Ponoko team bloggers past and present pat ourselves on the back to celebrate one thousand posts……

Over the past 1000 posts we have covered everything from coasters to cock-rings, from tiny tables to CNC houses, and textiles to technology.

I would love to know what your favorite post were and what you would like to see more of in the future?

Also big thanks to the Ponoko team for giving us loose reigns to ramble, it has been an absolute pleasure….

cheers

Handy helpers required!

With our new USA hub getting slammed with digital making requests within just 2 weeks of its launch, we’ve carefully cultivated a serious case of sleep deprivation.

To help us avoid this into the future, we thought some Bay Area locals might like to come and lend a hand from time to time.

Whether it’s for the love or for the money, no sweat.

If this sounds a little bit like you, we’re ‘taking names’ for random call ups every now and again. And who knows, something even more profound might develop?!

To add your name to the call up list, email us: service-at-ponoko.com

Thanks all …

June Now until the end of August 09 is your last chance for subsidized shipping rates from the NZ hub.

10 days ago we announced the opening of the new USA digital making hub.

Two of the key benefits of this new hub are lower shipping costs and lower carbon footprints for products delivered to users in the USA and Canada. Really great news!

Because there’s now a USA hub, the shipping costs from the existing NZ hub will go to true market value for all shipping destinations outside of NZ and Australia.

This means you will be able to compare apples with apples on the shipping costs from the different making hubs. And the concept of distributed digital making will become crystal clear. In an over simplification of the situation, the lower your shipping cost, the lower the carbon footprint of your product.

So here are some examples delivery charges for a 3mm thick, P1 sized plastic sheet of material from the NZ hub (in USD) - today’s subsidized costs versus the true costs from September 1st 2009:

Important notes:

In the table above, you’ll see a number of the costs will increase from a subsidized rate to the true cost.

If you’re not in NZ, Australia, the USA or Canada, check out the international shipping costs from the USA hub in preference to the NZ hub. While they are not currently as low as the subsidized rates from NZ, they’ll get lower given some time for us to generate some volume with our US shipping provider. Also, you’ll be happy to know that a digital making hub will be opening in your region - so you’ll get the benefit of domestic shipping too. As always, we love you - and we’re on the path of revolutionizing how goods are designed, made and distributed - one small step at a time.

You’ve got a price freeze grace period
This means that the shipping costs from the NZ hub will remain the same to all shipping destinations until the end of June August 2009.

(We’ve extended the time period that we are subsidizing the shipping costs, so we can add more materials to the USA catalog to make it easier for you to switch your current designs to be made in the USA hub as well as, or instead of, the NZ hub).

So to get the best shipping deal from the NZ hub using materials in the NZ catalog, you’ll want to get your order made by midnight Friday June Monday August 31st 2009 (US Pacific time).

Free shipping. All making. USA & NZ. 2 days only!

At last!

We’ve finally pulled it off (distributed digital making) - so we can now offer you free shipping on ALL of your making!!

Here’s how it works … Free shipping is available like so:

- For all Prime members.

- For all making orders.

- From our USA hub to any continental USA destination (excluding Alaska).

- From our NZ hub to any NZ destination.

- Starts 8am Monday June 15th (US Pacific time).

- Ends 8pm Tuesday June 16th (US Pacific time).

Are you ready?

Not a Prime member?
Well then, calculate your member benefits - and jump in for this, exclusive to Primers only.

Just make something between the times stated above and you’ll get your goodies shipped at no charge. It’s our way of saying thanks for your patience as we worked our hearts out to solve the problem of shipping distance (and hence cost).

You can now make and ship from USA and NZ!

By the end of the day today (Friday June 5^th, Pacific time) our existing making hub in Wellington, New Zealand will be joined by a new hub in San Francisco, United States – and our online making system will be updated to reflect this big change.

This means you will be able to get your products made and delivered from both USA and NZ.

