Inventory, Testing, and the Assembly Guide
Happy Wednesday everyone! As always, it’s been a busy week at Maslow.
The world’s first Maslow4 made entirely from production parts.
Still Waiting on PCBs
This week was both an exciting week and a bit of a slow week for us. I can’t believe that it’s only been ONE week since our container arrived. Every second was filled with doing something, but we’re still waiting on our PCBs so we couldn’t start shipping. The CNY holiday wrapped up and we were able to talk to the factory who says that the first batch of boards will be done on Friday so maybe next week 🤞. It’s astounding how everything always takes longer than it is supposed too 🙄. That being said, we’re so darn close.
We were also able to get all of the components that we needed delivered to the PCB manufacturer and place orders for the full number of boards that we need which is great.
Inventory and Part Quality
We’ve organized everything in the first shipment and we’re working through inventorying everything and it’s all looking great. The quality of the production parts has been across the board even higher than the samples.
The slightly matte finish on these production PCB covers looks so nice
This crate was supposed to contain the Arc from Raiders of the Lost Arc…we’re going to get that sorted out with the factory
The quality of these steel drive gears is excellent
The extra flexible wires and strain relief on the planetary drive motors will help to make sure that they last a long time.
The black stepper motors look and feel great. The factory even swapped out the POM lead screw nuts that we requested which was nice. We did still receive the 2,000 brass ones that we ordered by mistake so we’ll make those available for free if anyone wants them once we have the chance.
Assembly Guide
With all the production parts here we were able to write the Maslow4 Assembly Guide this week and the first fully production Maslow4 was born in the process. I’ve never seen two Maslow4’s in the same room before so I’ve been turning my head back and forth all week.
If you would like to, you can take a look here:
https://www.maslowcnc.com/start-building
Writing the assembly instructions was also a good way to test everything at once. Overall it came together well. I did catch two small issues which were luckily easy to fix.
The first issue we found was that we expected the drive gears to include a set screw and they did not. We were able to order the parts that we need from McMaster Carr quickly and easily (although somewhat expensively) and we will be adding them to each kit.
The second issue that we found is a subtle change to the design of the cooling fan. The sample part on the right has a rounded recess in the corner while the final part does not.
This change was the result of us adding a nut shaped recess to the opposite side of the fan to help with assembly.
The new version with the recess for the nut on the left and the old on the right.
I must have missed that change in the drawings.
Fortunately, the solution again was fairly simple, we just need to include a slightly longer bolt in the in kit to accommodate the extra length. It’s not the end of the world, but it does mess with our plan for the entire machine to be made using a single length of bolt.
The two parts that we will be adding to each kit.
Sales Opened
We re-opened preorders last week which feels great. It is exciting to know that despite that we haven’t done any marketing since the Kickstarter campaign launched the world hasn’t forgotten about us. It is also a relief to see the company bank account which has been steadily decreasing go the other way for once 😛.
We haven’t sold out yet so if you know anyone who you think might be interested in Maslow4, let them know! We’re not going to focus any energy on marketing until we finish shipping the Kickstarter machines, but it feels great to take the first steps towards being a sustainable business. We’re in this for the long haul so expect years of updates and support.
Have a great week everyone!
-Bar, Anna, and Roman
