Dave,
I know that I've definitely spent a lot of time perusing Shaper's marketing and admiring their style. I do get the impression that Shaper and Handibot are unique businesses with different goals. Those goals drive the decisions that we make and our admittedly, occasionally wacky goals can result in some things that really excite some people while leaving others scratching their heads.
One thing that handibot will never be is exceedingly polished--and this is by design. It's intentional that there are no injection molded parts, or cast metal or die cut packaging on the handibot. In fact I'm thinking of replacing the L shaped metal brackets that hold the handles in place because that part requires an extra tool (press break) to fabricate.
I hope that the handibot will be considered one of the most useful CNC tools on the market one day--but it is also an example of what can be created with the same technology that it enables! For the few parts that I can't make on a CNC (rails, motors, router) I try to use things that are more commonly available and less customized. Hopefully one day we sell enough tools that we need partners in production around the world and they'll be able to set up their own shops without too much up front investment.
The financial model is often to create a value to the customer by leveraging volume to bring component costs down lower than what the customer would be able to buy them for on their own. That volume/cost curve is a lot more flat for the handibot and we're hoping to provide a model for creating a fun and satisfying business that is easy to scale. Right now, handibots are built by two guys (I usually build all the accessories so they can focus on handibots) in a 1500 sqft shop with probably about $15000 worth of tools (Desktop Max from ShopBot, router table, heater bar for bending acrylic, electronics equipment, drill press a bunch of shelves). It's all pretty exciting to me that we can ship all over the world from our little shop.
As for videos, they take a lot of work but I’m definitely looking forward to doing more—the response has been great so far. I try to choose projects for the videos that are personal to me (this helps insure that I actually get them done!) and also informative about some feature of the tool, software or accessory. Take a look at them here if you haven’t already had a chance: [
www.youtube.com]
I try to keep the videos relatively "real time" especially when doing things in CAD/CAM. I just record myself doing them at the pace that I would normally work, and then go back and narrate my work. I want them to be very "what you see is what you get" as far as time investment and learning curve. I'll even leave my mistakes in the videos because they're often a great jumping off point for explaining other things about the tool.
All that said--I would really like to put together more information that would be helpful for you and others. I always tell people that I want handibot to be everyone's first CNC--the one that helps them get into the world of digital fabrication. So anything that is of interest to you is probably on the minds of hundreds of other people as well.
Brian
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2016 07:04PM by Brian Owen, ShopBot.