Hey Denny,

Just following up/bumping this thread

Qpony

Well I had an update last night...not good news unfortunately.

The manufacturer attempted a move to a lighter material but the cost nearly doubled. The initial material costs were already steep, too steep in fact to make doing this really viable. At that point I basically had to throw my hands up in the air and call the whole show off. I mean, I'm all for high quality mounts but there is a price-line I'm not willing to cross.

Sooooo...it's back to the drawing board. The big roadblock here is finding a manufacturer that also has a storefront interface to handle "cut on demand" orders. We don't have the funding, time or the infrastructure to handle a bulk tangible order system on our end. That immediately cancels out MANY options. It must be by design a cut-on-demand, licensed relationship.

I was looking at Ponoko but they don't actually send product direct to customers using their storefront. They take orders from customers but they then send those fulfillment's to the designer (WWG) first to send back out to the customer...doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and we just don't have time for that.

I'm still on the hunt, let me know if you guys come across anything promising. Sorry for the excruciating wait, I really thought we had this.

Why not just stick with foamcore and cut them out by hand and sell them?

You are in Vancouver with plenty of cheap cheap labor available.

I am sure the right trained hands could pump these out like nobodies business.

Can't the guys at Litko be any help? Just a thought.

Yeah, I'd make up a bunch of MDF jigs that make it impossible to cut out wrong, and get some starving students to go at it. Do it in one feverish weekend and see how long it takes to sell out. Adjust plans accordingly.

I'm bummed the other thing fell through, I'd been putting off my TLX build for the planner and the bases.

Ultraboard looks promising, but I can't find any vendors with a half-reasonable price. While it's not a listed method of cutting, because it's 100% plastic material it should be cuttable by CNC hot wire.

Barring that, I'm going to give the RotoZip one more try - this time using the straight edge guide.

Hey Denny,

Just bumping this - is there any idea how to move it forward? If not maybe you and I can PM about another vendor, die cut foamcore could work and be cheap enough (especially after the initial expense of making the die)

Has anyone looked into a mechanical punch for the notches?

So I can hold off buying foamcore as there might be something in the works?

Does anyone know a way to find out what companies print and cut the foam used for 3D jigsaw puzzles? If so, it might be a workable solution to the cost problem. The foam is softer and more flexible than that of foamcore, but it should work. No need to print the tiles, though having an array of infrastructure tiles may be an idea for later.

The Auld Grump