Hi John,
I always saw your primary efforts as more of a marketing exersize,
rather than design, sorta like Ron Popiel of Ronco fame or George
Foreman. There is a niche market for CNC info and machines and money
to be made. Many people sell plans, just check ebay. And may people
promise to sell plans / kits.
If you have sold $100K worth of plans (thousands sold), I guess it
was worth the effort to draw them up. For some, the time and effort
is justified just to be published in print or on the web.
Six years is a damn good run for a product, competiton does comes in.
To stay competitve and keep the bucks coming in, changes in design or
marketing must be made. New and Improved!
There are many designs using basic standard components. If a design
is good or bad, is buildible or not, depends on the individual's
choices. Remeber P T Barnum's comment.
Personally, I made my choice, I didn't order your plans when I first
saw them, and no I am not building from the American Lutherie plans.
I think the aluminum window channel is too hard to obtain, expensive
and is obsolete now that he 8020 extrusions are availible. Gee
there's an idea! (Sorry Chris)
I'm waitng to see what Dave M offers and then will decide.
Myc
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "crankorgan" <john@...> wrote:
>
> At one point almost 20% of the people who bought my plans
finished
> them. The overall CNC thing is less then 1%. Lots of people bail
after
> a week. That's why I strived to keep things simple. The best design
> would require a machine shop and lots of skill. I set certain
> paramerters and then went for it.
>
> The big money in CNC is motors and controllers. People get the
motors
> to spin and then they bail. MOTORSPINNERS.
>
> Thousands signup for Yahoo groups. Some lurk while others post. I
was
> told by a blackbelt and aircraft pilot instructor that the 1% is a
> typical figure. Millions buy threadmills but only a few use them.
>
> Lets look at this group. How many people join and how many
> actually make a circuit board?
>
>
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "derekhawkins" <eldata@>
wrote:
> >
> > >There won't be any new designs (old ones according to you)
coming
> > >from me in the future.
> >
> > I'm not knocking your designs since you obviously leveraged the
> > economy of scale concept whereby items produced in considerable
bulk,
> > intended for "fast" markets, are successfully utilized in another
> > much "slower" market with commensurate savings. This concept is
often
> > at the heart of DIY and we see the same thing here quite often.
No
> > doubt, it, along with the savings are major attractions with
> > aesthetics being of little concern especially for beginners.
Seasoned
> > CNCers would probably be more concerned with aesthetics.
> >
> > My concern is to do with the whole idea of selling plans of this
> > nature on the internet. I also have a similar concern with mail-
in
> > rebates. While both are welcomed practices there is a veiled ruse
> > associated with both IMO. Most companies who offer MIRs are aware
of
> > the statistics in that only about 20% of people who qualify for
MIRs
> > go on to claim them. In other words there's a dangling carrot
that's
> > soon forgotten after the purchase. Do you have any idea as to the
> > percentage of plans sold that are actually used to make a
finished
> > working machine?
> >
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "crankorgan" <john@> wrote:
> > >
> >
>