Master Wave Shipping NOW!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 08:55:06 AM

The Time Has Come...

Okay, I know this is a few weeks late, but if you checked out the last update, you'd know that I have been working as fast as I can, but all of the total delays through the entire campaign finally caught up to me and that the shipment of this wave (and also the final wave) were running a few weeks late. Good news though, the Master Wave shipped earlier today!

It's The FINAL Wave!

Second Wave backers, you are almost up! Make sure that your proofing documents are complete and your addresses are correct, as I'll be locking in the final wave of orders and addresses on October 1st! Once that is in place, I'll be shipping the final orders... as soon as they're done. I am powering through and I've learned so much and have been making a lot of improvements to my process and I believe that I can finish the final round of orders in a few weeks. It's 143 total vaults, and once that's done, I have some work to do to prepare the vaults for general sale on the shop.

I know it's a bit later than was hoping, but staying within a few weeks of my pre-pandemic timeline is good enough, I hope that this is still acceptable for you as well.

Once we're done here, I'm going to take a few weeks to relax, and then start prepping for a quick holiday sale as well as my 2021 Kickstarter, because it's time to put everything I've learned to good use for the next big project, and it's going to be something revolutionary...

Until next time, stay safe, follow on Twitter and Instagram for more updates and beauty shots. I'm heading back to the shop!

<3, Michael

Master Wave, you are (almost) up [Important Timeline Update]
over 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 06:43:53 PM

Back for round two...

I've been working very very hard to get the Master Wave ready to go, and it's almost time to lock in orders for the Master Wave, but I have to be honest, I'm running a bit behind. I've been burning the 2am oil (ran out of midnight oil a while back) and the pace is catching up with me. I have almost all of the Master Vaults done at this point, but I need to work on your supplementary vaults for those that grabbed Dual Vaults as well- which is kind of slowing me down.

So, here's the expected schedule, I'll be locking in addresses for Master Vault backers on September 1st, and orders should ship about a week or two after that. As always, I'll keep updates on Twitter and Instagram, which have admittedly been kind of quiet, because Loot Tables is really only a one man show right now- maybe I can fix that before the next Kickstarter.

This does mean that the final wave of vaults is going to run a few weeks late also, I apologize for the delays but you don't want to work tired next to power tools and I ask for just a bit of patience as I need to take a bit more time for my health before shipping out something that isn't worthy of your support. I'll have more updates again, and I thank you for your patience.

PROOF IT!

Just a quick reminder to check if your order requires proofing to be finalized!

Master Vault backers, PLEASE remember to complete your proofing spreadsheet to finalize your order! I'll be sending reminder emails over this weekend to those who are incomplete, and we will lock Master Wave addresses near the end of this month, when your rewards are closer to ready. There were a few stragglers in the First Wave as well, which I didn't notice until after making the packing labels, so your profile might seem a bit confusing, but you'll be emailed directly also.

Making more and more progress, I wanted to include a few quick posts from Instagram to showcase all the progress of the last few days:

With that, I'm back to the workshop! Until next time, be good to each other.

- Michael

THE FIRST WAVE HAS SHIPPED! (Master Wave... get ready...)
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 09, 2020 at 12:45:45 AM

I AM SO EXCITED FOR TODAY!

The First Wave, those being backers in the tiers that are not Master or above, and do not include "Second Wave" in the name, is SHIPPED! 

This has been a monumental effort, and I thank you all for bearing with me as I've struggled to keep production, social media, YouTube, updates here, and everything up to date. My family has been insanely supportive and helped me with packing boxes, which was a great family weekend, and I had organized with my local post office to be able to safely receive 99 packages with proper precautions for COVID-19 earlier this morning.

I posted a video with my thoughts (and an amazing me + ALL THE BOXES shot) just yesterday to talk a little bit about how I feel:

The Work Is Not Over...

Even though I'm celebrating, the work is not done. There's the Master Tier, which is working on refining a second design that I've had in theory, but am now finally able to produce actual Master Vaults in actual fine hardwoods. I'll be posting update photos on Twitter and Instagram over the next few weeks for that, but, like before, those might go quiet as I go into a fugue state while working in the shop.

Master Vault backers, PLEASE remember to complete your proofing spreadsheet to finalize your order! I'll be sending reminder emails over this weekend to those who are incomplete, and we will lock Master Wave addresses near the end of this month, when your rewards are closer to ready. There were a few stragglers in the First Wave as well, which I didn't notice until after making the packing labels, so your profile might seem a bit confusing, but you'll be emailed directly also.

With the original estimates being right on time, things might slip by about a week, depending on a bunch of different factors, so I'll be sure to keep you updated. Overall, I've taken the past two days to plan, rest, and recover, and this weekend I'm back to 100% working on the next round of deliveries.

I CANNOT WAIT to start seeing photos on Twitter and Instagram with people receiving their Dual Vaults, and I'll be watching my support email for anyone who might unfortunately experience any issues with shipping. I am so excited that the boxes will soon be out in the wild, and someday soon, when it's safe for us all to gather together again, at your game table.

Until the next update, be good to each other.

<3, Michael

The Time Has Come! First Wave- You're Up!!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 05:39:19 AM

Hello everyone.

