Hey everyone, we have another exciting month ahead for November. I am currently on vacation, so you might not see me for the typical video update, but here’s the blog that covers everything. This post might be a bit shorter as well, but rest assured there is a lot going on. A lot of news is a continuation of prior months, so make sure to check out the previous updates to learn more.
Updated Shop Layout
We have now fully removed the floor from our main production space, opening up area to put in new racks and getting prepared to scale up production of AltMills. While our overall floorspace didn’t change, being able to use the taller racking and getting our forklift to other parts of the office will allow us to build more vertically.
A lot of stations use a system of having the assembly on the ground floor, and then materials above, which allows us to store a lot of materials for quick access. The racking is also fairly modular, allowing us to build different configurations.
Shipping Issues
We are still seeing a large volume of shipments coming back from the border, largely due to issues with customs handling. Unfortunately this means that returned orders need to be repacked and reshipped, especially if we see shipping damage.
We are continuing to work on several different things, like updating our customs documents and forms, submitting forms proactively, and working with UPS to understand where errors are happening. However, we ask that at this time – and thank you in advance – that customers are patient if shipments take a few extra days to arrive.
AltMill 4×8
The AltMill 4×8 is now available for pre-order! You can now order it on the product page. If you want to learn more about the product itself and what it stands for, make sure to read our article, Everything You Need to Know About the AltMill 4×8
In other news, we have now acquired beta testers and have started working with them for testing machines as we go into production based on our first initial sales numbers in the pre-order. Certain parts, especially parts like motors, fasteners and electronic components (which will be shared between other AltMill size variants) have been ordered earlier as part of a larger batch of components.
Most of the work with the 4×8 this past month was mostly making final design tweaks and decisions, plus lots of testing and filming in house to get marketing materials ready. This also happens to be a good time to make some new furniture around the office!
ATC
The launch of the ATC comes this month, with some final considerations and tweaks being done in ATC development over the past 30 days. We’ve decided to move our launch date to mid-November, rather than on Oct 29th (same day as the AltMill 4×8) as we are doing final testing and refinement design work before a full launch. We need to have our bill of materials and kitting configuration decided on, as this will determine the pricing and packages we can offer for customers.
LongMill
Last month we launched a price decrease on LongMill kits across the board. We haven’t seen a big difference in sales volume, although it is present, which seems to suggest that pricing isn’t playing as big of an impact on the demand as it is currently. Perhaps this means the LongMill is due for a revision, or perhaps it means that there is less demand in this market segment in general?
Most of our efforts are in the LongMill redesign, and production isn’t quite ready yet as we wrap up development with our two larger projects, the AltMill 4×8 and ATC, but we’re currently doing some preliminary testing with the close loop steppers designed for LongMill. As we mentioned in a previous post, we are currently in consideration and progressing with offering the electronics (SLB-EXT and close loop stepper motors) in a way to allow for conversions to close loop stepper for the LongMill and other CNC machines.
While this is still a work in progress, we now have the SLB-EXT available for sale on our store. While not officially tested and supported, customers can order them on our store.
AutoSpin T1 Router
We’re excited to announce that the AutoSpin, which had been in rocky territory for the last few months with certification and supplier issues, has seen a lot of progress. I didn’t want to share too much, just in case things didn’t work out. However, we’ve hit one of the main milestones of completing certification, which means we can move towards production now, and we’ve started doing testing with our pre-production units, and if that all goes well, we will move onto production. This could mean that we’ll have AutoSpin T1 routers ready to ship in a little over 2 months.
While we are optimistic we are approaching the end of the process of launching the AutoSpin, due to the complexity of the project, we may still run into issues, and so we will not have pricing or a release date provided until we are confident that we’re able to deliver a product that is up to our quality standards, and on a firm timeline.