will go at our end and it will also insure you're one of the 256 to claim one.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Nov 23, 2010 - 10:11pm PT

Maybe I need to RTFM.

IMPORTANT! Shipping costs for orders OUTSIDE the United States are ADDED TO THE BASE PRICE of $100. The costs for international shipping will be shown during checkout.

Acer

Big Wall climber

Nov 23, 2010 - 10:14pm PT

Yep, after 5 years the time has come. Just in time for Hanukkah.

So I guess I need 8 hammers or a hammer, t-shirt, Tomahawk, Wired bliss, Wired Bliss, Tomahawk, hat, Hammer.

I am going for the #007 and the #069.

http://www.alexlowe.org

I agree with working something out for NOT paying by CC. I would rather my $5 for that be a further donation.

Paypal has a fine line where you can pay without there being a fee on the sellers side or the buyers side. The buyer has to send money as a PERSONAL payment and the money has to come from a PP balance or checking account. But Paypal accounts that are linked to a business might not even have that as an option. Check with Simon.

Ferretlegger

Trad climber

san Jose, CA

Nov 23, 2010 - 10:16pm PT

Many thanks to Theron, Simon, and all the others involved in this massive project. I ordered mine from Simon a moment ago. Even though I have several perfectly good Chouinard hammers from the late 1960's, I wanted one of these. It was so cool to see Theron's painstaking crafstmanship at each step along the way. I only hope that he feels compensated for all the very hard work. I have high hopes of using this bad boy on El Cap next spring.

Again, MANY THANKS!!

Michael Jefferson

healyje

Trad climber

Portland, Oregon

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2010 - 10:19pm PT

Acer, we all at our end appreciate the desire to avoid the cc charges, but it will just make our lives hell if a lot of folks attempt to do so - it's why we just built it into the costs. We'd appreciate it if folks just bit the bullet and paid by cc if at all possible. Thanks.