Technology

For those of you who have tried to order online with us for the past few days, you may have noticed that our website was not behaving correctly. We had a bit of an upset in the backend programming that caused some issues with pricing on many of our products.

I'm happy to say that we have sorted those out and the site is back to running normally.

We apologize for any trouble this caused with anyone, so we're offering a nice little 10% off coupon for the first 50 users or until the end of the month, whichever comes first.

Just type in error09 into the coupon code field to receive your 10% off.

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Thanks

Sintered Diamond Segments

We often get asked about how to get an old Rociprolap or Slurry grinder wheel flat again. The easiest way is to have them blanchard ground, but it can be costly and a lot of trouble to have the wheel removed and sent out for grinding.

It's much easier to do this in-house, but where to find a large steel disk with diamond to grind down the metal?

Well, why not make it yourself? We now offer Sintered Diamond Segments for creating your own tools and accessories. These little 1 inch long diamond segments are all diamond, all the way through, so as they wear, they will reveal new diamonds and continue to grind.

We offer three grits, 45/50, 100/120 and 180/200 all mounted on 1-1/2 inch bolts. We can also mount segments on custom sized bolts at your request.

Point of Sale at Tradeshows

We've had tons of folks ask us about the software we use at the GAS conference, the BeCon show and the Glass Craft and Bead Expo.

We have a pretty simple setup with an iPhone and an iPod touch and the program we use on both is the most excellent RingItUp software from PingySoft.

We've tried this software out in Vegas this past year and we were completely and totally impressed with it. The full scale rollout happened at the Corning GAS conference and continued on to the BeCon show in Portland.

It's a very simple program that allows you to upload all your products (or just a subset of products, like just what you are selling at your trade show). The program then allows you to put your customer in either from an existing customer list that you can also upload to the phone or iPod or enter them as a walk-up customer and simply take their name and email address.

The program integrates with several credit card processing programs so you can seamlessly put your customer's order into the iPhone or iPod, then move to the credit card program, charge their card and return to RingItUp and email the receipt of the transaction to your customer.

If you're looking for a quick easy and efficient way to handle transactions at trade shows or craft fairs, then you owe it to yourself to look into this program.

True, it only runs on an iPhone or iPod touch, but you know you've been wanting one of those anyway.

Single Speed Hand Grinders are no more

Alpha tools has officially discontinued production on the venerable AWP-158 hand grinder. After years of faithful service, this single speed hand grinder is going to the great machine graveyard in the sky.

Alpha will only produce the newer variable speed VSP-120 hand grinder now.

We've removed the AWP-158 from our web site, but Alpha does have a few still on hand if this was a tool you were interested in obtaining. Pricing will still remain at $300.00 until they run out of stock. If you're interested in one of the AWP-158 grinders, give us a call.

I think this is great idea though. The variable speed of the VSP has been a major selling point for that model and it easily outsold the AWP 3 to 1. With the variable speed you can enjoy quick efficient grinding and then slow it down for precise polishing without wasting cerium or overheating your glass. It's a great machine and I'm glad that Alpha is concentrating on it for the future.

Diamond Disk Seconds Sale

Every year we try to sort through the diamond disks that we've made through the year that haven't been quite up to par visually and offer them online for a substantial discount. It keeps our shop clean and saves you tons of money. Well, that time has arrived once again.

We've gone through our diamond disks and have a nice little assortment of disks that just didn't quite measure up to our exacting standards. "Are they defective?" you ask. No way!!

These disks are only visually defective. They generally have small blemishes or areas where the diamond just didn't disperse randomly enough on the surface. This normally shows up as small areas where there is no diamond apparent. This won't affect the grinding of the disk or its usefulness, but it just doesn't look pretty.

It's a great way to stock up your shop for not a lot of money.

Check it out!

3M Microfiber Cleaning cloths

So what's the worst part of trying to set up for craft show? Trying to keep your glass clean, dust-free and fingerprint-free before and during the show. We know. It's annoying and a hassle.

Well, these little guys make it a whole lot easier. 3M's professional grade microfiber cleaning cloths make short work of dust, dirt and fingerprints on your glass. You can use them wet or dry, with or without chemicals and they work perfectly. You can even wash and dry them (just don't use fabric softener).

A great little time saver.

3M Electrostatic Diamond Disks

We've been testing these babies out for about 4 months now and everyone who has seen them or played with them has fallen head over heels in love with them.

The 3M Electrostatic diamond disks are absolutely perfect for grinding and smoothing down smaller surface areas on your glass like jewelry and small scale work. They make short work of the surface and leave a virtually chip free edge even at the 120 grit. Quick, efficient and inexpensive, these disks will revolutionize many smaller pieces that you work on. You can also easily transition from either the 400 grit or 600 grit straight to the 3M Cerium impregnated disks for lightening fast polish. You won't know what you used to do without these.