Havanaaddict 12:35 PM 02-26-2018
I used to just throw all my tight cigars in a big Zip-lock bag over the years. Prob have over 50 cigars lots from 98' and just hated to just pitch them. I thought maybe I would get a pipe someday and use them as tobacco. I picked up a PerfecDraw maybe 6 months ago and I have been able to save 6 or 8 cigars out of that bag. It has paid for it self over and over!!!
[Reply]
AdamJoshua 01:55 PM 02-26-2018
Originally Posted by Havanaaddict:
I used to just throw all my tight cigars in a big Zip-lock bag over the years. Prob have over 50 cigars lots from 98' and just hated to just pitch them. I thought maybe I would get a pipe someday and use them as tobacco. I picked up a PerfecDraw maybe 6 months ago and I have been able to save 6 or 8 cigars out of that bag. It has paid for it self over and over!!!
So uh ... what cha doing with the rest of those sticks
:-) :-)
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Wharf Rat 05:06 PM 02-26-2018
I've had a tool made out of a piece of coat hanger for a long time that usually fills the bill.
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WhiteMamba 07:08 PM 02-26-2018
Thanks for the reviews guys. I ordered a perfecdraw today which was handy since the price dropped to $25. That’s hard to beat.
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AdamJoshua 08:35 PM 02-26-2018
Originally Posted by WhiteMamba:
Thanks for the reviews guys. I ordered a perfecdraw today which was handy since the price dropped to $25. That’s hard to beat.
what the what? lol christ i bout a ton of them and they were 39.99 ... might have to pick up a couple spares
Edit: Just so you all know that's on their website not on amazon, amazon is still the same price.
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WhiteMamba 09:05 PM 02-26-2018
Yes it’s on their website. I emailed the owner yesterday asking for any discounts he could give (never hurts to ask) and he told me they were marking them down today for a limited time didn’t say how long.
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Originally Posted by AdamJoshua:
what the what? lol christ i bout a ton of them and they were 39.99 ... might have to pick up a couple spares
Edit: Just so you all know that's on their website not on amazon, amazon is still the same price.
Were your $39.99 ones bent or crooked too? All three of the ones I just bought at $25 were...
:-)
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AdamJoshua 03:47 PM 03-04-2018
Originally Posted by T.G:
Were your $39.99 ones bent or crooked too? All three of the ones I just bought at $25 were... :-)
Er no not at all, I just bought a couple of the $25 ones, got them a couple days ago and havent even opened the box yet, when i go i'll check them out ... someone said they also changed the handle part, it used to be round. The american way, you make some money and right away you figure out how to do it cheaper and faster and fvck your reputation
Will be sending this b!tches right back
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AdamJoshua 04:56 PM 03-04-2018
Yah they changed the design, they suck, the bit part seems rougher and it doesn't quite fit in the shaft the same, I hate the hexagonal "handle" to it, they also removed the pocket clip.
Thankfully I bought them with p p and just sent them feedback telling them what I think of their "new" product and that I expect a full refund for the 4 I just purchased, I wouldn't even send of those to Huy
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WhiteMamba 05:53 PM 03-04-2018
I don’t known what their old ones were like but I thought mine was alright. Seemed to be what was advertised and I thought the hexagonal handle made it easier to twist the blade/bit. I thought for the price it was pretty good.
:-)
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AdamJoshua 07:27 PM 03-04-2018
I will give them an A for customer service, got this tonight (Sunday night).
Wow Adam, this is a shock. To date, you are the first to have this reaction. So far I’ve heard from over 30 cigar smokers who have used both the original and new designs. One of those people was even Phil Kohn (Katman Cigar Reviews), and he loves the new design. A few of them have said that they really can’t tell the difference in effectiveness and ease of use, but the vast majority have said they like the new design better. The comments are mostly that they like the feel of the hexagon shaped handle better and they feel the working end (where the blades are) is more effective at removing tobacco.
In the beginning, the original working plans for the PerfecDraw called for a certain distance between the blades to have room to collect tobacco. The problem was the spiral design. The spiral design causes tremendous torque during the machining process, causing the vast majority of the shafts to corkscrew or break during the machining. This also made it impossible to automate the manufacturing process, so it took individual machinists to machine them one at a time – and still more than 80% corkscrewed or broke during manufacturing. So the manufacturing costs were crazy-high.
The spiral design was stretched out as far as possible to create as much room as possible between the blades, but not nearly as much distance as my original design called for. It was impossible to stretch it out any more because of the torque. In fact, the first factory to make the PerfecDraw refused to continue manufacturing them because they lost money. So there wasn’t as much distance between the blades to collect tobacco as I originally wanted.
Because the extreme manufacturing costs were unsustainable, we finally got to the point of choosing between shutting down the company or somehow reducing the costs. I kept the shape of the sharp head of the shaft exactly the same, but re-designed the blades into four separate rings of blades instead of 4 rotations of a spiral design. I was then able to move the rows of blades apart to exactly the distance I had originally called for.
This created less torque during manufacture, so I was also able to make the central shaft within the blades even thinner, giving even more room to collect tobacco. The outer diameter of the blades is identical, but the depth between the outer diameter of the blades and the inner shaft diameter is greater, and the distance between the rows of blades is greater – resulting in more effectiveness to collect tobacco.
I also made the shaft ¼” longer. Some customers suggested more length of the shaft, but of course I wanted this to be as compact and portable as possible. Now, with ¼” additional length, going by the length of a Churchill cigar, if the plug or knot is dead-center, when approaching the knot from both ends, the shaft overlaps enough in the center to be very effective at clearing the knot.
The vast majority of customers indicated that they do not put the PerfecDraw in their pocket, and instead keep it with their cutters and lighters in some sort of kit.
