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Five Dollar Fidget Spinner

Created by Sean Hodgins

The durable, perfectly sized, and affordable fidget spinner. The Trama

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Received the Final Shipment!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 11:47:42 PM

Hey Everyone!

Today I took my old truck on a trip down to Montreal to...

1)go to the customs office.

No Parking Ticket!
No Parking Ticket!

2) go to the receiving office(no picture, boring)

3)Go to the warehouse to pick up the remaining 360KG of Fidgets!

 

Perfect fit.
Perfect fit.

 Then she made the ~2 hour drive back to my place!

I think I will use a broker next time(maybe) but at least I know how to import things now! Wasn't very difficult, I had more trouble finding parking in Montreal than anything else. Nice city though. 

Fidgets!
Fidgets!

So what this means is, tomorrow I will be locking the addresses. Make your changes quick if you moved! Remember, you can modify your address if you go back into your survey. This can be done by finding the original email that was sent way back when and clicking on the link, or going here: https://five-dollar-fidget.backerkit.com/ and entering your Kickstarter email. Once they're locked, that will likely be the address your fidget will be sent to.

Also there is 114 people remaining who have not answered their survey. You have until I click the "Lock addresses" button to do so or you will be put in the remaining shipment, which means even if you're may shipment, or july shipment, yours won't be shipped until after everyone else's is. There is no way around that really. Why haven't you done your survey yet!?

Obviously picking up the shipment today means we are behind schedule a little bit. I will try my best to catch up, but in reality the majority of Fidgets will be shipping the first week(s?) of August. Same small delay that the May shipments had. I appreciate all of the support and understanding! As you can see, I'm doing each individual step myself, so I'm learning a lot. I think we're pretty good in terms of what my original plan was, not many Kickstarters are only a week or two behind. 

Okay, need to start installing bearings!

 

TL;DR

  • Got Fidgets
  • Boat Didn't Sink
  • Locking Addresses Tomorrow(July 26th)
  • Weekish Behind Schedule

Thanks!

Sean H. 

We Are All Waiting - Quick Update for Tier 2
over 7 years ago – Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 01:00:20 AM

Hey Backers,

For those of you who have not seen the small updates on the comments page currently I am still waiting on the pallet, yes an entire pallet, of fidgets to ship everyone. It was supposed to arrive on Monday(07/10) but there is a delay. http://imgur.com/o1D3tXc.jpg I am expecting this to currently put me a week behind. I was hoping to begin shipping late next week, but I don't know if that will be the case at this point. 

I have been getting a lot of "Has my package shipped?" or "What tier am I?" messages and comments. By now, everyone that is left that has not received their reward is tier 2, and they have not shipped yet. I hope that is clear for everyone, but of course questions are always welcome and I will always try to respond in a timely matter(sometimes messages get missed, so apologies!). 

There will be a series of updates before the tier 2 ships. One update will notify when I have received the products, the next update will inform you all that the addresses will be locked(they are currently open if you need to change your address), and the last will be that they have begun shipping. 

I understand that everyone is anxious to get their fidget and I appreciate your patience. The goal from the start of this Kickstarter for 2 tier shipping was to ship by the end of either May or July which was made clear on each reward that was backed. With the delay it will be pushing it close to the end of July shipment, but at this time I am still hopeful that this will happen. 

In case you're wondering, this is what 2640 shipping labels looks like(spoiler, not impressive):

That should get me through the remaining shipments! 

Thanks everyone! Hopefully the next update will be more eventful, but I know some of you were looking for an update on anything, so hopefully this fills that void!

-Sean Hodgins

P.S. This update will be only sent to tier 2 people, however, everyone can view it on the Kickstarter page.

Round 1 Complete.
over 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 06:52:11 PM

That is it! The few remaining shipments(and a couple that got overlooked) went out today. 

814 shipments!

Tier 1 of the shipping is complete.

The international shipments take 8 days on average, but it varies by location, anticipate more like two weeks. 

US shipments take about 2-3 days. 

Canada takes about 2-5 days.

A lot of you should be receiving them soon if not already!

