Does Composite Warehouse Still Exist?

[Pepe Le Pew]

Ordered July 11, "order pending"???
Fool me once.....

 

[justforfun]

I placed an order in Jan, 2023. Paid in Feb 2023, when an email said order was ready to ship. Guess what? Now it's Aug 2023, still not shipped. Ask to ship or refund, guess what, nothing. That's CW. Great product, if you can get it.

Roy

 

[ShadowSpire48]

The blame with Curtis and his thievery practices should go to those on this forum and other ones that claim they have never had an issue and try to sway the public opinion to make him seem like a good guy. It causes more people to fall into the trap.

 

[SkyFire]

 

[cwbullet]

The blame with Curtis and his thievery practices should go to those on this forum and other ones that claim they have never had an issue and try to sway the public opinion to make him seem like a good guy. It causes more people to fall into the trap.

Why? Don't you believe them? There is just as much likelihood of being truthful as those who got ripped off. They have just as much right to express their satisfaction as the guy who claims they were ripped off.

 

[cwbullet]

I got a couple of nasty grams after my post. I am not defending the actions. I am saying that not everyone has the same experiece with a vendor.

We have all been ripped off. Mine is not from this vendor. Many speak praises of this guy but some do not. I bought two kits from this long-time vendor who repeatedly told me he would deliver them as soon as he moved his shop. He would not give me a date on that move and is not radio silent. He kept saying be patient grasshopper. Ten months later, I still have no kits.

I am going to state the obvious. Do your research, and don't buy from sketchy businesses.

 

[ShadowSpire48]

I got a couple of nasty grams after my post. I am not defending the actions. I am saying that not everyone has the same experiece with a vendor.

We have all been ripped off. Mine is not from this vendor. Many speak praises of this guy but some do not. I bought two kits from this long-time vendor who repeatedly told me he would deliver them as soon as he moved his shop. He would not give me a date on that move and is not radio silent. He kept saying be patient grasshopper. Ten months later, I still have no kits.

I am going to state the obvious. Do your research, and don't buy from sketchy businesses.

It’d be nice if people didn’t advertise sketchy businesses as well. I can guarantee you can count the amount of complaints against his crap and compare them to the few who love to let you know that they had a fantastic experience and I can guarantee that those claiming they had a good experience are also hiding a big number of complaints that they don’t want to admit to. False prophets.

 

[Titan II]

The blame with Curtis and his thievery practices should go to those on this forum and other ones that claim they have never had an issue and try to sway the public opinion to make him seem like a good guy. It causes more people to fall into the trap.

I have never had a problem with CW and have no problem saying that CW provides an excellent product.

 

[Wayco]

I'm a big fan of CW's fiberglass, not so much in regards to the man himself. One way to avoid that issue is to buy fiberglass from AMW/ProX. They have a large selection of his stuff, and have already dealt with the man. I think they mentioned camping out in his front yard for a while, waiting for him to fulfil one of their orders.
Here is some of the big fiberglass we have in our build pile:

You can ignore the red and black stuff on the far right, it's all Wildman's thinwall FG, and the broken window with blue tape on it is just a reminder to not stack too much big stuff in that corner. (Which I ignored)
The rocket on the right of that is a 5" CW Prometheus, the middle monster is an 8" scratch build from older Curtis fiberglass. On the left of that is a 4" hawk mountain MD project I haven't gotten to, and next to it is one of those Madcow Nike-Tomahawk two stage kits I picked up a few years ago. I think they used his fiberglass too, at the time. We have a 5" Wildman Jart that we bought way back when Wildman was still using his product too. His stuff is out there, it's high quality, and can be found without dealing with Curtis.

 

[CalebJ]

I have never had a problem with CW and have no problem saying that CW provides an excellent product.

Sure, they provided an excellent product to you.

And they have repeatedly provided no product whatsoever to others. So your feedback implying they're an excellent business is incredibly unhelpful to those making current decisions to purchase from them.

