That's a Wrap!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 27, 2021 at 06:47:48 PM

The last packages were picked up a couple of hours ago and are on their way. (We do have 9 backers that have not filled out their surveys - if this is you, and you haven't received your survey link, just reach out to us at info @ dmdunn.com)

Thank You!

First off, a huge thank you to all of our backers for your patience and understanding as we worked through the manufacturing difficulties.

It's always our goal to produce things that make people say "WOW!" when they see them for the first time (in a good way ;))! While I don't think we completely lived up to that on this particular campaign, I can say we did our best with what we had. Most of you seem happy and that makes us happy. For those of you who were underwhelmed, we're truly sorry. 

Some lessons were learned, #1 being never trust a manufacturer just because their samples are good. We won't be using that particular manufacturer again (even more so because of their failure to address the issues in any way).  Our dice manufacturer is solid, we've used them three times now and you can just tell they care to get things right.

What's Next?

Unfortunately, we don't have enough inventory of fireball jars that are of sufficient quality for us to put them on our website, so we won't. We have several hundred that we now need to see if we can salvage in some way, perhaps by stripping the film off and either doing something with resin, finding someone else to hydro dip them or another solution we haven't yet thought of.

The fire dice are now on the DM Dunn website in both sets of 7 fire dice and single fire dice.   As a thank you to you - until June 25th you can use promo code "ksthankyou" to save 20% on any of our dice (limited to one use per customer and while supplies last).

We have a few ideas brewing for our next Kickstarter, you'll be the first to know when we're ready to launch it. I am thinking we'll also come up with some special deals for previous backers too. Stay tuned.

Thank you again and until next time, have more funn with DM Dunn! ;)

We're almost there!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, May 07, 2021 at 05:49:36 PM

Happy Friday and hello to all our backers!

I had written one or my detailed updates the other night, then had to step away from the computer and forgot to save the draft. When I returned, I had been logged out and it was gone...sigh. 

Unfortunately, I have to leave town this morning until tomorrow night so I don't have time to recreate that. So in brief...

Where we are and when we will be done

We're a little over 70% fulfilled with right around 115 orders left to ship. My plan is to go on the march and have fulfillment complete by the end of next week!

We have one last batch of jars that have been sprayed with sealer and just need resin. I expect those to be done by Monday or so depending on Dusty's schedule. We are also short a few healing potion jars due to my rejecting some for quality issues, but have the materials to make the replacements needed.  Right now I still have enough inventory that is ready to ship that I don't expect those tasks to slow things down.

As I mentioned, I am out of town today and tomorrow, but will be back on Sunday packing orders (outside of my time commitments for Mother's Day). Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers reading this! 

If I can get 20 packages a day out the door (which is a lot but doable) we'll easily make my goal. Batches will go out every business day (the mailman is going to hate me on Monday!) and tracking numbers will be sent our at least daily. I'll comment below with updates throughout the week, and of course answer questions as they come up.  

Thank you all once again for your backing us and your patience! We hope those of you who have received your rewards are enjoying them and they've made your games just a little bit more fun!

Update on shipping etc
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 06, 2021 at 09:22:18 PM

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.

Just an update on shipping and fulfillment.

As of today, we've shipped out 100 backer's packages! I'd obviously prefer if that was 100%, but we'll get there. 

As you may remember, there were some issues with the jars when they arrived. They were:

Corks missing - we ordered more, received them and they are done.

No clear coat - all of them have this issue. We've received clearcoat and have been spraying them ourselves.

Failed film on the jars - I've now sorted through all of them and about 15% had this issue. They are not useable/fixable. We may see if we can strip them off and reuse the glass, but that's a project for after fulfillment is done. Not even going to post a picture of these as it makes me mad every time I see them.

Air bubbles under the film on the bottom - This is our biggest issue but fortunately one which we've come up with a solve for. They look fine but the film on the bottom of the jar has an air bubble from when they were dipped and is not adhered to the glass. The issue is that with use, these would likely fail and possibly lead to the film peeling up on the sides of the jar. Depending on the severity of it, spraying with clear coat sometimes fixes the problem. We are now doing that first. For the ones that doesn't work on we're taking the extra step of filling the concave portion of the jar bottoms with a clear epoxy resin.

