MOTM

a) I have finished the *kit* inventory. As you can imagine, the pre-Christmas
rush and the rush after I got back has depleted the stock down to the bare
walls. I only have 31 kits *total* in stock. So, I am gearing up the slave labor
(wife) to start the pre-kitting process. This involves prepping the pots, jacks
and switches. No, they do NOT come the way to see them in the kits from the
manufacturers. The Bourns pots are the biggest pain: they come in "sheets" of 45
that are press-laminated together, and every pot has 'perf marks' for individual
extraction. Which is a ROYAL PAIN because I want to get at all 45 at once. Then,
I have to assemble the 2 nuts, the lockwasher and the flat washer. I did around
300 of them in 4 1/2 hours (then my hands started to swell up and I quit).

The same is true for the Spectrol pots (easier somewhat, they come 80 in a box
without the plastic wrapping) and the jacks. It's going to take 2 FULL WEEKS to
prep all of these parts, for both existing back orders, the '510 and the '480
kits, and have some extras. This is not the actual kitting, just the pre-kitting
(it's about 8,400 individual parts). Once this is done, however, things tend to
go rather quickly, the slowest then being the IC packing. The R & Cs are not
done by me, nor is the solder bagging. Once the pre-kitting is done, I can do
all but the VCOs very fast (1 full kit set per day). The VCOs are slow because
all of the 0.1% resistors (done by me).

So, most of the 31 remaining kits will dribble out over the next 2 - 3 weeks,
but that's all. MOTM-960s are in fab as well (50 of them!).

b) I will alternate my days between pre-kitting and assembled backlog. The
assembled backlog (not counting '510/'480) is still too high (around 80
modules). I am grateful I even *have* a backlog, but still it's not good for
anyone that it never seems to get "reasonable" (like <30 modules).

c) When I get behind like this, you may notice my time to reply to certain
emails to be long, like days. This is a judgment call on my end. If you are
asking something like "How many points do I have?", that email will get 'filed'
(no, not the round file) for "much later". I'm not sitting here playing video
games and eating bon-bons. I keep odd hours. I'm old and my daughter is turning
18 in 10 weeks and reminds me daily of this fact :( Like most of you, I have to
keep 7 balls up in the air: things like my son's Boy Scouts and basketball team,
my wife's purse business (www.prissytotes.com), and other unscheduled events (my
sister had a bad accident with a tile cutter, nearly severed off 3 fingers).
Feel free to pick up the phone and holler at me (evenings are best, I tend to
ignore the phone until 6PM). I have 1 speed, which most customers would describe
as "painfully slow". But I *am* going.

Paul S.