Don’t forget each year people’s concerns have evolved.
At first I made a video saying “look at me mill aluminum” The most frequently asked question was how big of a printer can I make with it.
Next up was “but can I make a PCB with it?” somehow milling aluminum didn’t answer that for some people.
Then other machines started to come out and it was “there’s has a larger work area” “GRBL” “plastic is only for toys”. The Great expansion…
Then lasers.
Surfacing live edge slabs.
Now inlays are the in thing.
Software is becoming more of a topic because there used to only really be two solid options.
I think the galleries are the best at showcasing what the machines can do, and they are updated several times a day. If you want more info about a project, you click on the picture. Sometimes that even links to a video. There is no way I can keep up with making videos myself but maybe I can work on highlight reals from other projects every quarter, or something. With permission
I assume that for DIY projects yhat what I want to do may be similar to what other people do, but maybe not identical. I did spend some time looking through the gallery before I built my Primo. I knew that I was building larger than revommended, (but wanted to be sure that I could re-do my litchen cabinets, which demanded a certain size.)
Hard to look with fresh eyes, because having aleady built it, I already know what’s needed, but… yeah. Particularly for those of us where free shipping isn’t an option (outside of the continental 48 states) we want to be sure to get it all in one order. My first order I thought was complete, but I still ended up with second order for stuff
Hey Ryan,
I have really enjoyed my Burly MPCNC but with age an repairs I need to do some upgrades. I don’t see this equating to sales for you though.
I think having an entry level machine that is as low cost as possible appeals to the hard core maker crowd. (That begs the question… How many hard core makers are there?) A while back, I needed to pickup some small capscrew from hobby town for my endstop switches, and the owner got real curious about I was up to.
We got to kibitzing and he made some interesting comments that surprised me.
He was talking about how back in the day people used to make their own models from scratch and how now Arf is taking over. He does alot of business fixing and modding RC cars for people. They don’t seem to have the skillsets to do it themselves…
How does this apply to you? I’m not sure.(other than people who provide turnkey solutions probably have really good margins). One thought I was having was that you keep doing what you’re doing and offer some difficult to fab upgrades. Perhaps cast aluminum carriage that could have adapters for 606 bearings or recirculating linear balls.
(I think that is something like that could snag some extra moths out of my wallet)
I think the basic MPCNC design is pretty cool and I don’t see anything like that on the market. If would be nice to have a option to move things up notch in rigidity and accuracy. (I personally think thats cool but I don’t know if that’s a good business path)
Back in the day, when I bought the components from you I was wanting to support the maker and your prices where( and still are) reasonable.
One thing I’ve been noodling is if you inverted the truck, you might be able to do a truss on one axis to extend the width(total vaporware, I haven’t thought this through yet). I don’t have the real estate to do a lowrider but with would be nice to have a mpcnc that could do 2 X 4 feed comfortably that I could feed 4X8 ply through in sections.
When you came to Mrrf did you see a bump in sales?
Just some other random thoughts, marketing a low cost tool changer or perhaps a rotary attachment?
One other thought, is marketing to Stem… Lots of people have printers know, marketing to scouts for merit badges or high schools as projects to put together could be a way to get growth.
Or what about a path… Build the MPCNC which could be used to make a low cost robot that runs Ross. What I think is cool about your MPCNC is you can provide components to match a budget… That is a huge strength that others can’t provide.
(Sorry about the ramble… I’m on staycation this week and this what happens got time get when I’m rested and actually have time to think about fun stuff and ponder the nature of the universe)
I think you’re a good guy, and I want to see you succeed and grow your business.
Wishing you success on whatever path you choose.
I have been looking through all the pages and I think the old gallery might have had a key to this problem. I used to sort the projects in the galleries by more than machine. Videos – V1 Engineering Inc I have things like plasma cutting, detailed cuts, wood, plastic, metal, needle, woodburner. That probably answered a lot of questions people had. I am just really not sure how easy that would be to do these days. These seems like a solid solution though??
You could add a second tag. Like gallery-mpcnc-inlay. It would take some time to retag everything.
It also seems like we would need some kind of table of contents, with each section labeled, and a preview of images (ideally automatically generated, but manual if we have to).
It will show up in the tags section, but I think the list would have to live on it’s own page with links to each section. That seems to diminish its value though. Or maybe as the instructions pages get built out just link them there, eg, Laser page link to the laser galleries? The bummer about all of this is we lose out on the facebook projects since they are not listed here.
It is an Army Engineer icon. I am an Army trained Engineer, not a degreed one. I do both combat expeditionary missions and construction. I have deployed as a platoon leader to Afghanistan conducting route clearance missions - also known in doctrine as route recon. Then I was executive Officer (2nd in charge) of a horizontal construction unit - I was lead maintenance officer for the company as the XO. I learn loads about how hydraulics work. Then Company Command of our Forward Support Company within the Engineer Battalion. I performed logistics support to our three engineer companies: Combat Engineer, Horizontal and Vertical companies.
I am serving in the National Guard, originally out of Oregon but now full time service (as opposed to one weekend a month, etc.) in the Washington DC area as a Construction manager who helps clear Federal red tape for States to receive their military construction funding. I review plans and support the awarding of construction contracts to general contractors to build facilities for the National Guard.
In my spare time - haha - I was a residential general contractor, managing new home builds, then into finish carpentry, flipping homes, then into home inspections. I picked up my first LR2 in late 2019 early 2020 while on my first active duty guard assignment in Colorado.
As to the Engineer flag - google Army Engineer Guidon or Army Engineer Flag - it will be a red field with a white or gold castle in the center. Company, Battalion and Brigade is usually a white castle. Any Engineer General Officer (GO) will have one with a gold castle in it. Though the heraldry office has done it’s best to discontinue GOs from standing their internal army branch (infantry, armor, artillery, engineer) flags around. Too much hubris for the common soldier I guess.
