To all our patient BigBox pre-order customers, Firstly, we would like to say we are sorry that you have not heard from us regularly enough. We wanted to give everyone a very straightforward update with all the facts and figures, there is a shipping schedule outlined and we are committing to 3 x weekly updates. Greg and I have spent the day getting a full handle on what our stock-levels mean for order shipment timelines and are we now in a position to give everyone a much needed update on estimates for when their orders will go out. Let’s start with the stock situation. There are a lot of printers on pre-order. We have orders with our suppliers for components for every one of these printers and more. Almost everything has arrived with the notable exception of: New wiring kits we are having made Motor kits from Wantai Having taken a good look at exactly what we have in-hand as well as the latest lead-time estimates from our suppliers we have put together a schedule for fulfilment for all of your orders. May Shipments We intend on getting out 20% of printers in the next 2 weeks. Order numbers in the range 1027847 to 1033849. Right now, in the building we have stock of all the components for the first 15% of printers – this is primarily made up of surplus stock from the additional components ordered to cover pre-orders during the Kickstarter ordering phase. There are a few parts we have had to discard due to QC failure, however stop-gap replacements are on order from local suppliers for those which will be with us next week, and will bring the total up to 20%. June Shipments Our target for June is get the next 55% of printers out. Order numbers in the range 1033857 to 1038854. The wiring kits and motors which we are currently waiting on are due to arrive early June. At this point we will be constrained by ability to physically pack up and ship printers. We have another member of the BigBox packing team (Ian) and the resources of the E3D packing team which we will use to get things out faster than we managed post-Kickstarter. July Shipments We will fulfil any remaining shipments from June as well as the remaining 25% of printers in July. Order numbers in the range 1039125 to 1042479. The main reason for the delays in stock is the failure on our part to put in place systems right at the outset to have full visibility of our warehouse. Between the fulfilment of all of our Kickstarter orders and keeping on top of the day-to-day running of BigBox in the meantime, control of stock was not given the attention it deserved. Of course this was rectified months ago, however with motors once again at sea (due into Felixstowe on the 30th) and some snags with cabling, we have found ourselves in a bit of a corner. What has made these delays worse to bear has of course been our (poor!) communication, I don’t want to give any excuses for that, because the excuses don’t matter. What does matter is that we are going to be committed to giving you guys weekly updates (even if they are brief) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (same schedule as XKCD ). Looking forward – we have taken on another person to work across both E3D and BigBox who will be exclusively managing stock. We are moving away from Excel and Odoo which has always served E3D’s needs well, over to Unleashed which is a much more powerful stock management tool. We will likely pause on taking any more pre-orders until such a time as our order book is fully clear and we are stocked up and prepared to a point where we can fulfil orders immediately. We know that some of you have been waiting a very long time indeed, and by way of an apology we would like to give everyone all the bits that you need to get a Volcano (or two, for duals) on your BigBox. Everyone in the order range 1027847 to 1042479 who has not had their printer will get this free upgrade along with some filament. I know it’s not much, but we want to say sorry. You don't need to get in touch about this - it will happen automatically. My sincerest thanks to everyone for your continued patience – I am sorry that we have had to ask it of you. Please bear with us for just a while longer! Next update on Friday… Thanks again, Josh, Greg, Cat, and everyone in BigBox and E3D
The plan is for Greg to do Monday updates, me to do Wednesdays and Catriona to to Fridays. Here is Catriona's message: Hello folks, A quick Friday update from the team at BigBox as promised. Since Wednesday, I have arranged all the Volcano kits that we promised you. They will be going out with your pre-orders, one with a Pro and two with a Dual. Chris packed up and shipped out the first 5% of printers yesterday, a few of them are in the shot below. For the remainder of yesterday and today Chris and Ian have been pre-packing your LCD and fan kits, adding motor dampers to printed part kits, and creating new sticker packs. These pre-packing tasks are to get kits onto the shelves ready for Monday when we hope to get a few more printers boxed up and shipped out. Speaking of the new stickers, have we shown you the new V1.1 stickers, seen here gracing the window into the guys’ office? As you are aware from the update on Wednesday, we are putting a lot of energy into our stock system. This morning we cleared some desk space for the new stock manager arriving next week. We look forward to welcoming him into our team. No doubt he’ll get a better introduction in one of our forthcoming updates. So all that is left to say today is: have yourselves a lovely weekend! Catriona
