I have been asked to be a moderator by "Ralph", I do not know his user name on 3D Print Board. I have only just managed to get through the captchas on register, so I have not received a response from my reply. I look forward to helping any way I can here, I have become thoroughly disgusted with the hypocrisy on RepRap forums, it is only a club for a few special people. MY ethics are much higher than that.

I apologize ahead of time, I write/speak in a VERY direct fashion, my words are strong, not foul, but solid. That tends to anger people, I do not mean to, I have thought very thoroughly about most things, and do not waffle on much. If I do not know, I state so, if I am wrong, I will admit it, not make excuses. I am MUCH older than most people involved in 3D printing, at this particular moment in time, I am over 57 years old. I was a tool & die maker for 38 years before becoming disabled, that brings a LOT of experience/skill to the table. I own a company called Vanguard Innovations U.S., it can be found at www.vanguardinnovations.us, even on my website, we do everything we possibly can to be honest with you, and uphold a very high degree of ethics. I will try to keep everybody informed of the developments we make at my company, however, please understand that the things we take on are usually way beyond the capabilities of any home shop, therefore sharing EVERYTHING would be counter productive, only giving large, unethical, companies our trade secrets. You might be able to buy something cheaper, but only for a short time, we would not be able to continue any research and development of higher grade items for you. With that in mind, please understand when we do not give out the coatings we use on our feed tubes, or how we achieve ceramic insulators, I sincerely doubt you can duplicate what we do.

Probably before most of you were born I met Steven Jobs, and proceeded to get drunk with him. Apple Computer had decided to take the entire company I worked for to lunch, I did not know that the person I sat down next to was Steven Jobs. We became friends, he is the only person I have ever met that is harder headed than myself, if he decided something he meant it, and you better get with it. The reason we got on so well was because we both had very uncompromising ways. He gave me his personal phone number, so I could bypass all of the secretaries. I had tremendous problems with the designs his engineers were sending me, I told him so, that is why he gave me his phone number. In that way we could refine designs and get things to work, which they did not before. I was the main mold maker on the ORIGINAL MacIntosh prototype mold, we built the prototype mold to get a few housings out, so they could fit things, and possibly get a few Macs out to reviewers. That mold ended up being used for WAY longer than intended, due to the guys trying to build the production version not being able to build their mold. Not as talented ? I do not know, but their mold was over a year over due.


There, now you know a little about me.