[Arm-netbook] screwed up the Riki200 plotter design

[Neil Jansen]

On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 11:04 AM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <
lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
>
>  *sigh* i know it seems that way but i am not kidding when i say that
> literally every single 3D printer i've seen has some form of design
> flaw or is made from materials and parts that are just... too far-out
> expensive, given that the requirements are to maximise mm / sec / $.


Ehh... How many months have you been at this design so far? You could have
bought some crappy printers, taken a few months to print the parts, and
could have moved on with the other (arguably more important) EOMA68
development and manufacturing stuff.  As it sits right now, you've not
printed a single production frame, because you're too busy designing a 3d
printer.  Even after you've made your first one, there are still some
sizable risks before you go out and build a fleet of them.

Your "existential 3D printing moments" blog post was on May 16, where you
said that with 10 printers, it would take four months of 8 hours a day
printing to make these parts.  Assume 16 hours per day, that's two (2)
months with the same amount of machines.  Or, for 24 hours a day (3
shifts), it's now down to 1.3 months.

If I were you, I'd literally be done by now.  That's because I would have
used "status quo" 3D printers that would have been running and happily
turning out parts back in the month of May (possibly even before that).  If
that 'four month' estimate was for the "fast" machines, then yea, maybe I'd
be only halfway done?  But then again that's still further than where you
are right now.   Labor is cheap where you're at.  I'd have no issue running
a small operation 24/7 if that's what it took.  Hell, we did that in China
when I was out there.

Maybe you're over-thinking it.

Just sayin'  ;)