Cherry Keeper Update - January 2019

Discussion in 'Chastity device discussions and reviews' started by JosieLynn Jewell, Jan 5, 2019.

  1. JosieLynn Jewell
    Offline

    JosieLynn Jewell Long term member

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2018
    Messages:
    744
    Likes Received:
    1,191
    Trophy Points:
    123
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Michigan, USA
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    Happy New Year Chastity Lovers!
    I hope everyone had a safe and joyous holiday season and everyone found that perfect shiny new "toy" with their name on it!

    Before I get on with the update, I want to thank everyone in the community who has been very supportive of me and what I have been working one. Either you supported me by making positive comments, by offering ideas, by asking questions, by suggesting things that lead to me growing outside my comfort zone, and by making purchases. I feel very good about this endeavor, and really enjoy interacting with everyone interested in chastity. I want to give everyone an update on what's happening with the Cherry Keeper products, my thoughts on what's next, and open up the floor for feedback from anyone who wants to provide it.

    Shapeways pricing change for grandfathered models
    I really had to get hopping back in October as Shapeways was increasing the pricing on any new models on October 22nd, adding an extra $2.50 to every piece chosen that was polished and colored. I was able to get most of the parts submitted before that deadline and they've been grandfathered into the old pricing model since it went into effect.
    As they say, all good things come to an end, right? Effective January 31st, Shapeways is applying the new pricing model to all parts that were previously grandfathered. You can read the announcement here if you're interested.
    What does this mean? It means that all the original cages (non headlock) and rings for the Cherry Keeper, and all parts for the New Fun cage are going to increase by a few dollars when you choose to have them polished and dyed on or after January 31st. If you are on the fence about making a purchase, you still have a few weeks to decide before the new pricing goes into effect.

    Printer comparison
    With the pricing changes, I wanted to see who else was out there, and if they could deliver either a better product, or a cheaper product. At the end of November, I ordered identical parts in multiple finishes from i.Materialize, Sculpteo, and Shapeways to test the cost, quality, and speed of delivery of each company. I haven't posted the detailed comparison yet, but will update everyone when I do. The short version is that even with the newer pricing, Shapeways delivered a product on par with the other two, cheaper than either by a significant amount, and faster than the other two. From Shapeways, I had my order 8 days after placing the order, a full day sooner than estimated. This won't always be the case, and they now offer expedited and economy printing options, but iMaerialize was received twelve days after my order (right on time), and Sculpteo took 21 days, which was two days later than their estimate.
    I don't see a change in printer coming anytime soon, but will be vigilant about exploring options.
    One thing that I will say is that if you want a white cage that is smooth and slick to the touch, Sculpteo offers a wonderful finish, that costs a bit more than standard polish and dyed, but isn't available anywhere else called the Smoothing Beautifier. If anyone is serious about wanting a cage finished this way, message me, and I can set that up.

    Material offerings
    After reviewing all the materials and their prices, and being notified of printing limitations with one of them, I'm considering dropping the "Professional Plastic" option from my products. This plastic is printed on the new HP Multi Jet Fusion printer (look it up if you're interested in the technology!), and does print with a finer detail than the standard printer. That's the only upside, unless you want your cage in Black, in which case, those prints are solid black, and will not fade to white like a dyed product could. The downside is the cost is much higher, takes longer (as they have less volume), cannot be ordered in any color other than black and grey, and the texture on the surface is the same as the other processes. Until I write up a good material selection guide for the product, this option may lead customers to believe it will have a better finish due to the price, which might lead to disappointment.
    Right now, I think offering the option for those people who want it outweighs the downsides, but it's something I am considering.

    Fit and Finish guide
    I get questions all the time on how to measure for a cage, what's the texture like, can it be improved, etc. I always answer these questions with a message back with the details - I'd like one place to go to have answers to all of these questions, which means I need to put together a fit and finish guide for the product. I already have the information in the many messages I've sent, I just need to put it out there for people to link to. One hold-up is that I want to test a few methods for finishing that I haven't experimented with yet - a wire wheel on a dremel for smoothing, and dyeing the nylon. I have everything I need to do both of those thing except I haven't made the time to do it right and document it well yet. I want to finish this by the end of January.
    If anyone has suggestions on what should be included, I'd love to hear them.

    Custom Keys for stealth locks
    I have been working on this for a little bit, and finally showed off what I was working on. There seems to be some interest in this, but I'm struggling with finding a good model for offering these to customers, because it combines something that needs to be purchased (lock cylinder), and something that needs to be made to work with it. From a quality control perspective, I want to ensure everything works right before a customer receives it, which means I would have to buy everything, ship it to me, test, twiddle, fix, and ship to the customer, which adds extra cost and extra time. I also really hate being the bottleneck, but I hate when things don't work like they should too. The other way I could do it would be to offer a key blank that you can go have cut to match, or offer drawings for the key patterns with each key that you compare against before ordering. I don't have locksmith experience, so I don't know what problems I'll run into doing it this way.
    What would you choose - do you want to fiddle with it to have it sooner and cheaper, or do you want it to just work? Are there any chastity fans with an expertise in locksmithing who could impart some knowledge on the subject to me?

    I do have more topics to discuss, but don't want it to get too long (too late!). Hopefully I can make these types of communications a regular thing and cover a couple topics each time.

    With Love,
    JosieLynn Jewell
     
    Peter Rabbit and G42G like this.
  2. KHCouple4517
    Offline

    KHCouple4517 Lady of Couple4517
    Verified Female

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2018
    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    154
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Gender:
    Female
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Berlin, Germany
    Local Time:
    7:33 PM
    I think it will be a good try to see how much hustle and extra cost it actually is with the key be shipped to you and then from you to me, don't you think? :)

    I personally would prefer to be 100% sure that it works and pay a little bit extra for it. Time should usually not be a huge problem, as people want to get it more than get it quick, right? I mean I am looking for a key since September, so what does another few months matter there ;)

    With the comparison I would say it might be difficult as maybe you just got a few key-types by chance instead of the whole selection out there - and maybe they add different patterns in as it goes. So I am not too sure if that will really work out for you, but would be curious if you did go that way how it works.

    I personally have to admit I am glad that there are multiple patterns though, because otherwise my sub can just buy himself another lock and has a key for his use I cannot control as I am not aware of it.
     
    Couple4517 likes this.
  3. Deleted member 61107
    Offline

    Great work. I may purchase soon. The real money to be made is by creating a lock that is not easily removed or to pick! I can't believe none exist on the market. Imagine the $$ to be made haha. Great work with devices and pricing
     
  4. JosieLynn Jewell
    Offline

    JosieLynn Jewell Long term member

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2018
    Messages:
    744
    Likes Received:
    1,191
    Trophy Points:
    123
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Michigan, USA
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    Thank you! The issue with the locks is the tiny size that's been standardized on, with only a single source for the originals (Burg Wachter) and many chinese company clones. The locks are actually not even designed to be locks in the traditional sense - they are lock blockers for vintage furniture mortise locks to prevent you from putting the key into the lock, or easily picking that style lock. Very niche, to the point where I bet there's more securing cages than furniture now :)
     
  5. zorglub
    Offline

    zorglub Tether freak

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2014
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    220
    Trophy Points:
    53
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Software developper
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Arizona, USA
    Home Page:
    Local Time:
    11:33 AM
  6. Deleted member 61107
    Offline

  7. LockedPom
    Offline

    LockedPom Long term member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2016
    Messages:
    1,063
    Likes Received:
    1,051
    Trophy Points:
    143
    Gender:
    Male
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Australia
    Local Time:
    4:33 AM
    Glad to see a manufacturer with good communication and keenness to improve their product set.
     
  8. thongs911
    Offline

    thongs911 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2009
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    60
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    I'd be interested in that as well. The one that I have is literally 1 pin.
     