It also means that by the end of the day today all Prime members will get free shipping from our USA node to any continental USA destination (excluding Alaska), or shipped from our NZ node to any NZ destination for all orders of $100 or more (making + materials).

Yippeee! This is another small step we are taking to bring you the world’s easiest making system.

This means you can:

1. Continue to make and ship products from the existing NZ hub, using the NZ materials catalog; AND
2. Also make and ship products from the new USA hub, using the US materials catalog.

Here’s some more details about this or scroll to the bottom of this post to get the quick start summary!

So how does this affect you?
This all depends upon your shipping destination … 

USA or Canada
If your shipping destination is in the USA or Canada it is more cost effective (and greener) for you to make and ship your products from the new USA hub. This is because the shipping miles to deliver to a US or Canadian destination from the US hub is substantially lower than the miles to deliver from the NZ hub. No brainer.

UK, Europe or Northern Asia
If your shipping destination is in the UK, Europe or Northern Asia it is roughly the same price (but certainly greener) for you to make and ship your products from the new USA hub. We encourage you to use the US hub so we can more rapidly increase our bargaining power with the new US shipping provider and bring these costs down for you. 

NZ, Australia or Southern Asia
If your shipping destination is in NZ, Australia or Southern Asia it is the same price for you to continue to make and ship your products from the existing NZ hub. So there’s no change for you. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

Still not sure? Well, login to your MyPonoko account to check out the differences for yourself!

The changes in a little more detail – for existing members

Just one change
When you login to your existing MyPonoko account, you’ll immediately notice one change …

Under the ‘MyDesigns’ tab your existing products (tip: product = design + material) will be tagged with a NZ flag. This flag tells you where your product will be made and shipped from.

So, if you decide to click to make any of your current products (tagged with a NZ flag), you’ll see that they will continue to be made and shipped from the existing NZ hub.

In other words, while there’s a visual design change to your MyPonoko account, there’s no practical change. Easy.

Set and forget
BUT … what if you want to make and ship from the new USA hub instead of the existing NZ hub?

Well, you need to do just one thing – change your default country preference from NZ to USA. That’s all there is to it – set and forget.

You can change your preference country by clicking here, and selecting USA instead of NZ.

Selecting the USA country preference
If you choose to change your country preference to USA instead of NZ, you’ll notice 2 key things:

1. Your EXISTING products will be tagged with a NZ flag.
   In other words, all of your existing products will continue to be made and shipped from the NZ hub (just as they were when your country preference was NZ). This is because the materials have been selected from the NZ materials catalog.
    
2. Your NEW products will be tagged with a USA flag.
   In other words, all of your new products will be made and shipped from the USA hub. This is because the materials have been selected from the USA materials catalog. 

How to get products made and shipped from the new USA hub
First, make sure you have set your country preference to USA (instead of NZ).

Then, create a new product in two different ways:

1. Upload a design and add materials (just like you always have previously). Easy peazy.
2. Change the materials of an existing design tagged with a NZ flag. To do this you click on the product image, click on ‘View details’ of the materials attached to this design, then click on ‘Change materials’ and follow your nose through the drop down menus as per normal.

In both of the cases immediately above you will only be able to select materials from the USA catalog. And as a result of adding these USA materials to your design, your products will be tagged with a USA flag. Which means they will be made and shipped from the new USA hub.

The changes in a little more detail – for new members
When you signup for a new MyPonoko account, you can now choose your default country preference on the signup page.

If you choose USA, you will only be able to add materials from the US catalog. This means all your products will be tagged with a USA flag, and hence they will be made and shipped from the new US hub.

If you choose NZ, you will only be able to add materials from the NZ catalog. This means all your products will be tagged with a NZ flag, and hence they will be made and shipped from the existing NZ hub.

The changes in a little more detail – for everyone
All visitors to our public website will view the new USA materials catalog by default, instead of the existing NZ catalog. But you can still view the NZ materials catalog by using the US/NZ toggle button at the top right hand side of the materials page.

