MakerSlide

I just spoke with the fabricator. MakerSlide is going to be cut next week. Their saw operator was off sick, and they didn’t want to have a less experienced person cut the MakerSlide, because it’s so easy to damage. That’s reasonable, but communication could have been better.

eShapeoko

I will send another batch of invitation emails today or tomorrow. Orders will have a lead time of about three weeks. The current batch is almost exhausted: some orders will be fulfilled from the current batch, some from the next batch. Here’s what we still need for the next batch:

• MakerSlide: on order, see above, although there’s still some stock for some eShapeoko sizes;
• Some laser-cut parts, most critically the mid-span supports. Ordered today, normal turnaround about a week (unless they’re very busy);
• Misumi profiles for the frame, and M3 insertion nuts: ordered today, normal turnaround 5-8 days;
• Most standard fasteners and some nylon spacers: ordered today, normally delivered next day. (Got shipping notifications for both while writing this post. The nylon spacers took a grand total of 16 minutes from payment to tracking number. Now that’s efficient! It helps, though, that all they have to do is stuff them in a shipping bag — there’s nothing fragile to protect. Still, very impressive for a small company.)
• Packing the baggies of small parts: we’re already working on this, and expect to finish before the stock of already packed parts runs out.

We’re good on all parts with long lead times, such as belt pulleys, V-wheels, leadscrews, bearings and so on.

NEMA 23 Motors

The good news is that they’re on their way. The bad news is that the ship is scheduled to arrive on 4 March, not mid-February as I was led to believe, and it’ll probably take another week for the local shipping company to unpack the container, load our motors on a truck, and deliver them to us.

I’m emailing the people who bought backordered NEMA 23 motors with the unpleasant news tonight.

MegaRail 80 and MegaRail Z

I’m promised a quote tomorrow! I already have quotes for the dies, and I’ve settled on designs for both.

Sparrow L-100

More on that soon.