We ran out of eShapeOko kits again!  I began ordering parts for more of them last week.  I’ll make an effort to go big this time, so that we may have them actually in stock, ready to go the day they’re ordered, hopefully by the end of March.

If you placed your order before the 10th of January, it’s part of Batch Three, and we’re packing those now and they’ll go as soon as they’re ready.

If you placed your order before today (the 30th of January), it’s part of Batch Four, and we aim to ship it by early March.

I’ll turn ordering back on tomorrow or the day after (I’ve still got the VAT return to submit, and I’m busy at work too).  Orders placed from then on will ship later in March.

The laser-cut parts arrived last week.  The laser-cut and machined spindle mounts (EM-LTM) have just arrived.  I’ve checked them: they’re good.  We have MakerSlide on hand for about a third of this batch, and Harry Raley has the rest.  He’s going to ship it to us soon, I’ll cut it, and in the boxes it goes!  Everything else is here, and we’ve been working to count and pack the little bits while waiting for the spindle mounts and rail.

I need to get more PCBs for the buildlog.net shield from Reactive Substance!

All but one of the second batch of eShapeOko kits have been picked up by the couriers.  I’ll email tracking numbers tonight.  The remaining kit will be picked up tomorrow.  It is a huge relief, as they were many weeks late.

The third batch is nearly sold out, but I’m not sure exactly how sold out it is because my inventory tracking has been sub-par, to say the least.  I reduced the number of kits available in the store (so now they show out of stock) until I can count all the parts and make sure I don’t have any more surprises.  Earlier this week, I was shocked to realize that I did not have enough end plates and motor mount plates to put together the last kit of the second batch.  I immediately knew what went wrong, but it should not have happened in the first place, had I had a better system.  The buyer graciously accepted my apology.

There will be a fourth batch of eShapeOko kits, but the delivery date for that is not certain (likely February).  I never planned to sell them with a month or more of lead time — the idea was to have them in stock — but you guys keep buying them faster than I can put them together.  (And, in hindsight, I’ve been too cautious about ordering large quantities of parts.)

Thank you for making 2012 a better year for the eShapeOko than I hoped for, and Happy New Year!