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Author Topic: New packaging facility gets up to speed  (Read 11681 times)

Offline docb

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New packaging facility gets up to speed
« on: May 26, 2009, 01:22:11 PM »
We have the engraver up and running today, the existing inventory is organized, the new printer is running, and we're expecting a big shipment of album boxes by the end of the week. Eileen is going through every bit and piece personally and laying out our production schedule, and the duping crew and the packaging crew are running the parts for catch-up orders and for the TP-010 run. There should be some serious shipping happening again by early next week. We plan to maintain our momentum once we are up to speed and roll right into series two.

Paul is finalizing the negotiation of three more titles and we should be announcing those very soon.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline mikel

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2009, 06:21:36 PM »
There should be some serious shipping happening again by early next week. We plan to maintain our momentum once we are up to speed and roll right into series two.

Paul is finalizing the negotiation of three more titles and we should be announcing those very soon.

that is the message i have been waiting to read......thanks Doc for the update. i need some fresh tapes to put into the heavy rotation.

and since they will now be shipped from my neighborhood.....i will no longer have to envy those Bay Area members who were able to enjoy their tapes a day or two ahead of me.
Mike Lavigne

Offline ironbut

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2009, 06:47:23 PM »
Great news Doc ! (Except for that part about not having to envy us Bay Area subscribers)
Sounds like things are buzzing in Poulsbo. It seems like the Eros is really taking off too.
steve koto
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Offline docb

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2009, 08:34:12 PM »
Yup, lots and lots of stuff happening at once. Along with what you mention PJ is getting ready for the production prototype build of our new stereo 2A3 amp; John Swenson is making great strides on a new hi res DAC design he will be licensing to Bottlehead; I'm working on a guitar amp design that I'm considering for commercial use (majorly motivated after finding out that TVJones is my neighbor); I'm thinking up a mic preamp and working up a mod for the Mojave Audio MA-100 mic that Romo gave me (dude, you rock); PB is playing around with chassis ideas for a new battery powered tube preamp (how about a free Front Panel Express file for kit builders?); Shawn is gearing up for our first customer MX5050 mod; Jo is continuing to hammer the kit orders out as fast as they come in; the list goes on.

You guys in the Bay Area will only have to suffer for about 24 hours after Mike gets his tapes. We usually see deliveries hit the Bay Area in two days.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline Ben

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2009, 09:08:01 PM »
Umm two days and you complain?  I still think I lost a Tape around mid march
in the mail.  As soon as you get up to speed I'll check again to see just what was
shipped. I am glad to hear you back and running and cosmetic problems rather
than real problems have been slowing things down, for you. Ben

PS.  I am toying with building a second 6A5G pp amp, as my set 2A3 just did not have the dynamic power I need. That is what I get for listening to  tapes ... more power needed!!!1.  I hope to install Blumlein's garter circuit and few other ideas, for my summer project.   

1 good 4 watt (rms) Triode amp
 
« Last Edit: May 26, 2009, 09:13:48 PM by Ben »
Set 45,Open baffle speakers,Otari 5050,,Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD/CD/SCAD player

Offline ironbut

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2009, 01:16:05 AM »
Yup, lots and lots of stuff happening at once. Along with what you mention PJ is getting ready for the production prototype build of our new stereo 2A3 amp; John Swenson is making great strides on a new hi res DAC design he will be licensing to Bottlehead; I'm working on a guitar amp design that I'm considering for commercial use (majorly motivated after finding out that TVJones is my neighbor); I'm thinking up a mic preamp and working up a mod for the Mojave Audio MA-100 mic that Romo gave me (dude, you rock); PB is playing around with chassis ideas for a new battery powered tube preamp (how about a free Front Panel Express file for kit builders?); Shawn is gearing up for our first customer MX5050 mod; Jo is continuing to hammer the kit orders out as fast as they come in; the list goes on.

You guys have gotta lot on your plates!
Just don't forget about the Computer Symposium next month. I looks like it'll be a little out of budget for me so I'll be expecting a full report. Luckily, a friend will have an Amarra 4 system on the next table at the Headfi show so I'll be able to check it out.
steve koto
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Offline jcmusic

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2009, 09:24:03 PM »
 Shawn is gearing up for our first customer MX5050 mod;
[/quote]
Are you saying that no one has had it done yet? I would have thought that at least a few people would have had it done by now. Doc can you tell me how many are waiting to do the mod?

Jay
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Offline docb

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2009, 10:46:48 PM »
I'm sorry Jay, I don't really have any idea of how many people are waiting to do the mod. We have seen a great deal of interest, but only one customer has stepped up to the plate so far. It is odd, I agree. When we introduced the Technics mod I was so swamped with orders I had to hire help just to get them all done. One would think that some folks would want to be first to have a modded Otari, but my impression at this point is that folks who are buying Otaris may have budgetary constraints due to the current economic climate that preclude having the modification done even though they would like very much to do it. I can totally relate and that's great, if a stock Otari gets one in the game so one can begin to enjoy TP tapes, more power to you! If we still offer the mod when they are ready they can find out where (I think) it can take their machine and how much info is really on those tapes.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline docb

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2009, 02:27:54 PM »
A little good news! Everything in the new packaging facility is coming together nicely. We slightly upgraded our CNC engraver's control computer today to work out its last little bug, I have just about completed fooling the new printer into feeding the exotic duplex coated paper we use for the cover art, a truck rolled up with 1000 new album boxes yesterday, and we should have everything else together for our first shipments to head out of the new facility Monday. Carly has been cranking on the newly reconfigured duping line and by Monday we will probably have about 70 albums ready to pack up.

