slidoodle (closed)

[Slipshine]

FYI

I just found out that Solidoodle whent under. For those that don't know they made a low end printer that was pretty popular.
According to their blog they tried to come out with a 5th version of there machine made entirely in china and it ended up bankrupting the company.

Guess they should have stayed in Brooklyn.

[Tim]

The current explosion of 3D printers is unsustainable, but I'd rather see some of the newcomers go than one of the veterans.

[ednisley]

The current explosion of 3D printers is unsustainable

This sentence popped out of the Solidoodle auto-obit:

Despite spending months in China building the partnership, training workers, and inspecting finished units, the factory shipped units which did not live up to our standards.

The difference between "inspecting finished units" and "shipped units which did not live up to our standards" seems typical of that system. While it's possible to get high-quality work from Chinese factories, it's not cheap.

That "Made in the USA" thing should become significant again; some folks are paying attention ...

[Tim]

The difference between "inspecting finished units" and "shipped units which did not live up to our standards" seems typical of that system. While it's possible to get high-quality work from Chinese factories, it's not cheap.

That "Made in the USA" thing should become significant again; some folks are paying attention ...

I agree more with your first statement than the second; I think it's more properly framed as "cheap in both senses" vs. "expensive and quality" than as "made in USA" vs. "made overseas". China is full of excellent companies making quality products. China is also full of fly-by-night companies making cheap-in-both-senses stuff. The problem with the 3D printing world is one of some manufacturers just wanting to go cheaper too quickly rather than waiting for the usual price drop with increasing volume, which I suppose is a typical symptom of too much competition among too many players. It should be good news for companies like MakerGear who keep a more realistically measured pace. Except that bad decisions by other companies can mess with the whole marketplace.

[ednisley]

some manufacturers just wanting to go cheaper too quickly

Aye, and they mistake "labor cost" for "total manufacturing cost".

Back in the mid-50s, manufacturing in Brooklyn made sense:

Glaser Lead Bend - made in Brooklyn NY

Hipster companies to the contrary, those days are gone.

Perhaps a better way to say it is that cultural misfit can be catastrophically expensive. If you figure out how to make the supply chain work, building stuff where everybody knows what's expected and shares similar goals makes more sense than going for the place with the absolutely lowest-cost labor and materials...

(That picture is upside-down to make it readable; there's a toilet just above the floor.)

[rpollack]

Wow...had not seen this.

Sam, the founder of Solidoodle, was the first employee at MakerGear. (Rick, Karen, Sam). The tele-commuting from Brooklyn to Ohio did not work out though...

Rick

[Slipshine]

I thought I had read that he had worked for Makergear in his Bio when he first started up.

Hope he lands on his feet. Seems like a decent guy just overstepped his position.