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The TM45 V7 is an exceptional fin, but things can still
go wrong. I don't like to have things go wrong, but in the
long run, being up front about the faults will show that we mean business
and hopefully earn your trust for it. I am sure problems occur with many
fins, but at least here you will get some insight into what is going right
and wrong with the Time Machines.
Hopefully this will be a short list of issues, but encourage all users
of my fins to provide pictures and details where things are not as good as
they should be. These are expensive fins, so if you have an issue then let
me know and I will resolve the problem with a warrantee or a fix, and
publish it here.
I will also detail things we are doing to overcome the problems, so you
can judge for yourself if I am doing enough in terms of construction and
warrantee to have you as a customer.
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| First issue, one which I would never have thought possible,
a snapped fin. I went to great lengths to make the TM45 V7 indestructible.
It is a low aspect design and the tip size is small compared to the base.
And its not thin, being 8.8mm thickness at the base, which is very thick
for its size. The fin and base are moulded as one, and with a small fillet
to avoid the stress at the junction between the two parts. It is made
almost entirely of high quality carbon fibre and epoxy laid in a fashion
to avoid bent fibers, seriously over engineered for a fin that is only
22cm long. But there you have it... There must be a reason for it,
and suspect the cause was a manufacturing flaw near the base, but wont
know till the base is sent back. These are the first fins from the mould,
so I expect some issues to occur during this period.
This fin will be replaced under warrantee.
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| For top performance it is very important to race prep your
fins to ensure you have the very best performance possible from the
design. And I have been finishing my fins to race prep for years (as have
other racers) with a black acrylic primer filler. This paint sands
beautifully and allows very smooth surfaces to be fashioned, much like
when preparing surfaces for painting cars. This paint also polishes very
well and in black looks the business. In all the years I have seen this
stuff get used (since about 1986!) I have never seen it flake off, till
now.
I can only summise that despite preparing the surface with wet and dry
before painting, it may still have had some residual release wax or
silicon based polish on it, causing the paint to flake off at high speed
when under high loads.
I think this one is easily fixed by using better preparation of the
surface prior to painting, but I will generally not sell fins with this
painted finish, so wont have an issue.
For those that want the race prepared finish, I will provide some
instructions on how to do this for yourselves. It will improve the
performance of any fin in your quiver.
This fin is also being replaced under warrantee and I will probably
sell it as a second once I have repainted and polished it, or loan it out
as a demo.
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