  9. Adam444
    Offline

    Adam444 Long term member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2018
    Messages:
    540
    Likes Received:
    500
    Trophy Points:
    73
    Gender:
    Male
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Chicagoland, USA
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    I haven't tried the Burg Wachter but the Chinese clones are absurdly easy to open with a modicum of practice. It would take me longer to drop my pants than it would to pick the lock on the Chinese cage I'm wearing.

    If you need an ultra secure lock for chastity, you're playing the game incorrectly.
     
  10. JosieLynn Jewell
    Offline

    JosieLynn Jewell Long term member

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2018
    Messages:
    744
    Likes Received:
    1,191
    Trophy Points:
    123
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Michigan, USA
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    I did find that supplier, but for me, personally, $25 for just the lock is more than I want to spend for my situation - I'm free to unlock at home as needed since Miss knows I need to test things. I'm sure it's better quality, but it will still likely be easy to pick (4 small pins, and a youtube video shows you how to do it with a simple rake)

    I've seen the trailer locks and those are pretty long, and a bigger diameter. I appreciate things being standardized, even if it's not the absolute best product.
     
  11. JosieLynn Jewell
    Offline

    JosieLynn Jewell Long term member

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2018
    Messages:
    744
    Likes Received:
    1,191
    Trophy Points:
    123
    Location: (Country, Region - and perhaps even City?):
    Michigan, USA
    Local Time:
    2:33 PM
    Just a note in case you were looking to purchase, that the grandfathered pricing from Shapeways on the Cherry Keeper products is ending in two days time.

    I've gotten a list of the items with the biggest price changes, and made some adjustments to some items to reduce the impact. The reason for most of these is due to the size of the items and Shapeways new minimum price of $5.00 per part.

    • The small plastic cylinders for joining the pieces was the biggest jump going from $4.45 to $9.95 for a colored cylinder. I have uploaded a new model which incorporates four cylinders on a sprue - it just requires trimming the pieces off the sprue like a plastic model kit. The new product gets you four colored cylinders for $9.95 (the same price!) because it is still small enough that it is at the minimum price for the part. (If you care to, you can figure out exactly what my markup is on this - it's not much)
    • The old padlock kit consisted of five separate pieces, each of which was smaller than the new minimum, and if you wanted it in color, it would be $8.50 per piece. I did the same thing with this as I did the cylinders, I created a sprue that you trim the pieces off of so it is considered one part. This move actually reduced what it can be sold for from the original version, so instead of it being close to $50 (noone should buy it at that price!), I was able to reduce the price by ~$4.00, even when colored!
    • The same thing as above is true for the AddOn pins and AddOn pin ends. While I can't offer them as cheaply as I could with the grandfathered pricing, I have minimized the cost as much as possible.
    • The pocket safe - Their system didn't like how the parts were oriented (even though they can separate them), and a simple reorientation of the parts kept the price about the same instead of going up 143%

    There are a few items I am unable to do anything about the new pricing.
    • The Cherry Keeper Bullet Vibe mount - I've tried multiple methods to get this model back to it's original price point, but the geometry calculation just doesn't like the wide base with the perpendicular open ring, and it's going up a few dollars
    • New Fun and Cherry Keeper items with a modeled dildo - the size and machine space it takes up is causing them to increase in price several dollars
    • The New fun cage ultra short - similar to above, the space calculation does not like the geometry, and it too is going up a few dollars
    • Every item with grandfathered pricing that is polished and colored will go up several dollars because they've increased the fee for that from $1.00 to $3.50

    I guess, technically, I run a small business now (which is weird to say), and as so many of you have pointed out, I don't charge very much for what you get. I do this in my spare time, as something that started as an interest and hobby - It's just me doing the work behind the scenes, and sometimes it's a challenge to maintain the balance in life to include this.

    I appreciate the support, and love, and comments, and pictures I've gotten from so many of you, and hope everyone has a positive experience with chastity.

    Love,
    JosieLynn Jewell
     
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice