Review - SeedJig
The seedjig is a tool designed to easily secure your 12 or 24 bitcoin backup words on highly durable stainless steel washers.
Background
The project was created by Alex Flood, a designer and metalworker. After an outcry for him to sell the product he had designed for himself he launch the pre-sale of batch 1 on 21/03/2022, setting a limit of 100 units. Units began shipping on 16/06/2022.
Components
After a number of iterations (including DIY investment casting) Alex settled on a design consisting of 8 components. Many of which were precision machined by Alex himself.
Steps to Use
To start, place the base assembly onto a solid surface.
Next place a washer in the center of the base.
Secure the washer into position by pushing the pin through the hole in the washer, into the hole in the base. Continue pressing the pin until you feel the pin latch into position.
Finally place the stamp carrier onto the pin and position the appropriate hole (details below).
Index Position
There are a series of holes machined into the base into which the stamp carrier can be positioned.
Number Positions
The pair of holes (N1, N2 above) are the number positions. These allow each washer to be stamped with an index/order number. This is important as the order of the words is critical when recovering a seed.
Letter Positions
The series of 8 equally spaced holes (L1 - L8 above) are the letter positions.
Latching Mechanism
The device uses a ball latch mechanism to provide the retaining force on the washer to ensure that it doesn't move on impact.
A grub screw compresses a spring which drives a steel ball bearing down the bore of a hole in the side of the base component.
If the pin is removed the ball reaches an end-stop and protrudes into the bore of the vertical central hole into which the pin is inserted.
On inserting the pin the ball is driven back into the bore, charging the spring.
Once the pin is sufficiently depressed the ball can drive into a recess in the pin - the angle of which acts to pull the pin down, retaining the washer.
Review
The product is a delight to use. The large size of the brass stamp carrier facilitates quick and precise rotation while the generous height well aligns the stamp. The large height & diameter of this component also acts to protects finger and thumb in the case of a misstrike.
The design is robust. The heft and materials of the large components (brass stamp carrier and steel base) cannot be understated, these are solid components. At a practical level this ensures that letters are stamped cleanly with no risk of the jig being damaged by a poorly positioned hammer stroke.
What truly makes this product excellent is the attention to detail, some examples include;
- The ball latch mechanism which can be adjusted easily to match the retention foce on the pin with the operators grip strength.
- The pattern of 7 recesses in the pin to make is easy to extract.
- The alignment detail between the steel indexer and the brass stamp carrier to eliminate a rotational degree of freedom in the indexer.
- The matching of the angle of the curvature on the steel indexers bottom face (from which the cylindrical face protrudes) and the brass stamp carriers chamfered edge.
- The counersinking of all holes to align pins / screws easily.
Summary
In summary the design is elegant, robust and practical and the quality of the manufacture is excellent. I look forward to seeing what Alex has in store for us in the future.
A note on bitcoin pre-sales
Buying a product in a pre-sale is always a risky endeavour, particularly when sending bitcoin directly to an unestablished seller. Reputation goes a long way in the bitcoin community, but it takes time to be built - generally pre-sales should be looked at with skepticism, however...
In the case of hardware the upfront cost of raw materials can be significant - this was undoubtedly the case here. It is my understanding that the price of the raw materials used in this product have been extremely volatile in recent months - purchasing the raw materials in bulk at the start of the project was a sensible move by Alex, and in my opinion this merits a pre-sale.
Alex did a great job of keeping buyers informed of progress throughout the process, posting regular progress images and videos on twitter.
This project is a case study in how to run a pre-sale the right way.
SeedJig 2nd Batch Pre-Order
Alex is taking orders for the second batch of seed jigs. Target shipping second week August 2022
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Ben