Hello! So we had our stop-gap of OctoPrint parts arrive on Saturday. This has meant there has been a flurry of kits shipped out the door today. Over the weekend i was in the workshop keeping the flow of blank acrylic sheets into the laser cutter at maximum. We have more acrylic with our suppliers just waiting a call from us when our levels get low. We're good for the moment though! We have now shipped all the Dual kits we had stock of. We will have an exact ETA on the motor kits soon, we'll pass the information onto you as soon as we find out. Continuing on this week we'll be shipping more kits out and Chris will be packing up extra boxes as usual. The print farm is of course constantly printing parts! More news to come! Greg
Hi Guys, We got out another 9% of machines over Tuesday and Today. Combine this with the printers that went out on Monday, this bringing us up to the 20% target that we set ourselves for May. At this point we may be able to get a few more Pro printers out, but in order to keep shipments broadly in sequence our main focus will be to build up a stock of pre-packed kits (things like wiring boxes, motion kits, etc..) and keep the laser cutters running to ensure that we are ready to hit the ground running when the motors arrive. We have two sets on order one which is currently being air-freighted due for shipment on the 27th and the other by sea which is due to arrive in port in a few days to be delivered to us next business day after customs clearance. We are still on target to get the bulk of the remaining printers (around 55% as projected) out in June. Cheers, Josh
This just in from Catriona.... Hello, and welcome to the Friday update. The remaining acrylic arrived yesterday, and the shelves are now fully stocked. More plywood is due in next week and the laser cutters are busy cutting. Some of the stop-gap cabling has come in and we’ve had a whole bunch more V6 components brought over from the E3D side. Chris is busy pre-packing, with help from Ian and myself. It has been a Titanic week pre-packing... Monday is a bank holiday for us, but Greg will be in running the laser cutters and keeping the print farm going. Have a great weekend, and if you're in the UK have a great bank holiday!
Hello! This is more of a wave of the hand as an acknowledgement that we're still here! It a bank (public) holiday today in the UK and the only person who's been in the workshop today is me. I've had the laser cutters running, stoked the print farm and done a few other assembly tasks to help things keep moving. We shall be back in in force tomorrow and we'll have a better update to come on Wednesday. Greg
Wednesday Update! Since receiving the acrylic the laser cutters have been cranking out frame parts. Greg has been keeping the print farm churning out printed parts. Despite not having complete printers to ship we've been piling up the sub-packages and getting things ready for shipping in earnest. Things arriving: We've taken receipt of 150 of the heated beds, which was a significant blocking part. All of the cabling is now in hand from the supplier and we're in the process of packing this up. We've also sourced a much nicer IEC power socket and these have been delivered. Things that we're waiting for: We're still waiting on motors unfortunately, but they are set to arrive this week which is a relief as their absence is a real obstruction to progress in shipping. DC-DC power convertors that are used in the OctoPrint enabled machines are now on their way, we hope to have these in hand next week so that we can start shipping OctoPrint machines. Software: A major pain point that you guys have brought to our attention is the lack of maintained, organised, up to date firmware and print settings. Particularly S3D profiles for use with our Edge material. We've not been good enough at providing the full range of print profiles for each machine variant and so forth. In aid of this we have created a new GitHub Repo which will house all firmware and print profiles going forward. Greg is cleaning up and committing profiles and firmware to GitHub as I am writing this update. We'll continue to populate the repository with profiles etc going forward. Communication and Forum moderation. We really want to improve how we're interacting and communicating with you guys here on the forums, particularly with regards to logistics updates, and technical support. We've been struggling to keep a top of all the questions in the forums and our ability to reply is hampered by the amount going on in actually getting the machines out the door. Recently our previous moderators have had additional commitments come up that understandably means that they haven't been able to spend as much time here. To that end we've reached out to a few prominent members of the community to see if they would be interested in becoming active moderators. The new moderators will be able to help with technical questions and general forum moderation, but also they will be an active link between E3D/BigBox and everyone on the forum. We've yet to confirm things with the people involved, but it's looking promising. I have set aside a scheduled amount of time each day to get on the forums and provide answers, my schedule has been pretty full in the last few weeks and I've not been as active as I would like but I look forward to spending more time here in the coming weeks.
