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Some nice incremental improvements here, including adding a 1.5mm taper to the rubber grips to offset the unavoidable play in the sliding mechanism.
This play, or what we’ve been calling “splay”, is when the the sliding upright tilts out a little bit, causing the surface to no longer be parallel with the phone. It was always an issue with the 3D-printed parts, where if we made them too tight, there would be less splay, but the Magnet would jam when you tried to open it. Or if it’s too loose, then you can slide it open really easily, but it won’t grip the phone really snugly. So what we would do is print a few of them and then get out the files to start sanding away the sliding parts until they slide better. No two Magnets were ever really the same.
So far, the production samples have performed much better in this regard. The tolerances of injection molding are just much more repeatable from unit to unit, so there isn’t this crazy variablity that you get with even very expense 3D printing like Shapeways. They slide pretty much perfectly with no sanding, but there is still some splay which prevents a really flat grip on the phone. The 1.5mm taper addresses that pretty well. Just a gentle squeeze on the uprights to snug up the grips on the phone, and it stays in there pretty firm. This most recent sample is definitely the best-gripping Magnet we’ve made so far. I’d be fine with this level of performance in the final production Magnet.
The test run they’re doing on the new plastic, that’s more of an X factor. No idea what they’ll discover but hopefully it’s good. We’re pretty much there on the mechanical tweaks and it works pretty well. They just need to find a plastic where they can reliably reproduce the tolerances from Magnet to Magnet.
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Looks like yous have thought of pretty much everything! Nice work.
Great stuff, thanks for the detailed update. 
Hey! I was wondering- I missed the kickstarter, but are there plans for full production or any small runs for individual purchase? I would love to use one, just to really get into the nitty gritty of my playing and optimize a few things.
Thank you so much!
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Hi, can I still order one? I missed the Kickstarter-campaign 
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same here! I’d love to know if there’s still a way to buy one!