ARGONAUTS IN AUGUST!

Regulator bodies and yokes will ship from the plating company to me on Monday.  It will take me a few days for inspection and setup and then I'll start the assembly process.  Please bear in mind that I'm only one person and there are only so many hours in the day.  I'll work as quickly as I can but I will not send out a regulator that is anything less than 100% ready to dive.
I will be away at the Legends of Diving event in Portage Quarry Ohio for 5 days but despite that I see no problem getting everyones regulator to them by the end of the month.

In the meantime could you do two thing for me please

Send me an E-mail letting me know what color hoses you want shipped with your regulator  Bryan@vintagedoublehose.com
Please put HOSE COLOR in the title so it's easy for me to find.

And Second, CLICK HERE  To fill out your Argonaut Kraken wavier.....BE SURE you use the address on your waiver that you want your regulator shipped to.  This is the address I will use to make the FedEx packing label.   As soon as FedEx scans the label it will automatically send you tracking information via E-mail from pickup to delivery. 

If you have any questions please send me an E-mail.

Thank you

Gentlemen welcome to the ranks of the Argonaut Kraken owners.   Please subscribe and or bookmark this blog as it is the 1st place updates are made on the project.  It is also where I share information that I may or may not publish on the website or anywhere else.  Please grab a cold one and start from the beginning of the blog and you can read about the trials and tribulations that it took to get to this point.  
I am shooting for August 31st delivery for everyone.....Don't waste your time E-mailing me asking to get yours on August 30th.  If the machine shop gets done on time.....If my inspection of the parts is good.....If the engraver gets them stamped on time.....If the plating company gets them done on time and finally back to me for assembly we will have no issues.   Thank you very much for jumping in with both fins!  I know you will love diving with the regulator.  Plus I can guarantee it will draw a crowd no matter where you use it.

Since you are now owners you may use the coupon code Argonaut Owner when you check out of the VDH website store and it will automatically give you a 10% discount on your total.

While you wait and if you have not already please take time to get your backplate/wing squared away. The breathing of the regulator is phenomenal but if it is setup and positioned wrong on your back it will be a disappointment right away.  Do it right and you will never want for another regulator.

Feel free to E-mail me or call me if you would like to consult on this.......And or read the website forum as there is a lot of great information and most of your questions will be answered.

Tuesday June 24th I shipped 15  Argonaut Kraken regulators to their new homes!  I will do my best to have all regulators purchased during the Fundable crowd funding program shipped by Monday the 30th.
Please watch for an E-mail with the link to the on line waiver I need your information on before I ship.  Please be sure and fill out the waiver with the address you want your regulator shipped to.  If you have any questions please E-mail me and I'll respond as quickly as possible.

MAY 29th  UPDATE......Please read carefully ladies and gentleman

Late last night Luis gave the green light to the final pre-production Argonaut body.  Early today I sent an E-mail asking the shop to turn the partially finished bodies into the finished product.  I expect to have all the bodies here by June 9th.
Today I stopped at the engraving shop and confirmed with the owner that when I drop off the Argonaut bodies for him to engrave the model and serial numbers on it will take a total of 3 days.
The day he is finished I will be waiting at his door to pick them up and drive them to the metal finishing shop for nickel plating.  Their estimate is 10 days to finish them all.  I will be waiting at their door for them to open on the day they tell me the parts will be ready.

I am working on organizing and putting together an assembly process so I can hit the ground running as soon as the plating is finished.  Please understand that each regulator is assembled and tested one at a time by me and I can only go so fast.  All the ancillary parts that go with the Argonaut are either here or are in route to me. Everything from hose clamps to packing tape will be here on hand.
I will update the blog every chance I get while I'm working.  If you have questions please send me an E-mail. 
If you HAVE ordered and paid for a regulator you can stop reading :)   Thanks for your patience

If you HAVE NOT ordered and paid for a regulator please continue reading below the line.
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I have shipped out the Fundable support certificates and other items to the folks on the list who did not purchase regulators.  If you have not received yours by now please CLICK HERE to E-mail me.

