JD me and you think alike. Thank you for that, it was getting a little bleak for me.
At this point it has been all said, we all know it is difficult to please everyone.
Here is my summary, maybe we can move this in a slightly different focused direction.
Kits - I am 100% behind a more complete kit, but not for a complete kit. The reason these machines can be so inexpensive is large heavy parts do not need to be shipped. Adding routers with specific cords for each country and warrantying them is not possible at this scale (garage). I can make recommendations more clear. Adding a giant piece of wood for the base, custom sized. large rolls of cable chain are not possible but small bundles of wire loom are. These only work because I fit them in a small box. As soon as I have to tack on huge shipping costs it falls apart faster.
On the same note Rails need to be custom cut for each person, packaged weighed and a custom rate applied. Doing that at checkout is not feasible at this scale. Finding a partner company to offer this service is a possibility but only in the US. Can’t do this for every country in the world. So I think having a machine that runs on conduit sized for all three conduits worldwide is the best solution.
My opinion on this is if you can get it at your local hardware store cheaply (nuts and bolts in the chain stores are stupid expensive) there is absolutely no way I should even consider selling and shipping it.
I absolutely need to pack in all the connectors and switches needed for each board, when you buy a board. I do need a wire solution. Anything else, I considered getting wire labels to throw in. Everyone is not like me with scrap box lying around to easily make a 2" wire jumper out of.
If I had an actual storefront, brick and mortar, I would 100% carry these things.
Site - needs a revamp it is in the works. Turns out a refresh is pretty easy but taking all new pictures and videos, is the hard part. This will include a focus on the video page. Lets do any site suggestions in that thread.
Software / firmware - Boards are still having supply chain issues. We will be getting a new standard board at some point soon. I have been working on this for months. The rambos take a very long time to get and the SKR lineup is about to change. Nothing is stable do to microchip shortages. This is the issue for getting a more complete bundle. I can not get the part that fit a board if I am not sure what board we will get.
For the end user beside special laser cases, Marlin and GRBL are functionally Identical. The Reason we use Marlin is the option for LCD’s. Now that we might be going headless GRBL is an option but you will notice nearly every cnc company makes their own GRBL boards, not cost-effective for us.
CAM - Nothing is perfect. Esltcam is still currently the best option by far and the easiest to support. Kiri:Moto looks like it could be a very beginner-friendly option as it is all kinda click and go and might be a option we spend more time with. I will look into it more. Fusion has crippled free CAM, and the other paid options are very expensive and sort of single use focused. If you just makes signs something in the vcarve suit might be worth your money. The other fee cam programs are not intuitive and you really need to know what is SUPPOSED to be happening to use it. (Think photoshop, draw, paint, gimp, one size will never fit all.)
Instructions - They need help and it has always been a chore for me. I am not sure how to fix this other than try to pay to have someone help me. It is a much larger job than you could imagine (every step takes multiple pictures. If I make an assembly video what happens when I edit a part (LR3 YZ plate is an example of this). If there was ever a place to hire someone, this would be it, but video people are very expensive. I asked a neighbor about his video rates and he kinda laughed and didn’t answer. So best case is pay someone to help with the written instructions, and make them easily printable. I am not going to provide printed instructions, they would be expensive and take up a lot of room in the already full boxes.
The part that is most interesting to me is adding the “so you are new to cnc” and some featured projects. Doing a few build nights so I can understand beginners perspective and make sure all the needed info is there.
Exposure - That leaves “promoting”. I am pretty against giving machines away. That just makes them more expensive for users that do want to buy one. That and the few I have given away have not resulted in anything positive. I did offer one for free to a, at the time, a small youtuber. I did not ask for a video or any on air time just some feedback of the build process and the machine’s capabilities. I liked the way that person approached projects. I don’t remember the exact details but I believe I was also asked for monetary compensation. I would much rather spend the time and resources on actual users. And appropriately enough these days most Honest review youtubers buy their own things so their kit does not get cherry picked.
So leaderboards for speed tests with hopefully a small prize. That will be the most fun for me.
Try to feature some outstanding projects on the homepage and social media. This could give you exposure if you are running business of any sort. Or just get some dork/cool points with your partner or friends.
I am going to make some small clips of new speed tests and see if I can learn to speed up the video process in any way.
Thank you all for your opinions.
I am very happy with the caliber of people this project attracts and in no way want that to suffer just to bring in more people. I feel if we do this right our collective talents will shine through the flashy websites and high price tags to prove we are a great option. The amount of people around here that get published or are contributing to lots of other projects is just nuts. We do have something special here, I love being a part of it, I just don’t usually feel like I should be the captain of this ship.
If this is anything like the trajectory of 3D printers, I am in for a wild ride. When the thousands of different printers started to spring up I assumed most would die out, and we would just get a couple major brands. That has not happened so far. lots of Printer companies have come and gone, but two new ones replace each one that disappears. Looks like CNC has started this big bang phase now.