Excellent. Thank you!

Aw, man. You spoiled the surprise! :-)

Sorry for spoiling the surprise, but those gratitude come from my two grandsons.

When customers have reached out to me about not being able to get the silicone grip ring back in the groove, I have supplied a replacement lock ring assembly at no charge. I have never had a customer have issues with the second ring. There have been a few who installed the ring without the rubber grip ring and have been satisfied with it. My only concern is the potential for the ring to slip when removing the hood. If the ring were to spin on the lens, it could be difficult to remove the hood. If one were faced with that situation, I can provide tips on how to remove the hood.

Thanks for the response! One mire dumb question then I will let you go. Say this inept character took off the lock ring to send the lens in to Canon for service (Canon having a policy to remove all accessories prior to service). That is when the rubber grip came out. Would a few dabs of Gorilla Glue Gel (does not expand) at intervals of about an inch help secure the rubber grip back into place? Or is that a poor idea?

@@kentmyles6784 The ring does tend to stick to the lens after it's been on for a while, so having it peel out of the ring when you remove the ring is typical. I have never used glue to hold the ring in place, so I can't speak to how that could impact installation. They way Gorilla Glue expands, that could limit the ability of the silicone ring to deform as it gets squeezed on installation. I have tried to come up with a better option for the grip ring, but within the limitations of 3D printing, the wide variety of sizes I make, and the relatively low volumes, I simply haven't come up with a better solution. Something to consider when seating the ring into the groove is to push it back a bit as you press it into the groove. I use my thumbnail and as I press it in, I also push it back so it's getting 'packed' into the groove a bit. I've done this many hundreds of times, so I'm not sure how to best explain the process. Maybe I need to do a video where I am teaching someone who has never put the ring in before to do it successfully. I'd be happy to do a zoom call if one-on-one coaching might be helpful.

@@kentmyles6784 One more thing I meant to say, if you think cutting the rubber strip into a few shorter sections might help, there would be no harm in that. Maybe packing shorter pieces into the groove would be easier. It would not impact fit/function of the hood.

Ah, excellent. I will try a few more times and worst case scenario will try the smaller sections tactic. Thanks again!