Store updates, 2014-11-22
Maker Faire Tokyo
Come down and see the Makelangelo this weekend at the 2014 Tokyo Maker Faire! Yuichiro san will be there to answer all your questions and show you some great robot action. Arigato gozimasu.
Black Friday
Black friday, Cyber monday, call it what you will. From November 28 to December 5 (inclusive) I’m going to offer free shipping on all orders in Canada, continental United States, and Alaska. Remember that December 5 date! It is the cutoff date for all orders expecting to arrive before December 25. It’s a conservative estimate so everyone is happy.
Production updates
I just ordered 500 motors, which is more than I’ve ever ordered before. Scale, scale, scale!
I’m streamlining processes here, too. Thursdays are going to be manufacturing days – packing kits in advance so that they are ready when orders come in. Until now I made kits on demand, which sometimes threw the rest of my plans for the day into a scheduling mess. With a day dedicated to making kits I can relax the rest of the week, because filling an order will take all of 5 minutes and still be in the mail in time for the afternoon pickup.
To celebrate I’ve also optimized all my laser cutting files on our most popular kits. Where I used to make one of each part at a time, I now make 9-20 of one part from a sheet, with almost no waste material left over. They get stacked in the morning and put in kits in the afternoon. I’m really looking forward to finally finishing my robot arms and having them move wood in and out of the laser cutter for me.
Research & Development
Fridays are totally dedicated to that 20% time of improving kits and writing code. This past friday I finally patched a long time bug that loomed over me like the sudden feeling of someone standing right behind you. The Makelangelo signs every picture it creates, but some signatures were crazy sizes. No more! The developers-only version is patched and it will soon roll out to everyone else.
Final Thoughts
I just got back from watching Big Hero 6. I am pretty jealous of Hiro’s 3D printer. It can print metal AND carbon fiber so well you can’t see the lines. That’s crazy good!