A few other things to think about …

You can change your country preference at any time
This means you can make and ship products from both the NZ and USA hubs simply by changing the country preference before you add materials to a design.

In simplicity, the only thing that determines whether a product is made and shipped from the USA hub or the NZ hub is where the materials are sourced. If you choose materials from the USA catalog (which is only possible when you have chosen USA as your country preference), then products will be made and shipped from the USA hub. And vice-versa. 

Some items in ‘MyDesigns’ are not tagged with a country flag
A country flag will not appear in 2 cases:

1. When you have uploaded a design file, but have not added a material to it. A country flag is not displayed because you have not created a product by coupling a design with materials selected from either the USA or NZ catalogs.
2. When you are hosting a product (ie, design + materials) with 2 or more material set options – eg, ring design and black acrylic or red acrylic. A country flag is not displayed because one of these material set options may have been selected from the USA catalog while the other may have been selected from the NZ catalog.

The USA and NZ materials catalogs are purposely different
For example, some materials available in the NZ catalog (like NZ native Rimu) are not available in the US catalog, and vice versa. As a further example, some materials that appear to be the same (eg, white acrylic) may be different too (ie, the NZ catalog material is sourced in millimeters, whereas the US catalog material is sourced in inches). Over time both the USA and NZ materials catalogs will continue to grow. And the best way for you to speed this up is to request new materials. When you do this, we’ll make just for you – then add the new material to the public catalog. So you’re in control of how fast it grows! 

Checking the pricing differences between the 2 making hubs
We do not currently have the online facility for you to do a side-by-side pricing comparison of making and shipping the same product from the USA hub versus the NZ hub. But you can do this by setting the USA as your country preference and checking the pricing to make and ship a product from the USA hub, then repeating the pricing process with NZ set as your default country preference.

And finally …

You’ve got a price freeze grace period
To give you some time to get up to speed with this new system, all of the shipping costs from the NZ hub will remain the same to all shipping destinations until the end of June 2009.

This means the immediate change to your current MyPonoko account will be a visual one only – there’s no change in where or how your NZ flagged products are made, and there’s no change in the pricing.

But from July 1st 2009 Pacific time, and because we now have a new US hub, the shipping costs from the existing NZ hub will go to full market rate for all shipping destinations outside of NZ and Australia.

In other words, you will pay the true cost to ship a product from the NZ hub without the current subsidies. This means you will be able to compare apples with apples on the shipping costs from the different making hubs. And the concept of distributed digital making will become crystal clear. In an over simplification of the situation, the lower your shipping cost, the lower the carbon footprint of your product.

In short, if you want to make things using materials from the NZ catalog June 2009 is the last month to do it at the very best price – because the cost of the shipping will increase at the start of next month.

What do you do next?
Phew! Well, that all depends on what’s important to you. Here’s a quick guide …

I want to continue to make and ship products from the NZ hub only
Take a chill pill. Just keep doing what you do. No change necessary. Just login here to see the visual differences.

I want to make and ship products from the new USA hub only
3 steps:

1. Change your country preference from NZ to USA here; then
2. Change your materials for each of your existing products here.
3. Add new products (design + materials) here.

(By default, all your new materials selections in steps 2 and 3 will be from the USA catalog and this means all NZ materials will be deleted and all of your existing and new products will be tagged with a USA flag).

I want to make and ship products from both the NZ and USA hubs
2 steps:

1. Change your country preference from NZ to USA here; then
2. Add new products (design + materials) here.

(By default, all your new materials selections in step 2 will be from the USA catalog and this means all of your existing products will remain tagged with a NZ flag while all of your new products will be tagged with a USA flag).

Go to it!
This is just one more small step in us bringing you the future of making – it’s online, it’s digital and it’s local. This means it’s easy, it’s communal and it’s green.

