hey finkle iam interested in buyind a stick pm and email sent
QFT&E
Ah yes, The profit margin questions…
I have had lots of people ask me this one before and I’ll give a breakdown of how things are without disclosing real facts and figures.
like any business person who runs a business it’s fine to take a loss in the beginning provided they can re-coup the losses as time progresses. For me, I started out taking a loss only because I was entering uncharted territories and there was a certain amount of investment that was done to make/buy tools that I needed to get the job done. with this in mind, if now I was taking a loss in what i’m making I would halt building at once since as much as i’m part of this scene I just cant give things away for free since it would come outta my pocket and like everyone else I have bills and commitments.
how many do I make in a month? I make a great deal of sticks a month, sometimes over 15 and each month I seem to exceed and set new personal records as far as production goes. I rarely shy people away if they want something done because the way I see it they have a great amount of choice when it comes to buying a joystick whether its store bought or even a custom from one of the great builders from here or elsewhere so if they choose me i’m honored.
how does the money get spread out? I dont really look at it from a dollars and cents perspective. I more focus on time and the overall experience. what I mean by that is if I guaged my time on how much I money I make I’m not really making a great deal of money when its all said and done. why do some homes cost more than others when wood is wood and cement is cement? a pre-fab house costs less than a custom built home is one better than another? a tornado or hurricane isnt going to distinguish between either one or the other. but in the customer’s mind its the time and care spent on each project they do which sets them apart. As much as most of them look the same if someone wants something a la carte they can get it provided they’re willing to wait and have money in hand. I dont mass produce anything, everything I make is made to order and no two sticks no matter how similar they are arent identical.
I work like a machine, it’s pretty much non-stop 7 days a week 365 days a year, I work for 8-9hrs in the day, work on my lunch break making stuff (sticks and other personal projects) and when I get home i’m busy answering many emails and PMs and of course making stuff for you guys. what does one get for 160 bucks? I hope people get a good experience but product and customer service wise. most people who buy stuff from me continue to talk to me as a friend after the transaction and most people are return customers which is probably the greatest compliment someone can give me. I treat my people good both before we make a deal and afterwards. I think people who buy things from me know they’re going to get treated well and even though sometimes it takes longer than quoted people are generally pleased with the end result. do I think its worth the money? I’m not that much off of the other builders and in some aspects my cost is lower so yes, it is justified considering how much time I put into all this at the end of 3 weeks. there’s alot done in that time that goes unseen 
afterall you’re dealing with a one man operation here luckily I havent injured myself too badly since I dont know if anyone at this time who could help me out if something terrible happened.
one thing I will say is no matter what the cost is i’m extremely greatful that people like what I do and everyone who has asked for a quote or has bought something from me has been really awesome to deal with.
thanks guys!
finks
Festival, I had no idea what QFT&E stood for before I looked it up on Google. At first I thought it meant something like, "Quit Fing talking and e-something." And I was going to be :( and >: 0 Hopefully that is NOT what you meant.
Also, did you know that there is urbandictionary.com? Quite useful when trying to decipher forums acronyms : )
Keep up the good work, Noel! Been working a few projects, mods, and sticks for some people so my new case from you hasn’t been getting any modding love :*( Hopefully, I’ll have time mid to late this coming week to get it all up and running.
~Paik
Well Noel, I find your stik freakin beautiful, but i have a quick question and to anyone that can answer this. What is the life span of a semitsu stik? Even if your construction is rock solid, and probably withstand earthquakes and tornadoes, I don’t think you can save the stik itself with a prolong life. I heard that for Marvel it takes like a couple wks or so for it to need replacement. I play Cvs2 and i do the custom combos which require constant motions like dp x n. I notice that most people who advocate semitsu are 3s players. I particularily like semitsu. After receiving my stick from you, i was able to pull off all my moves, but after like 10 uses, i think i already rusted it. I can’t do qcfqcf as easily or on certain sides and sometimes i get dp motions doing them. THis just happened after practicing my cvs2 to 3s.
Back to question for it was too much trivial info: How long does semitsu lifespan take? Now this may be answered somewhere, but is a semitsu and a sanwa with octagon restrictor plate have similar motions when playing. Cause if i did rusted up my semitsu, then i have to get a new stick to replace it =(.
thanks Hai!
question about the seimitsu joystick, the 2 weak points of the joysticks like any joystick may rest in the spring that allows the joystick to return to center and the switches themself. lifespan is one of those things with anything manufactured that it could be 3 years or 3 days depending on the circumstances. now when you say rust do you mean the actual joystick shaft is forming rust or is it just feeling that way? haha if its rusting you must have some pretty powerful sweat glands to eat away the nickle plating on the joystick shaft! hahaha! in all seriousness, the only thing I dont like about seimitsu LS-32 is it has quite a bit of play compared to the sanwa even brand new right from the factory. I had someone ask me about this before if the joystick was meant to be this way or if they got a lemon so I pulled a brand new LS-32-01 from the shelf and a new old stock LS-32 from some time ago and they both exibited the same bit of slop in all directions. now this slop isnt like putting a hot dog down a hallway so I wont say its terrible but as the stick breaks in and depending on use it might require some adaptation to accomodate the play if this is indeed the issue at hand. I still feel it’s my stick of choice for alot of games, my brother and I play Cvs2 also and use the LS-32 on occasion and sometimes I dont jive well with the slight play but I try to adapt to it the best I can. couple weeks would be pretty short in any situation short of a high volume game center in japan. I dont play marvel much, i’m more of a ST and HF player but I know the marvel heads can be somewhat demanding on parts. but whether or not it should only last 2 weeks is questionable.