 

[Wayco]

I don't think anyone following this thread would believe CW is an excellent business. Titan ll stated that "CW provides an excellent product", and I agree. If we were to provide a stage for angry customers to raise their fists in the air and speak out against their business practices, it would take more than a soap box, more likely an amphitheater. Oh wait, this is TRF, we already did that, didn't we?
If we simply answered the OP's question, the answer would simply be "YES".

 

[CalebJ]

I don't think anyone following this thread would believe CW is an excellent business. Titan ll stated that "CW provides an excellent product", and I agree. If we were to provide a stage for angry customers to raise their fists in the air and speak out against their business practices, it would take more than a soap box, more likely an amphitheater. Oh wait, this is TRF, we already did that, didn't we?
If we simply answered the OP's question, the answer would simply be "YES".

Fair enough. My frustration is with those that see people discussing issues they've experienced with Curtis and immediately having a knee jerk reaction of throwing in 'but he's never cheated ME' as if that's relevant to determining if there's an ongoing problem or reason for concern.

 

[rfjustin]

Sure, they provided an excellent product to you.

And they have repeatedly provided no product whatsoever to others. So your feedback implying they're an excellent business is incredibly unhelpful to those making current decisions to purchase from them.

Go back and re-read what @Wayco posted and please show specifically how any of that can be construed as "implying they're an excellent business." Wayco is being critical of the man not supporting his business practices.

I suppose we shouldn't let a pesky thing like facts get in the way of your "its your responsibility to protect others" talk track, eh?

 

[CalebJ]

Go back and re-read what @Wayco posted and please show specifically how any of that can be construed as "implying they're an excellent business." Wayco is being critical of the man not supporting his business practices.

I suppose we shouldn't let a pesky thing like facts get in the way of your "its your responsibility to protect others" talk track, eh?

I didn't respond to waycos post in the comment you quoted.

 

[rfjustin]

I didn't respond to waycos post in the comment you quoted.

Ah, good point, missed that, Mea culpa.

 

[CalebJ]

Ah, good point, missed that, Mea culpa.

All good.

 

[SkyFire]

Between10/2020 and 8/2022 I bought 9 rocket kits from Composite Warehouse with varying amounts of difficulty.
With one order, after 3 months and multiple broken promises, I filed a credit card dispute. This pissed Curtis off! Doing so affects his standing with VISA.
Based on his current situation; having his main rocket guy quit and focus on commercial business, I won't be ordering from them again.

 

[smstachwick]

I filed a credit card dispute. This pissed Curtis off! Doing so affects his standing with VISA.

Good, let’s encourage people to do this more if he stiffs them. Getting pissed means that he’s feeling pressure, and pressure, when applied strategically, produces change.

The end result will likely be 1 of 2 things:

1. Investing greater capital/personal effort into meeting hobbyist orders and increasing transparency regarding any lost/delayed/dropped/orders, or
2. Withdrawing from the hobby rocket segment and focusing on markets more serviceable with available resources, temporarily or indefinitely

I know I’d prefer the first but I’d consider the second an entirely predictable outcome of mismanagement of a product line.

 

[crossfire]

Between10/2020 and 8/2022 I bought 9 rocket kits from Composite Warehouse with varying amounts of difficulty.
With one order, after 3 months and multiple broken promises, I filed a credit card dispute. This pissed Curtis off! Doing so affects his standing with VISA.
Based on his current situation; having his main rocket guy quit and focus on commercial business, I won't be ordering from them again.

Did you ever think Curtis is in 90% commercial business now days.

 

[AlexBruccoleri]

Did you ever think Curtis is in 90% commercial business now days.

Where are folks getting these numbers?

 

[Troy3003]

I have not had issues with my few purchases I made with him. In fact I had a mmt missing on one order and he had it in my mailbox 2 days later. This is my experience with him.
This is not the norm, but In fact some people do have normal transactions with him.

 

[ShadowSpire48]

Fair enough. My frustration is with those that see people discussing issues they've experienced with Curtis and immediately having a knee jerk reaction of throwing in 'but he's never cheated ME' as if that's relevant to determining if there's an ongoing problem or reason for concern.