We really hope you enjoy the changes. We’ve worked really hard to get to this point and we’re super charged to see what you think about them.

And remember if you are a Prime member, shipping is free  from our USA node to any continental USA destination (excluding Alaska), or shipped from our NZ node to any NZ destination for all orders of $100 or more (making + materials).

Want to show your creativity at your favorite event/s?

Whether it’s a local fair or an international gig, we’ll help you get there with FREE making, materials and/or shipping!

In return you’ll display some Ponoko cards, take some photos and write a story telling us all about it.

Just let us about your plans - about you, your product and the event:

About you
What’s up? 

Your product
What do you have in mind? And what are the normal costs to make it with us (making + materials + shipping)? 

The event
What, where, when, how many people?

Just email this info to us here: grants-at-ponoko.com … and we’ll get right back to you with details of your grant.

Happy days.

The grumpy old bugger probably deserves something!

While socks can be useful for so many things, so too can a voucher to make something.

A few bucks and you’ve given him at outlet for unlimited creative genius!

Make him smile  …

 Just contact us to make it happen, or send an email to service-at-ponoko.com

As a result of Prime members requesting unique materials and making cool cool stuff, we’ve just launched some of these into our materials catalog - available for everyone to enjoy.

There’s 4 new materials for you to get inspired with -

1) 100% Merino Wool Felt - both 0.12 in and 0.2in (3mm and 5mm) thick - in black and blue. All previous felts have been 0.12in (3mm) thick only.

2) Bamboo Ply - 0.12in / 3mm thickness. Previously bamboo was only available at 0.22 / 5.5mm thick.

3) Maple Veneer (Double Sided) - 0.39in / 10mm MDF. Now our 5th veneer.

Get them for half price!

For a period of 24 hours only, you’ll get these 4 new materials at 50% off the standard price.

When: 12:00am midnight Saturday March 28th to 11:59pm Saturday March 28th 2009. Pacific time.

How: During this timeframe,  each of these 4 materials will show 50% off the standard price stated on our website, as you make your way through the making process at the checkout. (If it does not calculate at 50% off, this means the timeframe has either expired or not started yet).

So this gives you the rest of the week to get your design ready to grab some new materials at a super great intro price.

Happy making

Ever wondered why you don’t make and sell as much cool stuff as you’d like?

You are not alone.

Many of us have great ideas for products that never get beyond the concept stage. Why? Because it’s just too hard.

Last year we surveyed over 10,000 creators and found many of them come up against the same brick walls. But if you thought it was time to give up – think again. Things have come along way. And that means many more people are making and selling their product ideas than ever before. You can be one of them.

Let’s take a look at what’s been around for a while and what’s brand spanking new – from Ponoko and others – to help make it faster, cheaper and easier for you to get your great idea to market. And let’s highlight what needs to be fixed.

An evolution in design

Traditionally, product designs were hand-drawn – a complex skill that requires a special talent and years of practice. Even then, it’s tricky and expensive to take a blueprint and convert into a real thing.

Then design software came along. Magic. But it’s still expensive to buy, complex to use well and often outputs a file format that’s pretty much Greek to a conventional machine shop. The advent of free design tools like Raven, Inkscape, Sketchup and Alibre made design software more accessible to emerging designers. These tools work well with the new frontier of manufacturing: digital fabricators and your personal online factory at Ponoko.

But for the ultimate in simplifying the design process even further there’s Ponoko’s Photomake service – you can now make a photo of a hand-drawn design, for real.

Or, if you just do not want to do the design work yourself, you can get a design-pro to help you turn your idea into a workable design using Ponoko ID.

A revolution in manufacturing

You know exactly how your product should be and, if you’ve got the requisite skill, there’s no one in the world better suited to making it from scratch. Great for a prototype or a one-off, but not highly accurate and possibly tedious to make identical copies once the big orders start rolling in.

