We were delighted recently to receive the following story from Jeff Snell regarding some custom stainless steel parts we waterjet cut for him.
Less than a week before I was leaving on multi-week trip to Mozambique / Swaziland / South Africa, I broke a sideguard holder on my wheelchair. This is a super important piece: in optimal environments it keeps my clothing from rubbing against my wheels and getting dirty, in less ideal environments it keeps my hips from rubbing against my wheels and causing injury. Most of southern Africa falls under the less ideal environment for wheelchairs. The big problem for me was that this particular piece was out of production.
I had used Big Blue Saw's regular speed services in the past and been pleased with the experience. I noticed the QuickSaw Rush Order option; so I quickly knocked out a model in Sketchup, exported to DXF using a Sketchup extension, and sent the email. Seven hours later I was contacted by Julie, who was very helpful in selecting materials they had on hand and staying on top of the QuickSaw shipment.
The pieces were delivered two days later! I drilled out the holes to my specs and mounted the new pieces that evening. Because of Julie's quick turnaround, I had almost a full day to test out the mounts and was very happy with their precision and stiffness (the previous were constructed from aluminum and had been a bit floppy for years).
I likely could have made due with the broken sideguard mounts, but the experience would have been more difficult and problematic. It was additionally reassuring having competent sideguards with my wheelchair taking a beating in the cargo hold of planes and hanging off the back of Land Cruisers for several days. I can't thank Big Blue Saw and Julie enough for the quick turnaround. I'm a permanent customer, but next time with a little longer turnaround time.