Hope that helps -
and sorry for the answer to the sidebar there Ryan!
Is it possible to get the 3d printed parts injection moulded if you went this direction?
I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about 3d printing, and would definitely pay for injection moulded parts vs 3d printed parts. That could be just me though.
The biggest improvement for me with the LR3 vs the LR1+2 was purchasing the electronics/belts/steppers/pulleys from V1 instead of sourcing them myself. I do think using your suggested/stocked parts has lead to my LR3 performing at it’s peak, whereas with the previous versions I skimped on the electronics and possibly even cut corners with the printing which lead to disappointment and things not working correctly.
I don’t think I’d purchase 3d printed parts, but would definitely buy the idea of injection moulded, mostly because it’s not something I can do myself
That’s a good point. I was surprised with how cheaply you can have machined in China.
I’m sure a deluxe version would sell. (I’d be tempted to buy it!)
The 3d printed aspect does appeal to some, and it certainly is a lower entry point. A close machinist friend of mine was skeptical about how well the LR3 would perform because of the 3d printed parts and bearings.
I can happily tell you now that he is quite impressed!
I had 100 of these made at the beginning of the year, it’s a two part case, 1mm wall thickness, 55*80mm(from the top of my head…) They cost about $8USD each, but I did order the bare minimum, so I’m assuming that price would drop with a greater quantity
Ryan, while you are looking to ‘progress the business’ I wonder if you are aware of a competitor’s approach to harnessing their followers. The wiki seems well thought out and accessible.
That wiki and our docs are the same framework, just a different theme (I am fairly certain). Is there something specific about that style that sits better with you?
That does have a more broken out menu (and more complete).
That is using wiki.js, not mkdocs. At least as far as I can tell.
There are a couple of basic formatting text options. Mkdocs uses markdown. We have a couple of extensions to make it work a little better for the docs. But you could probably convert the source md files into anything that accepted markdown with limited work.
reStrusturedTest (rst) is another common one. Wiki format is another. There are a lot of them. There are probably tools available to convert between them for more than 90%. But there will be some final editing tweaks, I’m sure. I’m pretty sure wiki.js uses the wiki format. Github uses md for most stuff.
There are a lot of documentation frameworks (wiki.js, readthedocs, mkdocs, etc). They each have extensions and themes and ways of doing things.
Converting to one of these other formats is easier than the original conversion we did from a web site to markdown. So if you wanted to experiment with one of these other choices, it would be easier now than when we did it originally. But we would ideally have a feature, or a few, that we want to achieve by switching before going through that. The “prototype” is probably pretty easy, just get a couple of pages working locally. If we/you wanted to push it all the way to the finish, it is just a few hours to get that all set up in github to do the autorelease and publish thing we have going so far. You could probably make a second copy and just swap the cname when you were confident it was working.
Stuff like the calculators and the MarlinBuilder releases are javascript, which can be added to markdown. I’m not sure if it can be added to any of the other formats. So that is another hurdle.
Well the structure is similar enough and with a change of theme I am sure we could get it very close without needing to change anything. User added content is available on both so I see no reason to change framework, but I am open for a theme/format change if there was a reason to.
Personally like the existing markdown framework that enables folks to contribute documentation and code/script edits via GitHub orchestrated pull requests.
Personally don’t like the chasm/gap between doc steps and the valuable guidance locked up in this forum’s content. Will share specific ideas to bridge the gap over on the website thread.
One thing a newbie here will add. If you did a really slick manual i think the traction would be greater. I have built lots of 3d printers so could follow along with the website. But for a superb example
(Voron-Trident/Assembly_Manual_Trident.pdf at main · VoronDesign/Voron-Trident · GitHub) If you did something like this even newbies and first time DIYers could use as well as experienced builders.
I realize probably a big investment but with 2 main products seems doable.
While bone stock machines should be a primary focus - don’t shy away from modded rigs - just make it clear what category they’re in for easy comparison.
Balling on a Budget: Cheap Entertainment - dare the audience to find a more capable easier machine for less money. Show off how much can be accomplished on a small budget with a user friendly design.
Moderate Machine: show what same user friendly design can do with a few more dollars on materials and components. (Stainless tubes, CF printed parts, more professional wiring harness - without departing from the original design)
Custom Build - show off how far advanced users have been able to push the design. Don’t leave out the tinkerers and creative types. Aside from being fun for those of us with the skills - it can give entry level folks something to aspire to and can help inform later improvements or more advanced kits should you decide to offer them.
That’s an interesting way to segment it. That might help explain things here in the 10s-30s pitch.
That can also help focus efforts.
How can Ryan make the kit better for the minimalist? Lower cost? Better instructions? Fewer components? FAQs?
What features are better for the enthusiast with a bigger budget? Fancier interfaces? More rigid materials? Feature rich accessories? Pre assembled subsystems (pre building the core or the trucks or something)? Specific tutorials for software or electronics that aren’t part of the basic kit (attach a pi, vcarve, linuxcnc?)? Laser features?
What features are better for the enthusiast with time and big budgets? Standard mechanical interfaces (like the tool mounts, but for motors, belts, wire mgmt, dust collection)? Detailed advanced tutorials? Supportive community? Open sourced files? More “press” on the custom builds? More coffee to Jamie?
That is about 10mins of me thinking about it. I am sure we could refine this idea more. I would love to have some good names (like Balling on a Budget). Marking features or builds with different tags (actual forum tags and just calling them that in the posts) would make it clearer what is expected from the basic kit, and what requires extra time or money.