Friday's update fresh from the desk of Catriona..... Hi folks It has been a busy week of pre-packing and stocking the shelves. The heated beds that arrived on Wednesday have had thermistors soldered onto them and cork backing added. They are now either waiting for the potting compound to dry or have already been packed up with glass beds. We took delivery of the airfreighted motors, which is really exciting. Unfortunately, they were not packed into individual kits as we had requested and expected them to arrive. Ian has been sorting out motor cables into the correct bundles and assembling the motor kits into dual sets. There is a scheduled delivery of more plywood for Monday, and we are still waiting for the DC-DC power convertors to arrive. Shipping of Dual machines recommences next week. As mentioned in Sanjay’s update, firmware and software has been uploaded to a BigBox GitHub repository. If you have not already seen it, please follow the link: https://github.com/BigBox3D Wishing you all a good weekend, Catriona
Hello! I was in again over the weekend manning the laser cutters and the print farm. We took a delivery of plywood today and are cutting through that. We are held-up by the DC DC converters, but they are on their way. We are building up pre-packed kit component boxes ready to begin shipping the 80% of pre-orders during June, this is still on target. Some samples came through from our cable suppliers, who will be taking over after we get through our stop-gap stocks. They have been approved. Things are progressing overall and we expect to start shipping by the end of the week / beginning of next. Regards Greg P.S. Forgot to hint the send button!
Hi Guys, Wednesday update time! All of our motors have now arrived which has cleared a big log-jam of printers which had been pre-packed with everything except the motors. We managed to get out a whopping 13 printers out today. Here is a shot of the motors arriving, and some of the printers ready for collection by our couriers. Reflecting back on my first thread we have now shipped 36% of the pre-orders. That is the 20% from last month and 16% of the 55% target that we set ourselves for this month - so we are approximately a third of the way through shipment and a third of the way through the month. Whilst things may feel they are going slowly from your end, we are broadly keeping to the projections that we had made. The holdups have largely been caused by things that we had predicted before, and now with the motors in-hand the only problem has been these pesky DC-DC converters, although we have enough of those in stock (thanks to cleaning out a few local suppliers!) to keep us going for a few more days of shipping. The balance are due to be here soon, but due to our supplier using a non-tracked service we don't have an exact date. If we don't receive them in the next day or so we will be buying more, but as of today they are not a hold up. I know everyone hates boring stories about DC-DC converters and would much prefer hard facts on exactly when each and every order will go out so I have had a fresh look at our stock. Following this I would like to offer some revised estimates, and can confirm that we are still looking good to clear all orders up to OrderID 1038854 by the end of the month (I'm sorry not to be able to give week-by-week estimates, but it's a bit too hard to figure things out that exactly without a terrific investment of time). We may actually be able to do better on the schedule front than that, but please don't hold me to it! Please sit tight - we are getting there!
Here's Catriona's Friday update, freshly delivered to my desk by carrier pigeon! Hello all Friday’s update: Not much to report. I’ve been downstairs all morning packing your BigBoxes with Chris. Picture of said boxes below. Some of the DC-DC convertors that we keep on talking about arrived yesterday, enabling us to continue sending out OctoPi orders. Late afternoon has been spent pre-packing again. Ian is flashing Rumbas, Chris is packing electronics and wiring boxes. Laser cutters are cutting, print farm is farming away. Have yourselves a good weekend, and to our customers with recently delivered BigBoxes – enjoy the build!
