Guys please.... I had to convince my wife this was our best option. I got the 80/20 catalog, priced parts, got quotes from YR in China, got quotes for nema motors, arduino, drivers, etc... after sourcing all this stuff from around the globe your mini mill still priced better and has better contact and community support. Plus buying from openbuilds gives me a one-stop shop. Please help a guy out and reinstate your free shipping. I just had to bend over backwards to show the wife your stuff is really cool and priced accordingly. You can't blame her, with three kids and countless pets she's a frugal shopper. I missed the free shipping opportunity. Please....... Years ago before moving to SF to work at Twitter my wife and I had a very expensive Epilog Zing Laser. We spent so many hours working together to create stuff for Etsy, and it was very enjoyable. Husband and wife bonding; creating really cool stuff is awesome. We published everything we made online, in-fact today I still see people reusing the original plans, and what's even more enjoyable is seeing what improvements people have made. I lurk in the laser forums and call my wife every time I see someone reusing our coreldraw or svg files. We have discussed buying another laser, but really didn't want to be limited to just the 2D and inability to cut metal at a reasonable price. So we started looking at CNC routers. Wow talk about getting lost down the rabbit hole. Please help us enjoy the creativity again, and bring back the free shipping deal. I only missed it because my wife was doing her job and making sure I wasn't distracted by something new and shinny. You know us guys, we need a good woman to keep us focused and make sure our decisions are sound. Here's some links to stuff we did years ago and shared freely with the community. Wooden Steampunk Themed Keys 3D Laser Engraved and Cut Miniature Desk Shoji Shadow Boxes We no longer own the company since we sold the name and rights along with the laser before we moved. But the current owners have continued to run the websites and still maintain a 100% customer satisfaction on Etsy which was very important to us. Blogs | Phoenix Laser Engraving
Zachary, I'll m sure the great guys at openbuilds will here this request. Me and my 1,000,000 imaginary friends stand behind you Make sure to share and post more of your great project with the community
Zachary, I'm not sure when there will be another free shipping weekend (I'm not an insider) but realistically the sale weekends are every bit as good. You can also look forward to the birthday discount. And if your wife's birthday is coming up sooner than yours, get her to sign up (which works even better because she gets to be the one to place the order which means you didn't spend any money). Good luck with the projects though. It's nice to have more creativity joining the group.
Thanks - I think that's what made it so enjoyable. Figuring out how to do stuff is like a game, making jigs to produce items more efficiently and accurately was great.
Man, I didn't know that. My oldest son just turned 17 on 12/14. Brings back memories of him helping us find things to laser engrave or cut. We used to regularly visit Goodwill and one time he found bamboo placemats. We took them apart and used the individual pieces as pendants. He filled in the engraved parts with crayon, buffed them with an old tee shirt, then we sealed them with acrylic.
Just know that if you give him free shipping, I need free shipping too... lol. I may have missed some parts for my double build.. if that's the case, I'm gonna need some parts ASAP! Free shipping would make sense. (I voted to give him free shipping, and myself, of course)
The voters have spoken and we've heard you....as of this writing the "I want Free Shipping too" crowd is ahead. To @ZacharyB and everyone else out there wishing for a MiniMill this year....we've got something really special for you. For 1 day only, we are releasing a LIMITED EDITION High Torque MiniMill. This version is not available at the Part Store. You can't even build your own at this price! Zachary's "I missed the last deal but really need a MiniMill" Sale FREE MOTOR UPGRADE FREE SHIPPING within Continental US on all MiniMills TOMORROW ONLY (Dec 20) While Supplies Last. See Store for Details.
Sidenote, note how the special includes free upgrade to High Torque Motors (These monsters: NEMA 23 Stepper Motor - High Torque Series) This is the setup i've been running on my own MiniMill, and the extra torque really makes it a monster. Those of you lucky enough to order during this special, that gets the free upgrade to the motors, have a lot of fun to look forward to (; Here's some videos of mine in action:
I want to say thank you to the openbuilds team and those who voted. I got the MiniMill and started assembling it. Very impressive packaging.
