Anyone have any advice for sourcing aluminum or acrylic yz plates and would anyone be interested in doing a more bulk order so we could all save money?
Send cut send? Or one of the other online places?
We have a local water jet place I’ve considered using to cut parts.
have you gotten a qoute from them?
Sending the files to a third party like send cut send to make is a breach of the open source licence.
doesnt Ryan himself recommend send cut send?
YZ plates are available from the store or provided as files for you to make yourself AFAIK.He maybe recommends send cut send for stuff you can’t purchase, or just in general? Not sure.
I’m pretty sure it’s not a breach unless you’re then turning around and selling those parts.
He stated in another thread that it is technically a breach of the license, since someone else is making money with it.
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if he offered them in aluminum id defiantly agree and id also just buy them from him as they would for sure be cheaper then sourcing them.
I do not believe that Ryan recommends any commercial service for V1 cut or 3D printed pieces at all, other than his shop. He provides flat parts and 3D printed parts for his machines, and that is how he earns his living.
Providing STL/3MF/DXF files so that you can make them yourself is a courtesy, but when you send the files to a production house, you are basically allowing someone else to earn money from his work. It is in poor taste indeed, particularly when he offers the parts at a very reasonable price. It may be that wherever you are in the world, such a place can get you parts for less money (typically, I think because shipping,) but I have found Ryan’s prices on things he offers to be competitive, with international shipping included.
I believe that if there were sufficient interest in acrylic or metal YZ plates, as there was with the aluminum XZ plates, he would likely make them available in the V1 shop. I think one of the issues is that there is less benefit for the YZ plates in these materials, and another is that people haven’t settled on just one material. (For example, very briefly, there were steel XZ plates, not just aluminum (I have steel 
) but with more people interested in something that doesn’t rust, the steel is no longer avaialable, but eith enough interest in the aluminum, it remains in the store.
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I feel like if its a part/ material he doesnt offer he would be ok with it? id love for him to offer yz plates in aluminum as it would for sure be cheaper then sourcing it myself. I saw a post where he recomended send cut send for strut plates so maybe he only recomends it for parts he doesnt sell at all im not sure
oh i havent seen this ok I will order aluminum blanks and mill them myself!
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I appreciate it! I must have misunderstood! I definitely want to support him in anyway possible!
I agree entirely IF Ryan is offering the part for sale. While I am strongly of the opinion that everything that is available should be bought from Ryan, in this case, aluminium STRUTS are not on offer, so that’s in no way competing. I’m not trying to split hairs, but is this a case where there’s the law, and the spirit of the law at play? No harm, no foul?
It may be that wherever you are in the world, such a place can get you parts for less money (typically, I think because shipping,) but I have found Ryan’s prices on things he offers to be competitive, with international shipping included.
I agree entirely. “Competitive” is not a word I would use for shipping to Australia, however what we lose in cost we make up for in convenience.
There are many posts here from people who have sourced their own parts that are “almost” the same but “not quite”, and many posts from people who say “I’d buy from the store if I was doing it again”.
We’ve observed multiple people get YZ plates fabricated and end up with wrong hole sizes due to communication regarding the spec. There’s the licensing issue too.
Vaguely recall Ryan was exploring options, that doesn’t break his license, potentially partnering with Send Cut Send, or a similar company so that V1E Community Makers and Builders have more material options. While doing so in a way that enables easy to order, correctly spec’d parts at a price that’s equally fair to Customers, Ryan and the Fabricator.
Ideally Customer would be able to order custom/exotic parts from V1E Shop, and a backend order goes to SendCutSend (or whoever Fabs), parts are shipped directly from Fabricator to Customer. This could be a way for Ryan to both branch-out and scale too? However I have no idea if plate milling is a bottleneck on his side, and/or something he’s looking to delegate/change.
This would be amazing so until then I will either stick with my plastic YZ mill my own aluminum or wait until that potentially happens!
I don’t think competition is the issue. I think a perfect analogy was given in the other thread:
If the license says no reproduction, then it’s not supposed to be re-made. My guess is that a reputable business would likely refuse it if they knew it was licensed in a way that said they shouldn’t make it.
Similar to how an online service that makes movie backups for you can not and would not make a copy of a studio released movie, as the studio forbids it.
So unless Ryan gives an OK for an exception to the license, I would think it’s not OK.
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