Hello! Not much has happened since Friday. We do have leadscrews and brass nuts coming tomorrow along with some more plywood. We'll have some more news on Wednesday Greg
Hello!, What appears to have been a slow week has been quite busy. We have all the motors, rods, Rumbas, fixings kits, acrylic, plywood, bearings, heated bed, wiring, LCDs, leadscrews, DC DC converters, Raspberry Pis, Printed parts, drag chains and PSUs. All we need are the glass beds and they are due next week. We are keeping to our schedule and will have all the printers shipped as promised! I shall, as usual, be in the workshop over the weekend running the laser cutters and answering your queries as best I can. Have a great weekend! P.S. Sorry for missing Wednesday's update!
Hello, fellow BigBox brethren! Today we wait! For tomorrow shall bring gifts of boxes large in size. Ok so today has been a little slow. We're still awaiting the glass, due later this week. As soon as that touches down we'll get some kits out the door. Cut frames are stacking up neatly too as the laser cutters were of course doing my bidding over the weekend. watch this space.....
Hello! I delayed yesterday's Update until this morning as I was waiting for some information from suppliers. We were expecting the glass yesterday, but it will not be here until next week. But we have everything else. The shelves are stacked, the laser cut parts are cut and the packaging is ready and waiting. We will be packing furiously as soon as the glass comes into the building!
Hi Guys - an update for Catriona: Hi all As you picked up from Greg’s previous update, we have had an unexpected delay in the delivery of our glass beds. This is obviously frustrating for all involved, especially since we have never experienced any previous problems with this supplier. There is plenty of work to be done however, and the pre-packing, laser-cutting and sanding continues to keep us busy. Our Friday soundtrack has been the contented hum of the print farm and a slightly livelier buzz of political debate post EU referendum. Interesting times ahead. We’ll be back to shipping BigBoxes next week, and will keep you updated on when the glass arrives. Wishing you a good weekend, Catriona
If you hadn't noticed we have been shipping kits out over the past few days. Everything is in stock and we are working to get it all out the door as quickly as possible. Both Chris and Ian are packing and we are still on schedule to get everything shipped by the end of July. We may miss a few from the promised June dates but it will only be a very limited number and they will ship a day or two later instead. This has happened due to the later than expected arrival of the glass. Thank you all for your patience and understanding! Greg
Catriona is AFK tomorrow so she has sent this through early... Hello The days this week seem just to have slipped us by – and the updates have slipped by with them. So here’s a quick Thursday update as we reach the end of the month. We’re building a fort out of BigBoxes today. Soon there will be no way out! Having a quick look at the numbers, we are happy to say that we have shipped all the printers we aimed to get out this month bar eight. These last few printers will be shipped in the first few days of July, along with the rest of the pre-order printers.
Hello!, Just a quick note. We have been restocking the shelves and building up stock. Things will be a little slow this week as Chris is off but we will be shipping kits as usual with everyone else helping to cover his absence. More news to follow Wednesday
This has just come through on the telegraph ticker tape from Catriona Hello We’ve been taking up different roles this week with Chris off – it’s keeping us on our toes! In between packing there has also been a lot of cutting, sanding, soldering etc going on – all the usual activities that ensure that we can keep on getting BigBoxes out the door. The pile of packing slips next to my desk is steadily diminishing as we catch up on pre-orders, which is really positive. Today one of our customers dropped by to pick up his printer. It’s always nice to put a face to the name on the other side of the emails! Greg will be in as usual over the weekend to keep the laser cutters going. The rest of us will be back in on Monday, more from us then. Happy Friday all! .... .- ...- . / .- / --. .-. . .- - / .-- . . -.- . -. -..
