Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Yea I know some (most?) would like this thread to just die and GO
AWAY but I'm going to throw in my 2 cents.

(note: Prepare for a LONG editorial rant )

As far as the way I see the DIY entry level CNC business
and the concept of doing things ourselves going we have gotten to the
point that we can generally AFFORD to have someone else do it for us,
so we do that, or BUY something off the shelf that comes rather close
to what we want. Also considering the number of hours people are
working, spending time with the kids at T Ball, Little League,
Soccer, etc. getting second or third degrees (not to mention time on
the Internet) people don't have the time to learn such things as CNC
related topics.

If you have a product that is waning in popularity for whatever
reason, why not step back and look at things on a broader scale.

You need to DIVERSIFY your product offering.

So many years ago large (enormous) cars ruled the road. Then in 1973,
The Oil Crisis hit and the smaller imports started poring into the
U.S. The quality of those cars for the most part was garbage, but the
people bought them for the fuel economy. The American auto
manufactures were loosing ground fast, so they started building small
cars. After a number of years, people adjusted to the fact that they
would never again see gasoline at $0.53 a gallon (that's what I
remember paying). People got tired of the cramped econo-boxes they
were driving and started buying trucks. These days, car sales have
slumped and `truck' ( PickUps, SUVs, Sport-Utes, MiniVans) sales have
gone up considerably. Twenty or thirty years ago, who would have
thought that General Motors would market a PickUp Truck under the
Cadillac brand? Would you have guessed Mercedes Benz and B.M.W. would
be selling Sport Utility Vehicles?
Thirty years ago the basic concept of these vehicles existed, at that
time they were commonly known as `Work Truck' or `Crew Truck" and
were generally relegated to blue color work crews or farms. The IDEA
or Concept is nothing new! Now these things are EVERYWHERE and some
could run over $100 K (original Hummer)

The point is the Automakers constantly DIVERSIFY their product
offerings.

Instead of complaining that your market share has diminished, pull
the spindle head off and replace it with some sort of material
depositing head. Use a low temperature thermal plastic (Friendly
Plastic from American Art and Clay Co.)in a small heated chamber,
add a small nozzle and a stepper driven plunger.
Another option is to use a two part casting resin in a dual tube
reservoir with a static mixing tube for a nozzle (Alumilite comes to
mind but it sets up awful fast).
Even CA glue in a syringe and baking soda for a catalyst has been
known to be used.

NOW go out and market your NEWLY REDESIGNED product to mechanical
engineering colleges, third world developing countries and others as
a
3D / STL Printer.

Is this concept new or original? . . .
NO

Do I get to lay claim to you stealing my IDEA?
Not Just NO, But H∗%% NO!