Homebrew PCBs

Stefan,
       I put 100K of my own saving into this hobby including the 11K I
now have on my credit card. For every dollar I put in I got back 20
cents. Two plansets are doing all the work. The internet is wild west
city. I found a guy a few months ago selling a PDF of my older 7th
Sojour design. I was alerted by someone who expected me to supply
support. There are some really bad plans out there. Some are reprints
from old magazines.

                                            John



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan"
<stefan_trethan@...> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 17:29:48 +0100, 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?
> 
> 
> Hey, it's not your fault if they bail!
> You only sold the plans, not the machine, you can't force them.
> Even if they only dreamed about the machine for a while, they probably  
> still got a good deal for that ;-)
> 
> We all know your plans are perfectly sound and designed by yourself
and  
> one example of "good" plans for sale on the web.
> 
> But there are many, many black sheep selling bad plans that are either  
> totally useless, incomplete, or even not their own work, sometimes
just  
> copies from free plans. For this reason i would generally never buy
plans.  
> I guess many people are wary of buying plans because of that.
> 
> So just to make that perfectly clear, i have no problem with your
business  
> or the quality of your machines or you personally, it's all great.
But i  
> found it quite strange that you would claim ownership of such basic
ideas  
> to the extent that you would be upset about someone building something  
> similar. I can see how you wouldn't like his free plans because it  
> potentially takes business away from you, but just because you don't
like  
> it doesn't make it immoral. Badmouthing the competition however is  
> generally considered "bad form".
> 
> ST
>