Getting your product made by a big time manufacturer or even a conventional machine shop can be equally desperate. First you have to search for materials and manufacturing suppliers, sourcing and comparing all of their quotes. If you find a vendor you think you can work with, you then have to wade through the ‘engineer speak’ and refine your design into a format they can handle without compromising its integrity. After you’ve negotiated a maze of upfront costs and minimum orders, you then empty your bank account, place your order and hope it doesn’t get held up behind their much bigger, more important runs.

Then just before you finish tearing the last of your hair out, digital fabrication rides to the rescue. Digital fabrication uses technologies like laser-cutting, CNC routing and 3D printing that output products or product parts direct from digital designs. But you’ve still got to sort through a myriad of suppliers who do everything manually, meaning they want bigger orders than yours, otherwise you’re not really worth their while.

Or, you can take the easiest possible route – get your own personal online factory. At Ponoko, you can ‘click to make’ for instant online quotes and orders choosing from a wide range of materials including timbers, plastics, fabrics and metals. Or you can request your own materials with Ponoko’s Designmake Prime service.

And, if getting started in this new world of possibilities seems a little daunting, it’s worth knowing that there’s plenty of help and support available. Mingle with the Ponoko community. Post your questions on our forum. You can even get a design pro to review your design (for free) before you push the ‘go’ button!

A transformation in marketing

One of the very solid brick walls that creators hit is trying to sell their products. It doesn’t seem fair. You expect to emerge from the labyrinth of conventional manufacturing with a clutch of bright, shiny and inspired products - exhausted but happy - to the rousing applause of a throng of buyers. But no. You have to create a market.

If you’re not keen on selling to your friends and family or laying a white cloth over a table at the local weekend fair, you could try pounding the pavement to hunt down retailers. Or you could get smart and head online. Setting up a good website does not need to be expensive but there’s always the problem – and cost – of driving people to your site. So it’s a great idea to try sites like eBay or sign up to a specialist at selling your products online, like ETSY, SupermarketHQ, Dawanda or Ponoko.

Ponoko offers you a free online store – with zero fees for listing your products and zero fees when you successfully sell them. And, if you sign up to Designmake Prime, we’ll promote you direct to design store retailers too.

Design. Make. Sell. An unashamed plug for Ponoko!

The coolest thing about Ponoko is that we coordinate the design, make and sell steps for you – yours for the asking all in the one place at the click of a mouse. No upfront costs. No dead ends. No wasted pitches.

Before Ponoko, it took about 40 hours of your time going back and forth and around in circles with materials and manufacturing suppliers to get your product made – and many months to get the promotional wheels moving. But Ponoko has chopped the making process down to about 1 hour (or about 3 minutes when you know what you’re up to) – and the best we’ve seen is from concept to first sale in just 16 days and to major retailer in just 6 weeks (well done Chris!).

Plus Ponoko gives you a single place to test your ideas before you spend money on them – by uploading and promoting your design files, particularly to other designers – there’s over 15,000 of them on Ponoko now. And to test market your products at very low cost. For example, Alan Chao’s coasters cost him just $39.33 to get going and are now for sale at places like Veer.

We know it’s possible. People all around the globe are designing, making and selling products with Ponoko. We also know the costs are still a little higher than we’d like. The good news is we’ve got some things waiting in the wings to bring those costs down. But that’s another story. Expect to hear more about that real soon.

And in the meantime you might like to check this out, a great summary of all your options as a designer of products for yourself, for gifts or to sell to others …

The 7 new steps to make your own products from scratch

It’s good to be a designer in the digital age! You might be surprised just how much you can achieve in a short space of time. If you’re ready to start, then check out the 7 new steps to creating a successful product.

Last year we brought you lots of new stuff. It was an outrageous success for so many people. Thank you!

Well, we ain’t finished yet. So stay tuned. We’re about to open up some more fun for everyone.

I wonder if you can guess what it might be?