My newest products

Wow -- that is a sharp tubing bend. Care to share how that was done without kinking? Was it notched and welded?

Stupid for them, good for you.

Sure do. How did you end up doing it, press/crimp style?

Booful! I hope Carlisle appreciates the craftsmanship.

Cool. Carry on, American manufacturer! We salute you.

-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud

The tube is 1/2" EMT. We made Aluminum bending die with roller "wings" and mounted it to a shop-built hydraulic press using a 2-1/4" bore x 5" stroke cylinder. The press was originally built to quickly press a tube into a Nylon handle. Funny, we never talked about the tube kinking...good thing it all works before YOU jinxed it! It's a great product and already established by other manufacturers on the west coast...to which we already sell them the block brushes. The east coast is wide open! We instal Flat-wire brush, Stainless Steel, Carbon Steel and Brass wire block brushes and sell replacement brushes with a routed groove on the top and piloted screw holes so the end user saves the handle and a few bucks.

Carlisle has been buying our stuff for many years but has taken a couple of products of mine to China. They thought to save a lot of money but have had all kinds of problems and massive returns. The wood that the Chinese use is "Rubberwood", it won't hold a staple very well. We pull-test tufts to 50 pounds, Rubberwood won't hold at even 20 pounds so the wire falls out and possibly ends up in your food. We are targeting Carlisle's customers more and more and they are very receptive to American-Made products that last.

It really sucks that I constantly have to develop new products, I want to rest on my laurels! I want to play golf and go fishing, not still be working on weekends.

That's nice, but you know what we're REALLY interested in - the machines that make them. Yeah, I know - trade secrets. But, what about the brush with the bent handle - how did you eventually handle the bending?

Bob

Have you mentioned that you consider that to be a less than reputable action by a customer, and that further like behavior would be met by a full loss of any future orders being filled by OBC? (Or something to that effect.)

I haven't found a decent grille brush yet. Everything sold locally is Chiwawanese and the viagra has worn off the brass bristles. They go limp at the first insertion.

Yabbut, all that work helps you keep your girlish figure. Priceless!

-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud

Sorry, I didn't mean to jinx things, but I think that your magic is stronger than mine anyways if you can get tubing to do that. Nice work!

I've solved the problem with an alternative non-medical technology, heat.

With the grill bars at about 500 F, scrub them off using a stainless-steel curly scour pad (actually, two pads matted together) held in a loooong pair of tongs. The heat softens the cooked-on crust enough to make removal easy.

I also made a special scraper with a blade custom-made to fit exactly over and around the grill bars, but hardly ever need it.

Joe Gwinn

Nice work. Not being in the field myself its good to see what comes of some of the dicussions here on RCM. cheers

It happens every day but I still sell them stuff with a smile. NEVER burn a bridge!

I've had a lot of questions answered here and often answers invoke new questions and new ideas.

Ever diminish your discounts to them?

-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud

On some items I have raised prices but some items are under a yearly contract.