Cheap coating opportunity for USA prisms - Page 2

The coating reduces or eliminates rainbow-like reflections that otherwise tend to appear on the screen or side walls in the room. They can be annoying distractions.

There is still time to join the group purchase for anyone who wants to order from Crystal Factory. It is probably too late for people to ship existing prisms to me first if they are not already in a UPS or Fedex system (unless you overnight them...maybe 2 day air). The only limitation will be how many new prisms CF can supply for pickup on March 30. Phone in your order on Monday if possible. There is no limit on the number that L&L will coat. I'm sure they are happy to have the business.

Everyone who gets a confirmed order from CF should send me a PM so I can track the total. Final shipping cost may include shipping from L&L to me in bulk and then reshipping from me to the individual owner. I'd like to avoid this but L&L is not too keen on a lot of little orders.

Thanks,

Richard

As of 1:30 pm Thursday March 29, here are the totals. If you have not sent me a PM with all of your contact info and confirmation of a placed order, please do so. And PM me with any corrections or omissions, too. We are in great shape.

--Richard


rcgustafson-- 2 pair CF confirmed order
mrehrer--1 pair CF confirmed order; pickup finished pair in Bay area
nelson1138--2 pair CF confirmed order
f430--1 pair CF confirmed order
lindahl--2 pair CF confirmed order
adude--1 pair CF confirmed order
chrisinla--1 pair Massillon; confirmed meeting in Anaheim
papajin--1 pair CF confirmed order
ranger--1 pair CF confirmed order
schen--2 pair CF confirmed order
bluesboyjr--1 pair CF confirmed shipped and received by rcgustafson
phoveo--1 pair CF confirmed order
3sixty--1 pair from Massillon (and 1 pair from CF) confirmed shipped and received
rfpublic-- 1 pair CF confirmed
klemsaba--1 pair CF confirmed

hdjii--1 pair CF unconfirmed
wilson-flyer--1 pair Massillon unshipped but trying

I have updated the buy list in my post #39 above.

I have updated my post #39 to reflect the current totals. Thanks to bluesboyjr and 3sixty for the excellent packing jobs. Your wedges are safe with me (so far).

I spoke with Richard LaRue at L&L Optics and he does want to ship the finished prisms to me in bulk. I will then send them out individually by UPS ground unless somebody notifies me that they want to pay extra for 3 day air. Each pair weighs 10 or 11 pounds when packed in a box. Shipping will be from 95472 so you can figure out your preferred method and PM me if it is not by ground. As a rule of thumb, getting a pair here from Virginia cost $16 by ground and $38. by 3 day air.

We have quite a few prism pairs to coat and Richard now estimates two weeks turnaround plus shipping time. We will all be eager to get them installed.

For those that missed this group purchase, you can always organize another one. And for those who would like to simplify the whole diy process, it sounds like Mark (CAVX) will have a fine opportunity for you pretty soon.

Richard

Yes, Stan. That's the plan, man.

If I have to pay up front for the coating (didn't ask that) then I may ask the group to fork over some reimbursement cash before we get all the way to the final shipping expense. More on that after I get down to Orange County.

Richard

Everything went according to plan on Friday. I met ChrisinLA, who handed off his wedges, picked up 17 pairs of Crystal Factory wedges and delivered 20 pairs total to Richard at L&L Optics. Everybody was very nice and they were all curious about our projects. Richard gave me a mini-tour of the optics lab. They were working on some beam splitters, filters and other items at the time. I took a couple of pictures of the machinery and I will post them here after I get home late next week. Joe at CF was stuck in traffic so I didn't meet him, but the others at CF took care of me. I watched Javier work on a design for the retirement trophy for Tim Salmon. CF does a lot of work for the Angels baseball organization. Also the NHRA and other known sports institutions.

L&L has worked with the observatories in Hawaii and is in the process of planning a move to bigger facilities with clean room in Santa Ana, Ca. Good people. They are going to invoice me after they figure out the shipping charges so it will be a little while before I ask anybody for reimbursement.

That's all for now. I will be touring the Mt. Palomar observatory in a couple of days--keeping the lens theme going.

Richard

Thanks for the shipping suggestion. I will check that out.

As stated in my earlier post, the timeframe is now about two weeks for coating and then a few more days of shipping to northern California plus reshipping to the individual owners.

By the way, L&L said it is no problem to mark the specific prisms according to owner and that is what they are doing with ours. They do it all the time on various projects.

Mt. Palomar was fascinating. Can't wait for the www.tmt.org

Two more avs guys got into the group purchase at the last minute and their wedges are due to be received at L&L no later than today, so I guess that means I won't receive the bulk shipment of finished prisms until sometime next week--probably late in the week.

Meanwhile, I posted a few photos to keep you entertained. I put them in my public photo gallery at http://rcgustafson.dell.shutterfly.com The password is . The collection includes photos I took at CF and L&L.

Richard

The prisms are ready. I received a call Friday afternoon and was asked to send a check for the total cost. It went out in Saturday's mail, so I would anticipate receiving the bulk shipment sometime late next week. As soon as I get it I will turn it around. (ChrisinLa will be picking up his set at L&L after my check arrives.)

I would like all buyers to send me their payment now by PayPal. I will PM each of you with my private email address and billing address in case you don't already have them.

Each buyer owes me $50. per pair of prisms for the coating, plus $10. per pair shipping from L&L to me, plus $4. per pair in tax, plus whatever it costs to ship from me to you. Please go to usps.com and calculate the cost of shipping from me at my 95472 zip code to you. Use the regular package size and allow 11 pounds per pair--that's 22 pounds if you have 4 prisms. Notify me of your preferred speed of shipping (ground, express, etc) and add the total to your bill. Finally, you have to add 3.5% to the sub-total because of the merchant fee that PayPal will charge my account. Send me your PayPal payment at my private email address ASAP. Please email me a separate note stating your shipping address (some of you have done this earlier, but it would expedite matters if you would send the info again along with your payment confirmation.) I'd rather take this info at my private email address than in PM form on this forum. If you don't have a PayPal account and are unwilling to create one you can send me a personal check.

All pre-owned prisms will be returned to their original owners. New prisms will be hand matched by me before I ship. I'll do the best I can, though I'm not sure it makes much (if any) difference.

I think that covers it! Now I will start sending PM's to each of you with my contact info. I might not get that done until late Sunday morning sometime.

My AX-100 is set up. My RS-1 has arrived. My Lumagen HDP is currently on order. Onward!

Richard