First up, I hope everyone is doing well in these utterly messed up times. The world is a bad place right now, so please- remember to take time for yourself to find rest and relaxation. I've been finding that mainly in the workshop, which has been therapeutic... and very very dusty!

I've been very busy today, and recorded this quick video after a successful final (and I do mean FINAL, I'll have stories to tell after this is all over) run to this hardwood vendor.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what happens next!

The Time Has Come

We're approaching the end of the first production wave on the Dual Vaults! You might have seen Instagram posts from Purpleheart, Aromatic Cedar, and Walnut vaults, but with the final woods I picked up today, I have 100% coverage to finish the final few vaults to complete the First Wave! This has been something I've talked about primarily in Instagram Livestreams and has been stressing me out as I will likely not be using this supplier again- they aren't the best communicators & we had some last minute delays that had me panicking this past week, but we're there!

With that- the time has almost come to lock in addresses for shipment! It's going to be a couple more late nights in the shop, as these delays far exceeded what I was hoping, but finally everything is in my hands, not my supplier or anyone else's.

If you are a pat of the First Wave, that being non-Master vaults that backed before the 15th (basically, your tier doesn't include"Master" or "Second Wave"), your address is going to get locked in ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, with the same 72 hour final notice between it being initialized and totally locking that happened when your order was locked and cards were charged.

From there, I'll be packing up the vaults over the next couple weeks to ship everything out during the last week of July / First week of August- with the extra time in place to try and cover some additional safety measures to avoid COVID-19. It's a little later than the original July 31st shipping date, but those dates were established pre-global pandemic, so I hope a week or two of extra time is acceptable. I'll be communicating everything through a second update on this Kickstarter, as well as on Twitter and Instagram, so please follow there to keep up to date.

A Note On Macassar Ebony Dual Vaults

The Macassar Ebony, which has been so difficult to get my hands on, is unfortunately too small that I can provide a Dual Vault in a single, unbonded piece of wood. The vendor did not respect the original parameters of 3.25" per board, and instead delivered 3". Given that we're short on time, I begrudgingly accepted, as I didn't want to delay your vaults any further!

I wanted to be totally transparent before people received their vaults, but I'll be working some magic to get everything into the proper dimensions, whether that being slightly slimming and elongating the original design to fit in what I have (which I'm exploring), or by bonding pieces of wood together similar to how you see cutting boards or other larger pieces of work being made. I'll be polling the backers who have selected Ebony in a separate email, and this will be especially important for Master Vault backers, again, who I'll be reaching out to as the Master Vaults come up in shipping. I do not expect this to impact backers who have selected a Macassar Ebony inlay.

The Proof Is In The Spreadsheet

Just a quick reminder that you MUST complete your proofing spreadsheet if your order is in a state where proofing is required, or else your order will be delayed. If you don't see an email coming from [email protected], check your spam, OR you could go to your "Review" page on Backerkit and find your proofing doc here: https://dual-vaults.backerkit.com/backer/review

Once you proof your order, so I can be sure which personalizations go with which vaults, we're on to the final steps!
 

We are so close! I cannot wait!

You can also view this post on my website at: https://loottables.com/its-time-first-wave-youre-up/

Doing Some Good In The End
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 03:22:55 AM

The Finish Line

Just a quick reminder, that we expect to finalize the closing of the Backerkit store by charging cards on Monday, June 15th, somewhere around 7pm EST. Please make sure funds are available, and keep an eye out for your order to finalize.

We'll lock addresses a few weeks after charging cards, as each wave is preparing to ship.  The First Wave, those that backed in the first 14 days of the campaign, will be locked first, then each subsequent wave.

Doing Some Good

It's been just short of 100 days since the Kickstarter closed, and the trajectory of my life was radically changed.  Right now, there's a lot going on in the world, but let's use everything we've built here to do some good.

Nest Friday, June 19th, I'll be holding a limited run flash sale on the site of several new dice set designs, jumbo D20s, D6s, and my other products. All proceeds from this sale will be going to support The Bail Project, because freedom should be free, and because #blacklivesmatter. Keep an eye on The Store for your chance to get other cool dice and support human rights.

I'll have more info on twitter, but I wanted to share it here. 

Wood Update

The vault production is going mostly according to plan. I'm working through the First Wave vaults right now, as well as a new video on updating the workshop itself, as well as the process of machining each and every vault which will be sent out to all of you. There are some wood delays, which I wanted to address below:

The Ebony wood source that my supplier was originally depending on to fulfill my order can no longer fulfill the shipment due to COVID-19. We have contacted a secondary supplier, and while they believe they can fulfill the order with Macassar Ebony, pictured below, but it also comes with a slight delay that I want to be absolutely transparent about. This delay will potentially be impacting delivery of backers with Ebony vaults, especially those in the First Wave.

This is obviously quite different to the original expectations regarding delivery of the Ebony vaults we would be providing in the Kickstarter. I will be directly reaching out to every backer who has chosen Ebony as their wood over the next week or so to determine their preferences going forward, but wanted to put something here directly to, again, be 100% transparent.

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That's all I have for today, all. Until next time- stay safe, be good to each other, and thank you for your support.

- Michael