A few months back I was approached in the German woodworker forum whether I could build a complete LR. I told him I would need to ask Ryan and get his approval as well as figure out some kind of a licensing deal. We agreed on a test run first, and except for one broken part (the Z nut holder), everything went pretty smoothly.
The LR4 was shipped to Italy completely including the Y rail with an adapter (you can see it in the last picture, it’s barely discernible). The build size is 2500x1250 because that’s what EU sheets are sized. This was still a private sale, I since registered a business.
Now that the test run is complete, I can offer the service in Europe as well. So if anyone is interested in a complete LR in Europe, shoot me a message.
Disclaimer:
It’s going to be more expensive than the ones Jonathan sells, because I have to factor in shipping and taxes for the board, aluminium plates etc.
Because of European warranty laws, I can sell complete LRs to businesses only (and I have to check whether that business actually exists). Partly assembled LRs (for instance the core/side plates completely constructed, including all the other printed parts and hardware, excluding the Jackpot) can be sold to private citizens as well and are still sold as a DIY kit. But we can hash out the details in a mail or two I guess.
I work as a full-time teacher and am mainly doing this for fun, so don’t expect a delivery immediately after having told me you’d like one. They are made to order and it’s taking me a few weeks. So if you are in a rush, I can’t really help you.
I skimmed through it and the takeaway for me is that I don‘t sell the LowRider but the parts and then I take an assembly fee, so it‘s a Dienstleistung. Maybe that works.
Well, the problem is you need to establish warning diretly in your onlineshop. you also have to clearly state who is the manufacturer of the product, if the manufacturer is not EU resident, you need to state the responsible person in Europe.
you have to do this for EVERY brand you are selling.
you also have to fulfil " verpackungsverordnung" for every single european country, but Germany would be important to start with.
if you are selling electronics, you need to have a WEEE certification for every Brand you are sellling.
the major pita is the massive work to do if selling via an onlineshop…
you also need to mark all products or packages with your adress, the electronic products need stickers with your weee registration number etc. (weee registration is not needed, if the producer of the product (NEMA) pays the fees for the brandname themyself in Europe…
Currently only one company pays correct fees for the product in Germany:
Armin, thanks a lot. Am I getting around it if I only take an assembly fee and the customer tells me to buy the stuff in his name? So I am not technically selling them electronics but the assembly?
Well,
if your customer provides the electronics and you just assemble them, this would be ok…
I do not know the quantities, but certification can be done, but there has to be a certain volume and-or margin…
but as it is too much off topic, we can speak via phone if you wish…
Regarding WEEE registration…that would be for the brand "ryans electronics, name shown on the electronics, maybe nema…i think it is about 6 - 800 Euros to start with, and than a annual fee (for two brands)…2-300 Euros, there are many companies on the market who offer this service…
Thanks, I might get back to your offer! At the moment there is so much grading papers and stuff. And it is actually quite interesting and not too far off-topic, since I showed this LR to show that I am able to build them and it is interesting for Ryan as well if he ever wished to have a distributor in the EU.
I just noticed that Vevor and other companies have “only seller (no return)” as the sender on the packages because they use warehouses or other companies to deliver their stuff (and do only that). Those firms basically operate only from China, and their return policy is also super shady, their European seat is a post box in Ireland that obviously does not accept returns as well. So they stock their goods somewhere that is not officially their business and then do not accept returns (though they should).
I am now going to go with the version where the customer tells me to buy the steppers for them so that I do not legally sell those to them, I am just selling the other parts and my work.
well…
vevor is illegaly selling stuff, the paypal account related to a wedding company in Frankfurt…
like aliexpress, temu and all the others, they are all more or less illegally doing business, of course this is super shady…the funny thing is: all those chinese sellers are basically not touchable…
But my shop or yours are easily available for the authorities…and other lawers and “Abmahnvereine”…
your system may work, but it is hard to do via an onlineshop because if you show motors or whatever or tell your customers you will deliver them, bang…if you just do it undercover…i do not know…
well, establishing a distributorship is not that wild, it is just expensive…and there are many costs to be considered…thats it…
i am happy to jump in and help with the sales …
See, there’s the problem. It’s just a hobby and I can’t do all that for maybe two LowRiders. So it has to work like this.
Yeah, I bought from them the first time and was really puzzled a wedding shop was taking my money… I think I’ll rather not do that again. Hopefully the product is okay.
Elecrow did the same thing, shipping through a third party with no return, not seller.
A colleague of mine who is one of the ESA’s suppliers told me last week at a technical interchange meeting about the items they are selling my next mission…
“In the US you innovate. In China they imitate. In the EU we regulate.”
I know it’s a joke, but let me rephrase it:
“In the US nobody cares about the climate and the consumer, in China nobody cares about the climate and the consumer, the EU tries to implement rules that protect the climate and the consumer.”
Yes, those rules really annoy me and they are really stupid for small businesses, but they do have the goal, in the case discussed above, to mitigate the negative impact of electronic waste. I’d like to leave an inhabitable world to my children and it’s frustrating that two of the biggest polluters don’t give a damn on the political level.
I’m regularly disgusted by the lack of concern shown by the consumer society in which I reside.
That doesn’t stop me (or frankly most of your peers in the EU) from buying things from China- and the tarrifs don’t do nearly as much for the environment as they do for the beauracracy.
No idea how to fix it, frankly- but making it so you can’t sell a DIY CNC machine to a fellow maker in the EU isn’t going to change any of this in the least.
Well, the biggest problem is, that all those aliexpress sellers get sponsored shipping by DHL , as they are still counting as third world…they also do not need to cope with eu laws, or at least, it is easy for them to fulfil, as nobody never is able to control and get the sellers fined.
on the other side, my small company is online and easily available for all of the regulators.
Customers on our side do not really care about the illegal sales from china, directly to customers…they benefit, so whatever…
Amazon on the other side raises expectations of what onlineshops should compensate or take back after months…
At the end, if massivly hurts innovation…because in the early days, i did alot of nice stuff, invented variable pitch props for rc model planes, esc and brushless motors but on the current base, i hold back some new stuff, as it is just to expensive “to give it a shot” and fail…
of course you can sell stuff, but it is extremly expensive to cope with regulations…
@ philip…where did you buy your 32 mm tubes
I always buy them at jabimetal… No German supplier has the same quality for that price. I asked a few local suppliers, they didn‘t even get back to me…
all the changes made divide into two groupts:
1- enviroment
2-customer protection
both mixed up to a ridicolous concept…
I started my first online shop with rc-models…mainly indoor rc planes which we developed produced etc…the world was fine, if customers crashed their planes at the weekend, they ordered new servos, motors or whatever broke…
than the first approach of customer protection came into place and since than, we have never had sales followed by a crash…never…even if we saw the crash ourselves because we attended the meeting, people claimed warranty, which we basically had to fulfil the first 6 month of use…
It’s just a hobby and I can’t do all that for maybe two LowRiders. So it has to work like this.