UPDATE OK after a bit of hounding the manufacturer through emails and phone calls I got this reply. I personally think it's good news (some of you may think otherwise) in the fact that they are not entirely neglecting us for their customers that have the big bucks.
Again I must stress that this is out of my hands and like the rest of you be patient. Remember this is a one of a kind and is a very small production run for a large company to produce.
"Hi
Firstly I must apologies for not getting back to you end of last week.
We are up against it here, so much work and not enough hours in the day. We needed to get your job through our drawing office and at last we have done this, the problem was two fold, because of the current heavy work load it was easy to put your job to one side and wait for answers to come in from suppliers regarding the internal bearing. Finally we have the drawings, after much nagging, our works manager has not been best pleased with the delays as he has had machine time booked and has had to move it several times.
We will be cutting metal early next week. We will send you a soft sample of the part so you can approve it before we complete the batch, I would hope to get this away to you by 25th.
As much as we value the work we get from people like your self, it can take some time to get the first batch of the ground as our big customers do have all the clout. Once all the drawings are in place and all the works process sheets are signed of repeat work is easy to load to the workshop and completed in good time.
Once again I am sorry for the delays encountered to-date.
I will be in touch again next week."