I couldn't wait until I received my first manufactured unit, up to this point I had been using a crudely bent together wire mock up I produced in my garage. It worked really well and always made a perfect Hotdog but it looked like something a second grader brought to school for show and tell.  A few weeks had passed since I sent my crude prototype and dimensional drawings to Kasper Wire Works, to say I was anxious to receive a price quote would have been an under statement. It just so happened that I was visiting my Grandmother when I got the phone call from Kasper. I knew my simple little gadget needed to retail for less than $10, which meant to be financially viable I needed the manufacturing costs to come in under $2.00. That's why it felt like a kick in the gut when I heard the price quote was $19.36 each. I remember walking around in a daze at Wegman's, a world class grocery store chain based out of Rochester NY and located near my Grandmother's home. This was the first time I thought my journey might have come to a premature end. That's when I stumbled across the "Nifty Lifter", a simple metal grate with two handles designed to lift heavy turkeys out of a pan. At first glance it looked like a Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer on steroids and it was selling for $9.95. A ray of hope shined down on me as I realized if the Nifty Lifter was a viable product at $9.95 I knew the smaller and lighter Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer could be also.  I wrote down all of the information about the company making the Nifty Lifter and contacted them as soon as I got back home. It turns out the that Nifty Lifter was imported from China by Nifty Home Products a company founded by an inventor. When I called it just so happened that the inventor himself answered the phone and we spoke for twenty minutes.

The next thing I did was to follow up with my manufacturer to see what if anything could be done about the outrageous cost. I knew if I could get it manufactured in the US for under $10 I could get it manufactured in China for 1/5 of that cost and I would be in business. It turns out that the way I originally designed the handles to attach was very difficult to produce, a simple redesign would cut manufacturing costs in half. This was the second time in my journey that a roadblock ended up diverting me onto a better path, but it certainly would not be the last. The new handle design created the possibility of being able to hold the lid in place. This would significantly improve results as the steam would be forced to circulate around the bun. I sent in a new sample with the resigned handles to Kasper and waited anxiously. Now it was time to expand my pot collection.

I found my self checking out every houseware store within a ten miles radius, if this product was going to be successful it needed to work with every pot style it possible could. I never realized how many different styles of pots were on the market and nearly everyone had a different way that the lid attached. On paper my new handles designed appeared to work, but as so often happens the best laid plans of mice and men doesn't always pan out. In the inventing world you have to always build a working prototype to prove what you drew on paper works in real life.

When the first manufactured sample showed up I remember hurrying to my kitchen and pulling out every different style pot I had collected to see how the design worked. To my horror the design only worked on my original pot, on all the other styles the lid slipped off. That’s when I knew I had a BIG Problem, in less than 2 months I was going to show my product at the International Houseware Show in Chicago and in its current state it didn't work. This was my second kick in the gut in as many months. I spent the next few days trying to come up with a universal solution. What I came up with looked like it would work, but until it was produced I wouldn't know for sure. That was the next problem I faced, producing the manufactured sample would take 6 weeks if something was wrong with the design there wouldn't be enough time to make corrections before the big show.

I decided to make a trip to see the manufacturer in Shiner Texas, the closest airport was Houston and it was about a two hour drive from there. I packed up 5 different pots in a suit case, purchased an airline ticket and took off for Houston. The company, Kasper Wire Works, had been making wire products for almost 150 years and started with barbwire. Located in a tiny Texas town in the middle of nowhere, I drove by the factory 3 times. Not because it was small but because it was housed in a series of old extremely large barns. The people were very nice and gave me a complete tour of their facilities which took over an hour. When I finally got to meet the wire production manager the first thing he asked me is what is this thing for, somehow he never got the memo. I explained what its intended use was and his first comment was that’s a really good idea. I proceeded to pull the different pots out of my suitcase and explain the problem. I showed him my idea for a solution and he went to work. His assistant told me where the closest hotel was and that I should come back tomorrow. When I returned the next day he had taken my idea and incorporated it into a new handle design. It worked universally on all the different pots I  brought and I was on my way home Mission Accomplished.