If you paid for upgraded tracked shipping and you didn't get a tracking email or number, message me. 

Whats next? Well the second round of fidget bodies are loaded up on the ship and it departs on Saturday. Takes 18 days to get to the port of Montreal, where I will pick them up. So the beginning of July I will begin installing bearings and sending out packages. I have a few extra from the first order which I will be sending out to some lucky second tier people. 

I will be away again for the next few days until Monday, so if I do not respond right away, that is why. Not a lot I can do right now but wait for the second set to come in.

Some notes on the fidgets as I've had some questions:

The ceramic bearings arrived with a much thinner oil on them, so they make a little more noise than the steel, but in turn(get it?) spin longer. You can easily add your own lubricant of your choosing to quiet them up some more, but not necessary. 

A few of the steel bearings have slightly excess oil, this is from the small containers they came in(packs of ten), the ones on the bottom took on a little from the ones on the top. If you watched my bearing video on spin times, I mentioned that using the fidgets will sort of work them in and thin the oil out so they will eventually spin longer. The ones with excess oil will not spin as long on a table(still plenty long enough in your hand), but you can try adding some WD40 or a thinner oil if you would like it to spin a long time, or remove the oil completely(like in the video). If it spins freely and smooth, but not too long, more than likely its just got more oil than it needs, and it will get better over time. 

I only encountered 1 broken bearing so far when I was assembling(didn't get shipped obviously), and all of the fidgets were spun multiple times through the process as they were being shipped so anything short of shipping damage, I think they should all be good. 

If you want to tweet or post about your fidget spinner when it comes in. Instagram or Twitter use the Hashtag #FiveDollarFidget and/or tag me @idlehandsdev I will be sure to retweet it and comment!

http://instagram.com/idlehandsdev.

http://twitter.com/idlehandsdev

Thanks All!

Shipments are rolling out!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 06, 2017 at 10:03:28 PM

Hey all!

The packaging began, and ended, here. I had so much help from my favourite person.

All of the packages are done for Tier 1(May) shipping.

Some boxes are missing in this photo.

Today, I had fun with the US border officers. They were super nice and helpful. They loved the fidgets, but I ran into some snag importing them. Luckily I was able to fix the problem at the office instead of driving home (1.5hr) and coming back another day. Basically since I installed the bearings and caps on them, I have to have "Made in Canada" written somewhere on them. They were really nice and let me just hand write it on each packing slip! So if you see a really rushed "MADE IN CANADA" written on your package slip you know why! They were rushed because I had to do 188 packages. In the border office. Yeah!

So I shipped 188 of them today, and each day I will be rolling out shipments. 

Right now my time is just printing labels, but also coordinating which labels and when, since you're not supposed to leave them very long after printing them. In case you didn't know, printing labels takes forever! I am also having a few issues with BackerKit, some orders aren't importing properly to my shipping management tool which I am working with them to sort out now. Packages are going out in groups. I am trying to get them all out the door by the end of the week. This weekend I will be away for some personal matters, and if need be normal operations will resume Monday(Who knew self run businesses were 24/7? I did. But I like to remind myself). 

Also, just for fun, if you want to know more about the Bearing press tool. Watch this video, and like it and share it if you enjoyed it! 

Also, here is me promoting myself a little bit, I entered the bearing press in this contest on Instructables, https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Pneumatic-Bearing-Press/ - If you wanted to throw me a vote for the invention contest, that would be great too! I can always use more stuff to make stuff!

That is all the news I have for today.

Thanks!

P.S.Expect to have shipment notifications in your email as shipments roll out. 

Locking Down Addresses!
over 7 years ago – Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 09:36:36 PM

Hey Everyone!

I finished installing the bearings today. It was a workout. 

I'm a Robot.
I'm a Robot.

 

Here is some organization!

 

So I will be locking down the addresses for the Tier 1 shipping(the May shipment Reward Tier). 

People were asking about shipping tiers. If your Reward says "Estimated May Shipment Date" you're in tier 1(we're behind a bit). If it says "Estimated July Shipment Date" you're in tier 2.

Time to get back to it!

- Sean H.