After I ship the regulators to the folks above who purchased them during the campaign I believe I will have more regulators available for sale.  They will be available to the folks who have not already purchased one but who supported me during the Fundable campaign.
If you are interested in purchasing a regulator with your Fundable discount please E-mail me.  This is only available to the folks on the Fundable backer list who have not already purchase a regulator.   You have until June 22nd to decide.  After that I will put them on the website for general sale and they will sell out within hours.
Regulators will be assembled and delivered by the end of July if you purchase before June 22nd.

Sorry for the delay in updating but there has not been a whole lot going on that is worth writing about or boring you to tears with.  

Cerakote is the finish I wanted on the Argonaut for a very long time.  I wanted something that was different and unique.  Initial experiments worked out great and I could find very little fault in it.  Currently there are Phoenix first stages available in Cerakote and I think the finish worked fantastic on them and I plan on using it on other parts in the future.

 

Which brings us to the Argonaut....... 

Luis and I always planned for the yoke on the Argonaut to be removable and not held in place by a retaining clip which is standard for most regulators.  When you can remove the yoke it lets the regulator pack flat and overall travels and stores easier.  I had a couple of scrap bodies done in Cerakote and the look was fantastic!  The problem was with taking the yoke on and off the body.  The tolerances and machining on the Argonaut are much more precise than you find on most regulators.  So when the Cerakote was applied to the threads of the body and yoke it was extremely difficult to take the yoke on and off....And it was so tight that after doing it a few dozen times it was removing the coating........Houston, we have a problem.   After racking my brain and weighing all the options and getting some professional advice I decided electroless nickel plating was the best option.  The folks at Seminole Metal Finishing will be doing the work and since they are close to me I'll drop off and pick up to save on shipping cost and time.

Pictured below is the sample they did for me.  Let me know what you think.....

 Major update again next week.  Stay tuned for details :)

Update for everyone

Promotional items are just about finished and will ship around the 20th for the backers who are not getting a regulator on the 1st run.  T-shirts are set to be delivered on the 9th to me, Certificate is in progress and just about ready to print. I'm still working out a few ideas on a unique way to show off some of the design highlights of the Argonaut without being a plain PDF of the body drawing.  I think it will display a lot nicer with the idea I'm working on.  The waterbottle idea got a lot of thumbs down response so instead I have a custom tag being made with the Argonaut Kraken logo and a small chain that you can use on your regulator for display or attach it to anything else while waiting to order your new regulator.

If you are getting an Argonaut on the 1st run I will put these items in with your regulator when I ship it.

Later in the month I will do an update on the specifics of the regulator itself. I'm waiting on some important updates from two of the parts manufacturers.

If you have questions or comments please E-mail me HERE

Slowly but surely the Argonaut Kraken is coming together.  Cans arrived last week and I have been trying to figure out the best method for installing the hardware and having them all prepped when the regulator bodies arrive.  I plan on doing the same thing with hose assemblies so final assembly and checks will take less time and I can get them out to you as soon as possible.   Its a very slow process right now but I hope to learn a lot from this first group and shorten the delivery schedule in the future.  Since It's just Me, Myself and I doing all the assembly I need to maintain the quality expected from a hand assembled regulator but still maximize efficiency where I can.
Machine shop is doing the production now and it's possible they will have enough brass on hand to make a few more regulators than I originally thought.  I have taken the liberty of contacting the first backers on the list to see if they are interested in getting a regulator now as opposed to waiting till the second run in the fall. I have asked that they reply to me by Tuesday April 8th if they are in our out.  If anyone declines I will continue up the list contacting each backer till I have the quota filled for regulators on this run.   If you have questions about this please E-mail me directly.Click To E-mail me and I can give you further details.

Here are a few pictures if you have not seen them on the Forum or Facebook page.

Thanks for your support!