These will be catch-up albums for the folks who had subscribed right as we were headed into this restructuring a few months ago. Once those albums are shipped we will be wrapping up the tail end of the TP-009 shipments and heading full tilt into TP-010.

With all of the order fulfillment now under one roof I think you will find us able to respond much more quickly to your inquiries about shipments. It still takes about three hours of labor to make one album (yup those 70 albums shipping next week constitute about 5 man-weeks and woman-weeks of labor), but we can now more accurately estimate just how far out your album shipment might be.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline docb

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Monday update
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2009, 06:38:45 PM »
I worked all day yesterday getting the rhythm down on our packaging setup and getting about a dozen albums ready to pack in the process. Today I'm shooting for 15 more. These are mostly TP-001s and TP-002s going out to recent subscribers. Looks like these will mostly ship UPS tomorrow although I think I saw Eileen just take a couple of overseas bound albums with her to the post office. Carly has been sending us about 60 finished pancakes at a time, and our plan is to process them as soon as they get here. We hope to have all new subscribers through today caught up through TP-008 in the next couple weeks. Then we still have about 1/3 of the TP-009s to get out. From there we will roll right in TP-010 which has already been started duping. We are also building a bit of inventory ahead as we go, which should help us to stay on task with TP-010 without having to break for a catchup run.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline docb

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Tuesday update
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2009, 04:52:59 PM »
31 albums shipped today. Not too bad for just getting into the swing of it. These are mostly TP-001 and TP-002 going out to recent subscribers, with a few other odds and ends that were needing catching up for charter members. Romo tells me a box of TP-003 and TP-004 pancakes are shipping to us today from the studio. So we should be shipping those catalog numbers by the end of the week.

We have also begun to assemble a batch of Tape Project take up reels. We should end up with about 40 reels in stock on this run. Call Eileen at 360-697-1936 or email her at queen at bottlehead dot com to order. Price is $40 each plus shipping.

I'll add a reminder here that we have a whole lot of approx. 2400 ft. pancakes of RMGI SM468 with one or two splices in them. Price is $50 plus shipping for five pancakes and giveaway price of $120 plus shipping for a case of 20 pancakes. Case weight is about 24lbs. Again, give Eileen a shout if you want some. We have a couple stacks of cases about 6 ft high and we would love to gain some floor space!

We are also beginning to build a small extra inventory of Series One albums that we have caught all current subscribers up on. So we will be listing individual albums for sale soon, starting with TP-001 and TP-002 and working our way through the rest of Series One titles as we catch each one up completely and build a little shelf stock. Price for individual albums will be $500 each plus shipping.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline docb

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Friday 6/5 update
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2009, 03:07:13 PM »
We are now packaging TP-003 and TP-004 albums for recent subscribers. Hoped to ship all the 003s today, but our FEDEX delivery of some needed packing material is delayed until late this afternoon. So about 5 will ship today and a total of about 25 more 003s and 004s will ship out on Monday. Looks like we will be working on TP-006 next week, and then possibly TP-005.

We are also building a stock of albums for individual sale. We should have TP-001, TP-002, TP-003 and TP-004 available for individual sale on Monday. Price will be $500 per album plus shipping.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline docb

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Monday 6/8 update
« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2009, 04:52:15 PM »
I see 19 more boxes shipping out this afternoon. That covers all TP-003 and TP-004 subscriber albums. Looks like some take up reels are shipping too. I'm currently printing artwork for inventory for the first four albums. By tomorrow we should have just a few copies of The Number White, Blackjack David, Arnold Overtures and False Accusations on the shelf, ready for sale as individual albums. Price for individual albums is $500 plus shipping. Call Eileen at 360-697-1936 to order. We're starting to see some TP-006 A sides from the studio, so we will be catching up TP-006 subscribers just as soon as the B reels get here.

And so I am sure you're wondering what I'm doing with all of my spare time. Yesterday one of the supply hoses to the washing machine split, so I went to the Borg (Home Depot) to get a replacement. While there I thought I'd be the good husband and I picked up a repair kit for the old Delta faucet in the kitchen that's been dripping for months. Got the washer up and running, then rebuilt the faucet. Go to turn the water on for the faucet, the supply valve is shot. Back to the Borg to buy the wrong valve. Back the the Borg this morning to buy the right one, but now the supply line won't reach the new one. Back to the Borg for a new supply line. I imagine the toilet will crack while I'm gone...
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline ironbut

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Re: New packaging facility gets up to speed
« Reply #13 on: June 08, 2009, 06:48:49 PM »
These updates are fantastic! Things certainly do seem to have become more predictable since much of the production has been centralized. I've never been at the ground floor when something like this has taken off before but I'm sure that things didn't go like clockwork with Classic Records or APO for the first few years either.
So keep up the great work.

I get to have some fun this week too. Our range is down to 2 smaller burners working and when I looked into it a month or so ago, I found that the insulation to the wiring along with everything else is shot. It does make pretty blue sparks when you use any of the remaining burners. I'm thinking about sticking a candy thermometer in the wall to let us know when the framing catches fire. Maybe I'll move the Tape Project tapes into the trunk of my car for a fast get away!
steve koto
 Sony scd 777es(R. Kern mods)> Vpi Aires>Dynavector XX-2mkll>Bent mu>CAT ultimate>CJ premeir 140>Magnepan 1.6qr(Jensen xover)Headphone Eddie Current Zana Deux>AT ad2000,HD800 ,Metric Halo ULN-2 (battery powered),
 HE Audio Jades