Not long ago someone had posted pics of some of their parts from Prop Fan and immediately the trigger tip stood out to me. After seeing more photos which showed similarities to the aluminum trigger tip/ring assemblies I contacted him to ask him about it. I wanted to try to work this out privately but he just claimed that he used the 2 I sold him as reference. I asked for photos of the one he made but conveniently he has it packed away from moving and doesn't know where to find it. Fishy as that sounded given the similarities that would have been pointless and very time consuming to duplicate because they were "flaws", I waited till I had 2 of his casts in hand which I got from a very helpful member at Proptopia before making any final conclusion.
Since I had given him a chance to come clean in private and he decided to still try to dupe me with his claim that he was able to fabricate one that was identical to mine, once I got the 2 casts and could tell immediately that he recast me I am not willing to play nice anymore.
He claims that members have seen his master. He also never referenced having multiple masters, which is another point of contention. He has 2 different casts (I sold him 2 of my trigger tips), the welding on them is different (as all of the ones I sold were) but the shape of the trigger is identical to the laser cut ones I sold him.
Without posting a dozen photos (which given his white resin is hard to photograph and capture the details) here is a list of what makes them identical to the ones I sold.
He expects me to believe that he replicated every one of those details for no apparent reason? He did it twice even? His claims that he made a master and that people saw it MAY be true, but that doesn't mean that his master is what he cast and sold. He's not posted a single photo of his trigger casts that I have seen (or anyone else I know) while he posts pics of everything else he sells. This to me also shows that he assumed I'd never actually see one and didn't want photos to tip me off.
Had he manned up and admitted that he recast them when I first emailed him I would have been willing to settle things privately but instead he tried to play it out. What pisses me off most is that I was so close to losing money on the trigger tip/rings (and pretty much all of my past runs) and he turns around and profits off it, then lies about it. Had I turned a profit on them I would be less upset, but this is a smack in the face after stealing from me!
I have been told by others that have been around longer than me, and also vaguely remember it myself, that he had been caught recasting in the past, but was let off for whatever reasons. I call for him to be banned.
Since I had given him a chance to come clean in private and he decided to still try to dupe me with his claim that he was able to fabricate one that was identical to mine, once I got the 2 casts and could tell immediately that he recast me I am not willing to play nice anymore.
He claims that members have seen his master. He also never referenced having multiple masters, which is another point of contention. He has 2 different casts (I sold him 2 of my trigger tips), the welding on them is different (as all of the ones I sold were) but the shape of the trigger is identical to the laser cut ones I sold him.
Without posting a dozen photos (which given his white resin is hard to photograph and capture the details) here is a list of what makes them identical to the ones I sold.
- the shape of the trigger matches mine EXACTLY (he was able to use a band saw and make not one but two identical to mine)
- the triggers show the same laser cutting marks around the edges except the few edges that I sanded smooth on almost all of them
- the two side faces of the trigger show the same striation type marks that all of my triggers had from sanding the sides before welding
- there's a slight flat area on the back of the curved part of the trigger (ignored by pretty much every other replica I have seen)
- the forward "points" of the trigger are slightly more narrow than the rest of it caused by over sanding, same as the ones I offered
- the welds are obviously real aluminum welds not fitting with his plastic master as I have NEVER seen anyone duplicate aluminum (or other) welds this realistically
- the welds show a slight splatter "string" on one side which many of the triggers had
- there is blistering in the aluminum around the weld, again consistent with the ones I sold
- the hole that's been filled in inside the ring is larger than the threaded hole for the banjo exactly the same as mine
- both holes (the one mentioned above and the threaded hole) have been filled for casting, which makes no particular sense if you're making a master for casting
- the ring itself shows the exact machine marks as he aluminum ones I sold, this is also inconsistent with the story that his was made from PVC and plastic told to me by one of the people that saw his master
He expects me to believe that he replicated every one of those details for no apparent reason? He did it twice even? His claims that he made a master and that people saw it MAY be true, but that doesn't mean that his master is what he cast and sold. He's not posted a single photo of his trigger casts that I have seen (or anyone else I know) while he posts pics of everything else he sells. This to me also shows that he assumed I'd never actually see one and didn't want photos to tip me off.
Had he manned up and admitted that he recast them when I first emailed him I would have been willing to settle things privately but instead he tried to play it out. What pisses me off most is that I was so close to losing money on the trigger tip/rings (and pretty much all of my past runs) and he turns around and profits off it, then lies about it. Had I turned a profit on them I would be less upset, but this is a smack in the face after stealing from me!
I have been told by others that have been around longer than me, and also vaguely remember it myself, that he had been caught recasting in the past, but was let off for whatever reasons. I call for him to be banned.
Last edited:
