Sad. I just finished my 2020 Acro... Tested and ready to expand to 2040 (custom). Now where will I get parts? China, I guess?
Wow… I’m in total shock. This news hit me like a lightning bolt from a clear sky this morning. I have followed and supported OpenBuilds since the very beginning and I honestly cannot believe this is happening. OpenBuilds has been a huge part of my personal and professional journey and it has helped so many people worldwide. I just wanted to say: Thank you Mark and the entire team for all these years of hard work, passion, and for bringing this community together. I hope there is still some way forward. Wishing everyone the best. I also hope we will learn more details soon.
Hey guys, thank you so much for the overwhelming support! We work up this morning to a flood of really great and powerful comments coming in from everywhere. We see and hear of so many lives being touched by the Openbuilds family and we are humbled. We are working on many fronts right now and working though many details, so we are not sure what the future holds but our main mission is to push to get everyone taken care of from this outpour of support. We will keep you updated as the path ahead becomes clear Thank you, my friends
The market has changed. When OpenBuilds started, if you wanted a CNC or a 3D printer, you had to build it yourself. And if you look back at some of those early designs, some are pretty rough but they got the job done. But now, just 12 short years later, with the click a button you can have a complete system delivered to your door for a fraction of the cost of building your own. Times change. The natural evolution of product cycles catches up. And while direct from China has always been a thorn, there were always significant wait times and a lack of customer service which gave OpenBuilds an advantage. But now a quick search on Amazon shows that cut-rate competition is already on the doorstep. I am not an insider so I have no idea what the future holds. Hopefully this website will remain even if it has to go to an ad supported model. The years of expertise and support in this forum as well as the online documentation cannot be found anywhere else.
As @Rick 2.0 said, it would be a great pity to lose the expertise and camararderie of this community, and this feeling is reflected across the many support groups I belong to where the news has been met with shock and dismay. Mark, you can be truly proud of the impact that Openbuilds has had on this hobby. Alex.
Thanks guys, we could not have said it better ourselves and even though it may seem like the competition was a negative, remember the ones who honored OpenBuilds helped to spread the name globally. We're not into the politics of it all but that also affects us and even though we understand the necessary aspects and we hope it brings everyone back to a level playing field, in reality, it doesn't make the restructuring any easier. To be honest, there really is no one thing that we put our finger on, its many things leading up to this, but that's a longer story for another day that I should write a book about It is an emotional time, so we are heads down doing our best to maintain a positive outlook and pushing forward while looking for the light from above to light the path ahead
Well I am by no means a regular contributor to this community, but in the time I spent here when I built and troubleshooted my custom machine a few years ago, I was thoroughly impressed by OB products and the support you all generously gave here on these forums. The whole company felt like a welcome breath of fresh air in the space. I wish you all the best of luck!
Thank you for your kind words GKTRK, it is reassuring that though these years we put our hands to good works and did our best to help others.
Hate to see y'all leave. How long will the forums/documentation/software page still be available? Thanks for all you have done for the community! -J
I found out that OpenBuilds is going out of business. What about the excellent OpenBuild Control Software?
with the news is there a way to download all or any of the documentation? I am sad to see openbuilds go since I just joined last month
Sad to see this happen, you guys have been great and a great source of materials for DIY projects. What happens to the Openbuilds community? Will the forums stay open, will documentation and software remain available? If the software and documentation can be packaged into a single downloadable zip file I have server space I'd be willing to host it on so others can still gain access. (assuming the web site is closing as well) What about the Blackbox and Interface, will those design files become opensource?
That would be HUGE if you could make that happen BeeAMaker. That documentation is a wealth of information.
I hope you can keep this website up. A lot of knowledge about many maker topics (and products purchased from your company) will be lost if it goes away.
FYI: The main announcement page will now have the updates as we go OpenBuilds is winding down | OpenBuilds
Please make sure you update the email address tied to that github account (if necessary) so you don't lose access to it if the email for OpenBuilds.com is lost if/when the domain goes down.
Well this sucks. So basically now if you kill a part like say blaxbox your screwed and have to either buy a whole new driver system or give up the dream you bought ???????
Crud. I just got the email and this was my first notice of the sale. I was planning on upgrading to the 32 black box, and they are already gone.
Yep really a shame but it is what it is. Thanks for the support here in the forums, and all the effort that's been put in all these years. Hopefully there's a way that the support, forums and documentation can live on but I'm sure even these webpages take a significant effort to keep alive. Such a large part of the effort is just responding to all the questions we've all had with these machines and components. Some giant knowledge losses from the contributors here with the openbuilds team. I'll be sad to see that go as I've never had an issue that wasn't solved with patient, expert responses. cheers to the team!
Well sense your out of the business can openbuilds recommend another all in one alternative to the black box controller sorry to see you go sucks
@Mark Carew and team. I began this journey with you so many moons ago. As a veteran owned business you were always kind and helpful to us and gave us a hand up to get started with our initial machine. While I haven't used my machine for a little while I have upgraded it several times now and have had very few problems with the machine, quality or getting support. While yes, you can go on Amazon and find many things, finding a gem like Openbuilds can not be found on Amazon. I don't want to go to Amazon to buy stepper motors or even linear rail or black boxes, because who I put my trust in is Openbuilds and the team here. It is my hope that you and team, whatever that looks like, find a way to keep on keeping on. I can't thank you enough for your assistance over the years and wish you continued successes in the future. Thank You Very much to all of you and to the entire Openbuilds community.
A question on the OpenBuilds electronics: Who actually owns the rights to the intellectual property? It looks like they're branded as Copper Pour. If the IP is in fact owned by OpenBuilds is it possible to release the design artifacts (schematics, Gerber files, BOMs, etc.) as open source to help with troubleshooting, and to enable the ability for someone so inclined to be able to have PCB's fabricated? If the IP is NOT owned by OpenBuilds, is there path for the electronics to still be made?
Openbuilds has been a big part of my life for the last 5 years, when I heard the bad news I thought Omg! I'll be lost you've helped me so much, But one thing , what about the free cam/ cad ,,,,, is someone going to take over, will we be able to still use it, it then only one i know and use, Please don't leave !!! We all need you and your team !