The only real complaint with the first version was the cost of $39.95. Many told me not to worry about that because it was worth every cent. That’s nice, but still, this was a very, very common complaint. Yet, even at $39.95 the overhead was unsustainable. So when redesigning, lowering the cost was a primary goal.
Since very, very few used the pocket clip, that was the first thing to go. The pocket clip was responsible for a sizable portion of manufacturing cost. It involved three separate pieces (the pocket clip, the cap to hold the clip in, and a bushing to hold the cap on), plus the cost of assembling the pieces.
The sharpness and angles of the blades, as well as the three longitudinal “tobacco pulling channels” has not changed at all. The materials are exactly the same – surgical 304 stainless steel shaft, aerospace grade 6061-T aluminum housing with 25 micron deep anodized hard coat.
I had prototypes made, and was very happy that I personally felt the new design worked even better, and I had about a dozen other fans of the PerfecDraw try the prototypes, and each one said they liked it too.
When we received the new manufacturing design, which was very close to when we would have gone into backorder, I immediately lowered the price by 25%, from $39.95 down to $29.95. The sales indeed did go up quickly, so then a week ago after making many calculations and predictions, I determined that $24.95 would be a breakeven number. That is about a 37% lower price. My goal is to get the PerfecDraw “out there”, so profit is not a concern at this time. And I believe that at $24.95, we will no longer lose money.
So to read your reaction has taken me back quite a bit to say the least.
When the new manufacturing batch arrived with the new design, I carefully inspected 200 of them taken randomly from different boxes we received. I found no problems at all, so I’m wondering what you mean when you say that the shafts no longer quite fit in the sleeve correctly. Can you please explain what this means? Also, I don’t understand what you mean when you say that there are sharp edges on the cap when you close it. Do you mean there are burs of metal sticking out? I certainly have not seen anything like that.
I’m very happy to provide a full refund for you. I can have my staff email you a return shipping label. All you need to do is to put the 4 PerfecDraws into the original boxes (I assume you still have the white boxes) and use the return shipping label to ship them back to us. We will even pay for the postage to return them. Upon receipt we will immediately make a full refund.
I am anxious to see exactly what you are referring to regarding the shafts not fitting the sleeves and the sharp edges on the caps (I assume you mean the handles) when we receive them.
Thanks Adam.
Very best regards,
Rod
Dr. Rod Kurthy
Founder/CEO
Perfec Cigar Solutions, Inc.
Home of the PerfecDraw®
5 Vanderbilt
Irvine, CA 92618
Email:
Rod@PerfecCigarSolutions.com
(949) 636-7055
Fax: (949) 713-0919
www.PerfecDraw.com
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bonjing 07:46 PM 03-04-2018
Wonder if the amazon one are the older design?
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Thanks, OTA.
I was just looking at some early reviews to see photos of the older one and the differences you had mentioned. The spiral design was one of them. Having some training and experience at fabricating custom parts, I can see how the problems he describes during machining could be accurate for cutting a steep thread on a tiny diameter.
The hex head doesn't bother me, I hardly feel it with all the calluses on my hands/fingers anyway.
I'm not crazy about the fitment of the rod to the cap though. It's only a few degrees off, but over the length of the shaft, it amounts to enough to blow out the side of a cigar when clearing near the outer edge, especially with narrow gauge cigars.
And one was just bent, like someone tried to bend it straight between their thumbs.
I'll probably go with my original plan to true these up in the shop and give them a shot...
Now I need to go check the glue and see if they still have four stainless bearings in there for mixing or if that was dropped to three. lol.
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Originally Posted by bonjing:
Wonder if the amazon one are the older design?
The photos are of the newer ones, but with FBA, who knows how old their stock actually is.
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icehog3 12:03 PM 03-05-2018
I guess I am really glad Adam gifted me an original, this thing is the shiznit.
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Ashcan Bill 12:25 PM 03-08-2018
I picked up one of the new versions last week and tried it last night on a Upmann that just wasn't drawing right. Mine is the new design and having never used the old design I'm not sure what the functional difference is. I will say it worked way beyond my expectations. Over the years I've tried rods, sticks, drill bits and all manner of things without much success. This little guy worked without splitting the wrapper or otherwise damaging the cigar, turning a marginally smoke producing cigar into an enjoyable smoke. Well worth the money.
:-)
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markem 12:37 PM 03-08-2018
Originally Posted by icehog3:
I guess I am really glad Adam gifted me an original, this thing is the shiznit.
The one Adam hit me, well okay the dogs, with is the original as well. I like the round design. It is also the most fantastically easy to use tool when you want to remove small bits of tobacco to get through the plug. Most tools only push the material to the side, which risks the wrapper.
Best draw tool that I have ever used. Thanks, Bucky.
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AdamJoshua 06:52 PM 03-08-2018
Originally Posted by markem:
The one Adam hit me, well okay the dogs, with is the original as well. I like the round design. It is also the most fantastically easy to use tool when you want to remove small bits of tobacco to get through the plug. Most tools only push the material to the side, which risks the wrapper.
Best draw tool that I have ever used. Thanks, Bucky.
My pleasure and Tia is a good girl, I knew she would share!
[Reply]
markem 10:32 AM 03-10-2018
Originally Posted by AdamJoshua:
My pleasure and Tia is a good girl, I knew she would share!
Tia just asked me when you would come visit. She likes your head scratches.
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hwgoesit 04:56 PM 03-10-2018
I’ve got both the new and old design perfecdraw. They are both by far the best tools I have used since I started smoking over 20 years ago. I recently received the new design and find it works as good, if not better than the original design. It seems more robustly manufactured as well. You can’t go wrong with this tool. For $25, it will pay for itself many times over
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