Updated Shipping Date, and Current Progress.
over 4 years ago – Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 01:32:38 AM

Hi Everyone, 

Sorry for the delay since the last update, we have been trying to nail down a few details before we released this update, that way we do not need to change things again later. 

Shipping Update

As you know we have been busy shooting and painting floors. They have come out great, and we are working on the smaller I, A, and S floors now. We will have another update soon to show the finished product of those floors. 

We have run in to a bit of a snag getting molds finished fast enough. It turns out getting molds made in the US is a much slower process then China. There are very few mold making companies in the US, as there are very few things made here anymore. If we had just farmed the whole project to China we would have delivered already. We said we were going to make it here and we want to live up to that, and build a viable US business. 

We were lucky enough that Protoquick was interested in our project to help make our molds. We had contacted some of the larger mold houses before we got in contact with Protoquick back in 2017 and they all said they were not interested, or they wanted 30k-50k per mold, which is not doable on such a small project like this. The hard part with a small company making our molds, is they can only turn out x number a month. Between or project and Protoquick's other full time customers they are making them as fast as possible. 2019 ended up being busier then they had predicted, so our molds have come out slower then originally estimated. 

So we have added in another mold maker out of Bend, Oregon. Rob is the owner of a small mold making company and highly recommended by Protoquick, he flew out to meet with us and go over the project last month. He is in the process of making molds along with Protoquick. 

So the good news is we will be making molds faster from here on out, the bad news is we will not have everything ready to ship by the end of December. 

We have gone over all the molds that we still need to have made, and between our two molders its safe to say we will be able to ship everything by the end of March 2020. I know that sounds like a long time away, and its not close to our original delivery date, but we will hit that date. 

On the flip side, all of our budgeting for this project has been spot on, and our funds cover everything that is needed to complete and ship. Where we made the big mistake was thinking it could all be made and shipped in 11 months. The 11 month number would have worked, if we had it made in China, but not as our first made locally project. 

What we have learned making this locally, has taught us a lot. It will allow us to make future Kickstarters much faster then this one locally. We are looking at purchasing a CNC milling machine so we can make the molds in house in the future. That will speed up the process, and allow us to be more creative and make more pieces per project. Because we own our own Injection molding machine (purchasing 1-2 more next year) and can run it 24/7 we are able to knock our the pieces fast, so having our own milling machine would be the next logical step. 

The Plan

We are looking at the following schedule:

The rest of November: Finish up I,A,S floors

December: A, BA,D, and low walls. 

January: Columns and Stairs

February: All miscellaneous pieces. 

March:  Packing and Shipping.

Future Updates 

I have been behind on updates from the day this project closed, that stops as of today! 

You guys have put a lot of trust in us on this project and you deserve to be in the loop constantly. I will be doing BI monthly updates until the shipping date in March. Our next update will be next week with photos of all of the finished E,A,S, and I floors, plus other various finished pieces

I have gotten many messages from backers over the past months that have been nothing but supportive, and with excitement about receiving their product.  I want to thank all of you for not loosing faith due to the lack of communication, I will make sure that its open and constant communication from here on out. 

I will be on KS everyday to answer questions from here on out.

Thanks for making this KS a reality, there is no way we could have done this with out you guys!

Jamison and the AOD Team

This week marks the completion of the E floors with over 200,000 E tiles ready for painting and packing.
over 4 years ago – Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 12:59:42 AM

HI Backers, 

Hope you had a great summer! 

E floors complete and painting begins.

This week marks the completion of the E floors with over 200,000 E tiles ready for painting and packing.

Painting begins. 

Half of the tiles need painting and we are finalizing the procedure for painting at the moment. Our focus is on consistency and quality. Painting is something we don't want to rush.

One million OpenLOCK clips.

 We  have one million OpenLOCK clips ready to go. The clips are made from POM (Polyoxymethylene) material. this is an engineering grade material and perfect for the OpenLOCK clip as it has a smooth locking feel and is hard to wear down.

Packaging prototype and portcullis

We have also shot the portcullis and  we  are working with our packaging company on the best way to protect and pack the rampage tiles.  

Next week we will start shooting the I,S,A and, F floors. These are also on a family mold system so we will be able to produce the variations quickly. We will be showing the final floor collection on the next update.

We are finalizing the Wall mold designs now, so that when we are done shooting the I,S,A, and F floors we can go right into shooting the walls. 

We have the shipping date set for December and will keep you posted if anything changes.

Stay tuned for the next update (much sooner this time) 

Thanks for backing.

Jamison and the AOD team.

Rough Stone Floors
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 12:59:39 AM

Hi Everyone, 

We have all of the Floor mold inserts in production with half of them completed and ready to shoot. We are moving onto the A-Wall master mold next, so we can  start knocking down the walls!

Painted Rough Stone Floor Samples

Here is a video of the Rough Stone floors being shot, we are moving along at full speed! I will have more videos and shots of the Castles floors soon. 

People have been asking for a video of the clipping and unclipping, here is a video of the Rough Stone floors. 

The next update will have more floors and paint samples.

Thanks 

Jamison and the AOD Team

Shooting Tiles!
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 02:39:37 AM

Hi Everyone, 

Hope you are having a great summer!

The master OpenLOCK E-Floor mold is all calibrated and we are now shooting tiles. We made a couple of adjustments to the mold to get the tolerances just right for the locking system. With OpenLOCK there is a lot more to it then just making cool looking terrain, the mechanical side is just as important. That is why we are so excited to be working with Ken and his team at Protoquick, they make molds for medical devices, that have very strict guidelines. 

We started with the Tepid Pool blank tiles first, as that is our ground zero height for all floors. We should be done with these floors in a couple days and on to the Rough Stone floors. Protoquick is cutting the Rough Stone, and Castle Floor inserts right now. 

Here is a video of our first fully packed shot of the floor. 

Here is a shot of the master E-Floor mold with 16 medical grade sliders for accuracy with removable inserts for different floor types. 

Here is a photo of the dryer with suction tubes running to the injection molding machine to feed the plastic. 

Here is a photo of 2200lbs of ABS pellets, this should just about take care of the floors we need to make!

Finally a shot of the finished Tepid Pool floor top and bottom. 

Now that we are all up and running things will start to move relatively fast. 

Next update will include more pieces and some samples of the painted tiles. 

Thanks 

Jamison and the AOD Team 

Mini Update while cutting molds
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2019 at 01:43:33 AM

Hi Everyone, 

Here is a quick mini update, our next update will show the first shot pieces. 

Here are a couple of photos and CAD shots of the main mold for all E-Floors for OpenLOCK. This mold has interchangeable inserts that allow us to quickly make new E-Floor style tiles and pop them in. We are able to make all 12 of the different E-Floors we had in the Kickstarter by just cutting the inserts to look like the top of the Rough Stone, Castle, Crypt, etc...

This system took a bit more planning on our end and Protoquicks, but it makes production much smoother and faster for us in the long run. This will also allow us to offer a larger variety of different looks in the future, since all we need to do is cut a small insert to change the look of a floor! 

What you see bellow is the CAD for our MUD based 4 Cavity OpenLOCK E-Floor mold system. It has 16 steel sliders that create the mold articulation to account for the under cut of the tiles locking system. This mold fits on both our machine and all of Protoquicks larger machines, giving us more options. 

We will have an update in the couple of weeks showing the finished mold, and the first run of tiles!

Thanks 

Jamison and the AOD Team