Yep that's the issue with this forum and these threads. People see those few "good" reviews and immediately shun the much more relevant and more common negative issues and then go out and get screwed themselves. They come back with a negative review and those same people who claimed they never had an issue come out of the shed again saying it one more time. I can guarantee the claims of good service are semi-false because they are few. I bet they still wait eons for something that was listed as ready to go when they ordered it.

 

[Troy3003]

Yep that's the issue with this forum and these threads. People see those few "good" reviews and immediately shun the much more relevant and more common negative issues and then go out and get screwed themselves. They come back with a negative review and those same people who claimed they never had an issue come out of the shed again saying it one more time. I can guarantee the claims of good service are semi-false because they are few. I bet they still wait eons for something that was listed as ready to go when they ordered it.

Sounds like you made a bad choice on your end, lol. You can’t be pissy because someone has a good interaction with a vendor and decides to share it.
There is plenty enough info here for anyone to make their own choice. If they decide to go ahead and choose to make an order, that’s on them for taking the risk.

 

[Buckeye]

You can ignore the red and black stuff on the far right, it's all Wildman's thinwall FG ...

His stuff is out there, it's high quality, and can be found without dealing with Curtis. ...

I am curious. How does Curtis's FG differ from Wildman's thinwall? Is his considered "thick wall?" What is the advantage?

I have a Madcow Adventurer and Blue Iguana, which were probably Curtis's FG, and they are annoyingly HEAVY. Same with my old WM Blackhawk38. When I got a WM Mach2 with thinwall, I was amazed at the weight difference. Thinwall is a dream to work with.

 

[smstachwick]

Sounds like you made a bad choice on your end, lol. You can’t be pissy because someone has a good interaction with a vendor and decides to share it.

Can’t? Or shouldn’t, in your opinion?

There is plenty enough info here for anyone to make their own choice. If they decide to go ahead and choose to make an order, that’s on them for taking the risk.

I guess that depends on whether or not one chooses to view the issues as an individual one (a buyer being too stupid to look through reviews) or a systemic one (a vendor consistently failing to deliver and being allowed to get away with it by the market and the other powers that be). Solving untold dozens, hundreds, or thousands of individual problems until the end of a business’s lifespan is like playing Whack-A-Mole, and you probably won’t win. Solving a systemic issue is actually a better use of energy.

 

[Troy3003]

Can’t? Or shouldn’t, in your opinion?


I guess that depends on whether or not one chooses to view the issues as an individual one (a buyer being too stupid to look through reviews) or a systemic one (a vendor consistently failing to deliver and being allowed to get away with it by the market and the other powers that be). Solving untold dozens, hundreds, or thousands of individual problems until the end of a business’s lifespan is like playing Whack-A-Mole, and you probably won’t win. Solving a systemic issue is actually a better use

Can’t? Or shouldn’t, in your opinion?


I guess that depends on whether or not one chooses to view the issues as an individual one (a buyer being too stupid to look through reviews) or a systemic one (a vendor consistently failing to deliver and being allowed to get away with it by the market and the other powers that be). Solving untold dozens, hundreds, or thousands of individual problems until the end of a business’s lifespan is like playing Whack-A-Mole, and you probably won’t win. Solving a systemic issue is actually a better use of energy.

If he can guarantee we are lying, I believe it is ok to say ”can’t”. Eithe way, we shouldn’t be making people’s choices for them by only allowing a one sided view, no matter what the situation is. We get enough of that everywhere else.

