@Zach_Kaplan Thanks. I found the washer at my local ACE Hardware so that’s good. I’ve given up on the terminal block and will just use two smaller ones (that’s how the plate is drilled anyways). I really just want the new, current drag chain setup, but as it has not been made available, and there’s no reason to think it will be, I’ll just try to cobble something together based on what I can work out from the drawings and models. My only real point in all of this is to try to get Inventables to think more about existing customers when they release a new or upgraded part/assembly that those existing customers just might want.
Dude, life passes us all by. I had three strokes and found out that I will lose my vision. If lifes plans dont fit yours plans adapt and go on. I started to built a Mechmate. Got the steel, several hundred pounds cut and ground it. Studied all the electronic and built it. I have about 5 thousand into it and had my first stoke, It sets in the garage waiting to be built, Life is hard I shake so bad Sometimes I can hardly type, Life is not fair just go on.
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There are two issues here that many do not recognize. They are:
- expired “support” period
- lack of parts availability
To address the first, I do not immediately “register” the new product. In fact I put this off until I have to make a call for information/help that I cannot find on the Internet. This way, my support period stay intact until I have to use it.
For the second issue, I seem to recall that when companies are involved in interstate commerce (in other words, selling product across state lines) that they are required to maintain parts availability for 10 years as of the last date of manufacture of the product. Many companies do not do this out of negligence and we as consumers need to remind and demand that they do so.
Phil Rasmussen
The Mountain Woodworker
Hendersonville, NC
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This is incorrect. Many manufacturers have parts that are not considered user serviceable or are proprietary.
Most of the parts are open source and freely available. Inventables regularly sends things out to people, and in most cases free of charge.
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There is no need to be deceitful with Inventables.
They have bent over backwards to help me out (even when the problems were my own fault)
Easily the best company I have ever dealt with.
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I don’t think that is his intention, guys.
it is when you don’t properly register your product.
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I had a similar issue trying to get the drag chain upgrade earlier. I talked to someone and got the same excuse. Then they followed up with an email. I was not looking for a specific part list I just wanted to purchase the current drag chain kit they offer on a new machine.
I continue to use my machine but I think it is time to really give the existing customers some support and stop talking about discussing it.
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This really said a lot about you. Not Inventables.
- Lie about what you have and have done to get more than what was agreed upon. this is very selfish on your part.
- You are offered support and parts availability for a lot longer than 10 years as this is an open source project. nowhere does it say that they have to supply these parts, just make them available, which they have done by releasing all the details about them. This is something that very few other companies do. you need a new plate or bracket, then download the specification sheet and make a new one.
sorry but I think this said a lot about how you are not how they are.
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No, I am not saying that people should lie or do anything deceitful. Also I am not attacking any specific company or organization.
What I am saying is that for many companies, registration is used in conjunction with support. For example, the product literature may say 90 day free support. When that 90 days of support occurs should not matter whether it is at the time of purchase or later. However many companies tie it to product registration.
Regarding parts availability, serviceability and propriety are not at issue. if a part is intended to be replaceable then it must be carried. This does not refer to sub-components. For example if a unit part has 2 gears in it and is sealed, then that unit, not the gears, is to be available. Non-serviceable products need to be labeled as such. Any “return to manufacture” product for service should tell the owner that the product has replaceable parts. Now there are instances where a product needs to be returned. For example, the general consumer does not have the diagnostic tools needed to fix something on their car. So the car must be “returned” for service. However a circuit board on a cnc machine may be replaceable by the consumer but not recommended because of how it “connects” or interacts with other parts. The manufacture is not required to provide diagnostics for the replacement. As for propriety, ask yourself “how do the people in the far east ‘copy’. our technology?” The answer is simple, the obtain the part/product and reverse engineer it. Most consumers of a product will not do this.
Really?
Inventables is not perfect. They screw up. I do too. It’s more important to me how a company handles problems than whether or not they screw up. Nobody (even Inventables) wants to screw up.
I don’t know what position @JDM has with Inventables, but @Zach_Kaplan is the CEO. Both individuals have offered their help in resolving your issues.
What other companies do seems to me to be irrelevant here. What Inventables does is.
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I’ve always thought it was strange that companies sell kits of things but don’t sell all the individual parts from those kits. Especially when they’re not manufacturing the parts themselves anyway. Or even if they are, they know how much the parts cost and can sell them for profit.
I think a person ought to be able to look at the build plans for the X-Carve and see a fully-clickable, complete parts list. We ought to be able to buy every single component of the machine separately, because we build these machines ourselves and some of us are klutzes and break stuff. Also, it’s a machine that’s capable of eating itself pretty easily. Thirdly, parts wear out over time, there are lots of moving parts here and lots of bearings, screws, brackets, threads, etc.
This is good for Inventables because it can provide a complete upgrade path for those of us who’ve supported the company since the Shapeoko2 days, since the early-preorder X-Carve days. Being able to see and order any part from the current new-hotness X-Carve means I can get just the parts I need to do my build the way I want, without spending too much on parts that are unnecessary or unwanted. This means I’d have more money for supplies and consumables, meaning I can spend more time carving and less time grinding at work to afford kit parts.
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Thanks for all the feedback. We really appreciate it. I am working with our product team to see if we can offer any of the other current upgrade features as individual items outside the X-Carve configurator. I know we made promises in the past about when we would be releasing certain items and we dropped the ball as other things took priority. We don’t have a huge demand from customers for every upgrade so certain ones have been asked about more than others. It is hard to sometimes get a read on those numbers and what will actually be most valuable to the community. Ultimately, there is really no excuse except we didn’t close the loop with existing customers who were asking about certain upgrades. I will do my best to keep folks updated on this thread around what develops after talking to our product team. Thank for your understanding and again I apologize for anyone who has had a less than optimal experience with upgrading their machine. We didn’t do a great job here.
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Every new upgrade comes with growing pains. Personally, I have found that Inventables customer service is awesome in every way. Inventables has been extremely helpful to me, whether I just needed advice on how to install something, to getting parts. I would personally recommend Inventables to anyone looking to get into the world of CNC.
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Quick update: We got the go ahead to offer a couple more of the upgrades as individual items outside the configurator. I will post an estimated release date once I have that.
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Better late than never: https://www.inventables.com/categories/machine-upgrades/x-carve-upgrades
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