This involves mixing the resin, measuring an exact amount, then applying it, being careful to get some under the film if it is loose and not pulling it up.

The results are actually quite nice, a smooth bottom to the jar that feels really solid.

So the process overall is a bit time consuming

Step 1 - Sort the jars to only process the acceptable ones

Step 2 - Spray those with clearcoat

Wait a day for it to dry

Step 3 - Check bottoms to make sure film is solid, those that are can be shipped, those that are not go on to Step 4

Step 4 - Fill bottoms with 3ml of clear 2-part epoxy resin

Wait for a day for it to finish curing

Step 5 - Inspect, pack and ship

Where we're at now and my estimate of timing

Dusty is out of town until Thursday and you don't want me applying resin to these. :)

That said, we have 84 jars that were completed on Saturday (in the photo above) plus a couple that were already done and had not yet been shipped. I have started shipping those and expect that will fulfill another 50-60 backers and that it will be done by Wednesday. That would get us to about 40% fulfilled by this week.

I already have 147 more sorted and ready for clearcoat and I will have more on deck by Thursday when Dusty returns. I am somewhat limited by space, but will have more room when I am done shipping the ones that are ready. Those should get sprayed either Thursday or Friday, depending on schedules, then Saturday they should be ready for resin. This means I'll start packing/shipping those on Sunday and through the following week with more going out every day.

Potential issued from my perspective. A good friend of mine in NY is moving to Florida and has a short window to get it done, so I may be flying out for a couple of days to help him. I will let you know if that happens. I am also scheduled for my second dose of COVID vaccine on 4/12, hopefully no side effects but a few friends who have had it were out of commission for a day or so after getting theirs.

The bottom line is that from a pure workload perspective we could be done in another 2-3 weeks. We're going to try our best to make it so! 

As always, thank you for your patience while we worked through the issues with manufacturing. Nobody wants these done more than we do (except maybe my wife who wants her garage back!)

We have corks and other updates...
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 04:41:08 PM

Apologies - I had meant to write this up a few days ago but have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks and this weekend was no exception. This will be shorter than I initially intended, trying to balance getting it posted and having more details...

Anyway, on to the update!

Corks

We picked up the corks late last week. They look good! Yay!

Sealer / Clear Coat

It took a surprisingly long time to get the spray on clear coat (epoxy). We decided to go with a glossy finish and it makes the jars pop nicely, even the not so great ones we experimented with look way better. Anyway, the spray arrived last week, and we've been in the midst of some cold and/or rainy weather here in SoCal. 

The jars all need to be sprayed and it can't be done inside (the oder is a bit intense - but fine once it dries) plus we want the temp to be decent for drying. We're supposed to get rain again tomorrow but then it will turn nicer in the 60s-lower 70s the rest of the week. We've built a simple jig out of PVC to hold the jars so we can spray a handful of them at a time and let them dry before handling.  Haven't tested it yet, but it should work fine. 

The plan is to pick out the best looking ones, spray them with the epoxy clear coat, let them dry completely overnight, then start shipping later this week (Wednesday or Thursday). We believe we have enough good looking ones to fulfill all of our Kickstarter orders but if not, there are some others that look fine, but have an air bubble under the film on the bottom of the jar. I've picked up some syringes with superglue which we'll use to inject those, then adhere the film to the glass, then spray with clear coat. 

Shipping Plan

Since we will start shipping later this week, we are going to go ahead and charge cards (if needed) starting tomorrow. That way I can get packing lists printed and we'll start fulfilling orders starting with the earliest backers. 

At this time, I can't tell you how long it will take to get through all of the orders, but will have a better idea after we've sprayed some jars and then packed and labeled a few orders. It's likely going to be a busy couple of weeks as we both have day jobs. But we're getting close to getting these to you! 

Thank you all once again for your patience!

Quick update - new corks are here!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 03:24:59 AM

Hello everyone!

Just a brief update to let you know that the new corks arrived last week and have been sent to the laser shop for engraving.  They should be done towards the end of this week. 

As I mentioned in a comment on last week's update, we've shipped out all of the dice-only orders. About half of those have been delivered, another dozen or so are in transit here in the US, and the international orders should be arriving in another week or so. Those who are receiving their dice should have received a tracking link via email from Backerkit.

Thank you all once again for your patience, the finish line is finally in sight!