That technology worked and that is Phoenix the company that SOTA bought. The back story is that the owner of Phoenix Engineering, Bill Carlin, disclosed online in a public forum the name(s) of certain supplier(s) to VPI, which was unprofessional. Harry Weissfeld never forgave him. So when Phoenix needed a buyer, VPI, which otherwise would have been a natural fit, felt more like a hostile take over. Sota benefited in the breech.
@billstevenson Not sure where you are getting your information from, but it is completely wrong. SOTA did not buy Phoenix Engineering and I did not need a buyer. I chose to close it down and turned down many offers from interested purchasers for reasons I won’t go into. Several years later, a shared contact put SOTA in touch with me and I decided to provide the technology to them at no cost. I do not collect a royalty and receive zero remuneration for the services I provide them.
As far as the incident with VPI, I did not disclose any information about vendors or ANY proprietary or protected information. What I did disclose, was an e-mail from Harry praising the products that I had originally offered to VPI. After they repeatedly yanked my chain and flaked out on any kind of discussions, I decided I could do better on my own rather than partnering with them, at which point Harry began making false and disparaging remarks about my products on public forums, even though in private he thought they were great products. I considered that to be very unprofessional and I cautioned him that if he didn’t stop making false assertions about my company and products that I would correct the record in public, which I eventually did, making him look like a hypocrite and a liar.
Question for you: Have you attempted to lubricate the bearing on your HW40 as of yet? It uses the same bearing as a Classic or Prime which requires periodic lubrication but it is not easily accessible on the HW40, requiring a major disassembly to reach it, which I would have thought would void the warranty.