octagon restrictor sanwa or the LS-32? both have their pros and cons, I personally cant stand the octagon restrictor. I would take the totally stock sanwa with the square restrictor for any game opposed to one equiped with the octagonal restrictor. but for some who use QCF quite often they cant live without it. is the joystick binding? does it move in all directions responsively otherwise?
Thanks for response Noel!
As for rust, it just feels that way, and i don’t really sweat so u don’t have picture any disgusting image of a guy sweating, lol.
I can see what you mean. I did constant dp motions for custom combos in cvs2, so i guess it broke it in that particular fashion. SO when i did supers i sometimes get dp motions. I guess i have to start breaking in the joysticks for super motions now.
It’s a contraction of QTF and QFE which means Quoted For Truth and Quoted For Emphasis, and so it means Quoted For Truth & Emphasis. So basically it’s the EXACT opposite of what you understood first:sweat:
P.S. if I was willing to spread some hate, I would certainly not use any acronym or abbreviation, there’s no fun if people don’t even understand…
2hai, you might also consider looking at the levered switches in the stick. Because of wear and constant use of a certain motion or direction the lever for a particular direction gets more wear and might be “pushed in” after time. Some people who like adapt their joysticks will either bend the levers inward toward the shaft for a smaller throw or bend them outwards. I honestly don’t do it and I really can’t see how it would noticeably help since the restrictor limits the overall throw. The difference in the time a levered microswitch and a bent levered switch would take to activate would be honestly too small for anyone to notice.
That being said, it might just FEEL a little different and that may be messing up your execution. Say that from neutral when you move the joystick to the right you can immediately feel the levered microswitch up against the shaft but when you go to press left you notice that the pressure isn’t immediately there and it takes moving the joystick a few millimeters before you feel it. Like I said, that may just be your lever being pushed back a bit from heavy use.
I’m sure you know the Sanwa JLF doesn’t (JLW does however) have the levers and thus eliminates the potential warping/bending that may create an uneven feeling. Anyway, this may or may not be the case for you, but as Noel said, it’s probably unlikely that you wore out a stick in just a couple of weeks since the directions all register and it’s just motions that are having problems.
Festival : )
~Paik
shipping from canada to cali is going to take a while. i’m in arizona and when i send stuff out to canada it seriously takes like 2 weeks.
So… whats the status of my stick? its been a couple of weeks since you showed those pics.
packed up and ready to go! I cant ship it out today since its a government holiday but I can get it out tomorrow or wednesday at the latest
Rats on you all for making me doubt my Sanwa decision!
Heh, I figured you had to be done by now. 
Can’t wait until it arrives!
Cool thank you for the additional info. I’ve never really understood how Semitsu’s work, and how the levered switches worked in what way. Yea i probably go with you and Noel that my joystick isn’t worn out with just a few wks. I remembering having a Happs Competition Stick and i had to break it in, but eventually with time I got used to it.
i finally go it in the mail today!!! thank u soOO much noel! i love it! such clean work. i had a quick question though, is the shaft of the stick suppose to be that long? maybe its jus me but it seems long. besides that, i love the stick! thanks soOo much again! :rock:
Well, the shaft on Noel’s sticks are probably a little long since the metal casing is fairly thin. You usually try to top mount a stick by have 8-9mm total routed (this is including the lexan/plexi thickness). Since you are putting the mounting plate directly onto the case, it will be longer than the “standard.” There are a few ways you could probably remedy this by doing a type of jerry-rigging. For instance, you could maybe put one or two or even a few spare dust covers between the case and the mounting plate. Or you could fit a thin nut between the case and the plate and then put another nut on the far side of the plate as usual to hold it all together. Or if you for some reason have an extra mounting plate or two you could put two or three of those instead of just one. If you use your imagination I’m sure you can think of a few other ways to handle it.
I personally like my sticks a little longer. Hope this helps.
~Paik
hey man! glad it finally made it to you! I hope it was worth the wait!
if the shaft is too long for your liking let me know and I’ll send you one of my spacer plates to bring the height down a little free of charge
yah, that’d be great noel! thanks soOo much for everything. and it was totally worth the wait, i love my new stick! :rock:
no probs man
finkle looks after his people 
just give me a few days to sort things out and i’ll send it out probably early next week
again i’m glad you love it!