 

[TheTank]

Opened up the Composite Warehouse package for my Prometheus 6. I appreciated how well everything was protected for shipping! There is not a single scratch or blemish on the external surfaces. Outstanding! The cut ends are nicely square. I did get the Nosecone Coupler stuck in the nosecone in my trial dry-fit. It's partly due to how awesome the fit was on the E-Bay Coupler, with both the Lower and Upper Airframes. I got too aggressive on the nosecone / coupler fit........ The e-bay coupler fit is so good that it's almost like these are "matched" parts. I can easily slide the coupler in, and it spins freely with little effort, like the inner race of a high quality ball bearing. I do not think any shimming (blue tape or scotch tape) will be necessary. I have never seen this precision in any previous rocket kit. But, really should wait until the coupler stuck in the nosecone is resolved. The front set of fins have a small bevel, leaving approximately 1/2 of the fin thickness as square to the wind. I will probably increase the bevel by hand. The rear set of fins have no bevel, being perfectly square with the wind, other than the fin taper. Overall, really happy with the Composite Warehouse product!!!
I already have a strong start on the RocSim file, and have identified and ordered the first 4 motors for what will become a 33 lb (dry weight) rocket.
No feedback yet from my L3 coordinator, but no matter, I will generate a build thread when I get started. It helps me to really focus on the construction details!
This rocket (98mm Motor Mount) could experience some powerful motors. Although I have a Thrust Plate incorporated into the design, I am thinking of running threaded steel rod (3 1/4" x 20 rods), the full length from (and through) the Aft Centering Ring to the most forward Motor Mount Centering Ring. It would require building and epoxing the internal components before insertion into the airframe. Would have to account for the Rail Buttons. If I proceeded in that manner, would probably incorporate Fin Pockets / Dams into the design. Lock Nuts, etc. would be used to trap all the centering rings (5 in total due to the split fins). Would appreciate any comments from experienced large rocket builders in this idea! Is it overkill with the Thrust Plate?

If you have any questions, let me know. Mine was the original prototype that I asked them to kit for me for my L3 project that they decided to produce. I had the original done in a 75mm motor mount. I also ran 1/4” all thread through all but the rear centering ring as a means to spread the recovery load to more than just the top centering ring in case of a less than ideal deployment situation. My L3 build docs are also in the L3 projects thread here. If you try to grab them from the google drive and it gives you fits, message me and Ill send it to you if you want it.

 

[Neutronium95]

'm a big fan of CW's fiberglass, not so much in regards to the man himself. One way to avoid that issue is to buy fiberglass from AMW/ProX. They have a large selection of his stuff, and have already dealt with the man. I think they mentioned camping out in his front yard for a while, waiting for him to fulfil one of their orders.
Here is some of the big fiberglass we have in our build pile:

AMW are good people, but I think that they're in the same boat as Madcow. All of the filament wound fiberglass kits and parts have been removed from the website, so I doubt that they're still stocking anything made by Curtis. As far as I know, the only vendor stocking Composite Warehouse parts anymore is Rocketry Warehouse.

 

[tim cubbedge]

I am curious. How does Curtis's FG differ from Wildman's thinwall? Is his considered "thick wall?" What is the advantage?

Curtis sells both thin and regular. Biggest difference is the thin wall is a little lighter but I find it more susceptible to splintering on hard landings.

Where are folks getting these numbers?

I don’t know if 90% is accurate but hobby rocketry has become his secondary customer base these days as he’s got some other customers buying way more than what we hobbyists purchase. I spoke to one of his distributors at airfest last week (Midwest Composite) and he said Curtis still sells rocket parts, it just may be a waiting game.

 

[John Kemker]

Curtis sells both thin and regular. Biggest difference is the thin wall is a little lighter but I find it more susceptible to splintering on hard landings.


I don’t know if 90% is accurate but hobby rocketry has become his secondary customer base these days as he’s got some other customers buying way more than what we hobbyists purchase. I spoke to one of his distributors at airfest last week (Midwest Composite) and he said Curtis still sells rocket parts, it just may be a waiting game.

I, too, spoke to one of Curtis' distributors last week, and it was mentioned that Curtis has a lot of non-rocketry related business that takes precedent.

While I understand the need to take care of the business that puts food on the table, I'd like to see the rocketry side either split off to an independent portion of his business, or sold to someone who will only handle rocketry business. Serving two masters, no matter how well-intentioned you are, is a recipe for catastrophe.