project-image

Windeler Modular Magnetic Tools

Created by Windeler

A modular ecosystem of tools and knives. Carry what you need, leave behind the rest

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Thu Jan 19 '23 Announcement
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 11:48:46 AM

Hello everyone,

Belated Happy New Year to you all. Heres to an exciting 2023.

Windeler had a surprisingly busy December and early January preparing for the year ahead and catching up on some business critical tasks. We are feeling refreshed and raring to get back into it now.

As always we have many plates spinning simultaniously. several fundamental business items needed to be addressed recently. For example, detail design updates/improvements to our current range of products and an all-important 2023 restock to keep us in business and match demand. We have also been working on a very exciting collaboration project with HBO over the Christmas period as part of the promotion for their fantastic new show, The Last Of Us. More details and images to come soon on our social channels. 

Anyway, most of the items that were pulling focus have now been completed and dealt with and we are cranking things up again to attack completing the new products that you guys are patiently waiting for.

We should have final samples coming next month and once signed off will be in production straight away. In particular the STOW cases and scissors will be ready to go if all goes to plan.

l will update you all very soon with more details about production but for now just wanted to touch base and wish you all a great 2023.

Speak soon.

All the best

Douglas + Windeler Team

 

Thu Dec 1 '22 Announcement
over 1 year ago – Thu, Dec 01, 2022 at 05:28:24 AM

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. We have, as always been mega busy over here and doing what we love doing most of all. Working on solutions to engineering challenges and developing slick products.

Progress update Summary:

Recent new samples have accelerated our progress towards production. However, we still have a few design issues to overcome which we are ticking off one-by-one. Delays at this stage are unavoidable but we are working hard to  move towards production. Things are definitely moving in the right direction and the designs/prototypes/samples are looking really great.

MINIM knife:

New Samples!! We have been testing out the new samples and i have to say, they are looking and feeling really nice. The updated mechanism and blade geometry have really done the tricj and the open/close action is now very close to how we want it. the overall size, weight and feel in hand is lovely. Very happy with this design and layout. The body is nice and rigid in both Ti and G10. this is good news here.

MINIM knife samples looking sweeet!

Details to improve before production:

- Open/close action needs very slight geometry alterations to make it perfect.

- Hidden lanyard hole requires redesign so 4mm paracord can more easily fit in.

- Magnet cases require very small changes to CD patetrn and lettering.

Becasue these are quite minor detail changes we will be able to make thses in production so next phase for MINIM is full production run.

 

STOW cases:

As with MINIM knife we have had samples back and tested them. there are small detail changes to make here and there but they are looking really nice. I think one more set of sampels should get us to production. We are working on these at the moment so hopefully not long until we have these ready to go.

Details to improve for production:

- Dimensional changes to pull tab as well as addition of lettering

- Improved, strengthened magnetic connection plus addition of location feature.

 

PL01 Pliers:

No change since last update. These are being prepared for production.

 

SC01 Scissors:

As detailed in our last update we have been testing a new locking/latching mechanism. We are in the process of making new samples to test and will ahve these ready very soon with an update to follow. If all goes well with this new mechanism we will be racing to get these into production and hoping to catch up with the rest of the items.

 

Conclusion:

The latest samples have really helped us leap forward after a slow period of problem solving and testing. We now have good momentum and are very close to being in production. Please be aware however that delays at this stage are unavoidable and we have been pushed a few months behind our intended timeline. We will not be starting production on any items until either later this month or after Christmas. At time of writing i am cautious to give exact dates until i know more. I hope you understand.

I'm going to be trying to keep updates more regular. I know it must be frustrating to hear about delays but please bear with us while we push through to production. We are very close indeed. We really appreciate your support and patience.

For now i wish you all well and hope to get back to you very soon with sample updates and images and production info.

As always we really appreciate you guys and look forward to delivering slick, shiny products to you soon.

All the best

Douglas + Windeler Team

Mon Oct 24 '22 Announcement
over 1 year ago – Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 10:30:21 AM

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. Apologies for the long gap between updates. It's been mega busy here with many plates being spun. I'll break down the headline updates below:

 

Backerkit survey

The Backerkit survey is still in review with a couple of things to sort out before sending it over to you. This will put you all in the same stream as the Kickstarter backers and allow us to ship out your rewards much more easily. When this survey comes through please fill it in and reply even if you don't wish to add other items to your original pledge.

Production summary

After several months of frantic design work and prototyping and testing over the summer we have now entered the slightly slower period of pre-production work before moving on with our full production run. We have hit a few unexpected snags but generally things have been moving forward. 

Pliers

These are looking good and have been tested and ready to move into production. We will be starting this imminantly.

MINIM knife

We had some failed prototypes and had to go back to the drawing board. Mainly we had problems with the spring mechanism which meant we had to redesign the internal slip spring and therefore the corrisponding blade details. We have now completed this and our final (hopefully) pre-production samples are being finished off for final assessment before starting production.

Scissors

These have posed the biggest issue and therefore our biggest hold up. We have tried several times to create a robust locking mechanism and all options so far have failed. However, we have managed to come up with a new concept that we are currently detaling and getting ready to prototype. It will use a spring loaded pin to hold the scissors closed and overcome the main opening spring. I think this is going to be a winner and so far it's looking good. We will need to create samples and test them rigirously before moving into production. 

Spring loaded location spring options

Idea for pin placement

 

Cases

These have been assesed by our manufacturing partners and samples are being created as we speak. These are fairly simple designs so hopefully this will be a straightforward process.

 

All in all things are moving in the right direction and even though we have had some trouble shooting to do which has slowed down progress i think we are in a  good position to move most things into production very soon with other items following closely behind.

Please watch out for the Backerkit survey links coming in your e-mails very soon.

 

All the best

 

Douglas + Windeler team

Fri Jun 24 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 03:09:27 AM

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to say a big thank you to you for backing our project and getting behind us. It really means a lot. I also wanted to give you a quick update to keep you in the loop:

Backerkit survey:

Very soon you will all be sent a Backerkit survey link which will allow you to adjust your pledge order or add on other items if wanted. We will be using the Backerkit system to manage orders, run fulfillment and collect shipping details so it's really important that you fill it out when it comes. once we have you on our Backerkit system you will be in the mix with all the other Kickstarter backers and this will make managing your shipments so much easier.

Production update:

All items are being prototyped currently with some of them getting very close to being production ready. We still have several design challanges to figure out. Perhaps the trickiest of those currently being the locking mechanism of the scissors as well as the slip joint mechanism of the knife. However, with a few more prototype, test, adjust cycles i think we will nail both of those.

There are some unknowns regarding material logistics at the moment and this might have a knock on effect but we have options so hopefully we can avoid any delays. I will let you know more when we have some clarity.

We also have packaging to design and produce so plenty to do in the coming months but so far we are roughly on schedule.

I will update you all with more details and some images once we have prototypes/samples closer to production ready.

Speak soon. All the best

Douglas and the Windeler team