Visiting the shop

January 3, 2011
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Last week I took a trip across town to check in on the progress at the shop making the Boilers. They’ve really kicked it into high gear now and are putting the finishing touches on their process for mass production. Making sure they stretch the material enough, getting the seam at the bottom right – […]

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One thing ends…

December 23, 2010
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Earlier this week, I turned in the seminar paper that should mark the successful end of my law school career [crosses fingers]. I took a couple days to just relax and collect myself, but now it’s on to the next thing – getting serious about the Backcountry Boiler. The shop has had some delays, but […]

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Sample parts

December 15, 2010
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Things around here are quiet no more. I just got an email from the shop, which included the above photo. They’re working on the Boiler proof as we speak, and these are some of the samples they’ve made of each part so they can fine-tune the assembly. The smudges are spinning lube, these are still […]

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The calm before…

December 12, 2010

[Sorry, no picture today] So I’m right in the middle of finals, and unfortunately I didn’t get the sample to approve last week. Neal at the shop apologized and said he hopes to have one this week. If (when, please!) that happens, I will send out an update with pictures, but otherwise it’s going to […]

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Design

December 9, 2010
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No report on the sample (yet), but in the meantime, a trip back in time and to the benefits of free software… For someone who can’t really draw, and probably even for those who can, 3-D modeling programs are awesome. I know it’s so obvious that it’s almost not worth saying, but it’s uber helpful […]

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Steel mandrels

December 6, 2010
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The shop finished machining the steel mandrels for the Boiler last week, and I was able to stop by and check them out on Friday. Boy is there a big difference between these and the laminated maple ones I was using. There’s a bit less poetry to these precision chunks of steel, but there’s also […]

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Bartering

December 1, 2010
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The upside of having someone else spin the Boilers is that I don’t have to do it while also trying to, oh, study for finals and finish a seminar paper. The downside is that there’s little for me to do other than sit on my hands and wait for the next step in the process. […]

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Evolution

November 28, 2010
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Now seems as good a time as any to start condensing some of the history of the Backcountry Boiler from its roots on Backpacking Light’s online forum to this blog and the associated pages. As you can see, progress on this project has been largely seasonal. The summer of 2007 was not only the time […]

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Progress tracking

November 24, 2010
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I, like many of you, am getting ready for some turkey-inspired gluttony and sloth, but I wanted to send out a quick update. As I’ve said before, I’ll be updating the blog here regularly until the Boilers are shipped (at least a couple times a week, more often when things pick up) but I’ve also […]

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Where they’re going: Redux

November 20, 2010
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Sooo… the 100 (plus a few I let slide in :) ) Boilers available for pre-order sold out in exactly a week! Since the last update on the destinations of my wares, there has been some exciting action: Domestically, California apparently took up Doug’s challenge and surged all the way to 15. Washington still had […]

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