The Iris - buyer beware

thanks

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

That appeared to be something more versatile than my collection of drafting circle templates.

It may be no solace..

David Weaver

(I'm guessing these were designed and then made in china)...

...but there are gobs of copies of these on aliexpress for anyone who just wants to fiddle with one. They have the same comments sprinkled in their reviews "became difficult to use and not precise" or "stopped working and can't function"...

...but they're as cheap as $7 for aluminum with stainless steel leaves.

The group that made these may just be overwhelmed. I'd bet recommendation from Adam Savage comes with a glut of orders and difficulty keeping up.

Some of the copies look pretty coarse in pictures, though!

Re: It may be no solace..

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I wanted to believe that. Now I don't think that they are too overwhelmed to respond. There are a few messages on FaceBook now which mention their poor correspondence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I'm a little confused, anyway,

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

as to what advantage this would have had over a compass, which can be purchased for less (for instance, $6 for the General Tools 842, in my experience an excellent tool).

Re: The Iris - buyer beware

Kevin French

Have you contacted your Credit Card about this?

I have a problem and they square it away, Quickly.

Sort of an excuse..

David Weaver

.I was sort of making an excuse for them, but not intending that they should be excused....

I suspect that they're making a bundle on each one assuming they're made overseas.

The gadget looks really novel, but when I was looking for inexpensive overseas versions, I saw several much more substantial versions with side locks and screw type adjustment sold by optics suppliers. Their kickstart campaign collected almost $200K, and I'm a bit suspicious about how hard it would be for someone who was just hoping to have something like this made privately in China so they could sell it.

(as in, I think they managed to catch on with the novelty and the volume of money involved both in the kickstarter as well as ongoing seems to be a lot for what it is).

But, before I start getting too cranky about such things that become popular, I guess I can't really say that it makes less sense than $200 airbuds from apple, $3000 apple PCs that are about as strong as a $1200 windows machine and last less long, or beats headphones for $500 that use the cheap trick of just increasing bass response.

Re: I'm a little confused, anyway,

Clint Searl

It might be a more convenient accurate way to scribe a circular arc between two arbitrary points...assuming it works. Nyuk nyuk

Yes, and Paypal as well

Wiley Horne

Derek’s inquiries to the seller, and seller’s non-reply, are sufficient to file a case with Paypal right now. Paypal will give seller a grace period to make it right, and then if no performo will cancel seller’s account—and Paypal means it. No paypal account, no business.

Wiley

Re: I'm a little confused, anyway,

Mark Nowicki

Yeah, but does your compass come in a "sustainable box" with pull out display holder?

Is your compass designed for heavy duty shop use?

If it isn't, LeeValley sells one for $53.

Re: Yes, and Paypal as well

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Paypal was not offered for payment. I would have used it if it had been.

I shall look into my credit card service.

In the meantime, I have found a few others who experienced the same fate as I.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Sort of an excuse..

Jerome

The iris looks great and seems fit to use "on paper" but I would not take the risk of bringing it in a dusty shop. I don’t know if they advised against it.

Apple advertises water resistance but any oxydation will void the warranty. At least, their new laptops are only 1000usd and outperform almost anything twice the price, what a time.

It is useful if it worked

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I have a set of drafting circle templates. If they were not useful they would not have been made. I can not name a specific instance where I used them but I have. For one thing they do not leave a hole where the point of the compass sticks. For another they are a quick way of drawing or evaluating various sized circles. And they are good where only an arc of a circle is necessary or practical.

Re: Yes, and Paypal as well

Kevin French

@$124 it should have a better track record, @$124 it should have your coffee ready for you in the morning