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Thread: Got a good product but need it made for less than you can do it?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Boca Raton FL
    Posts
    81

    Default Got a good product but need it made for less than you can do it?

    I am a former Shopbot owner and have a lot of experience working with the Shopbot. It was a great design and prototyping tool. In the end though to compete I had to get our products make overseas. My on the door finished price with painted furniture was about what it cost me for materials.

    If you have a wood product that you have been making on your Shopbot and you want to get a whole container load made for less, drop me an e-mail and I can help you get your product made for less. Cut, finished, and packaged ready to sell. Concentrate on design, not mass production.

    I have the experience to take your Shopbot project and get it done right overseas. I speak Shopbot.

    Andrew McClary
    andrew@davincispocket.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    H & H Woodworking, Polkton NC
    Posts
    233

    Default

    I hope you have had the finishes and products tested for your safety and the end users. A lot of the cheap stuff done overseas is going to come back and haunt businesses, you better make sure you have the products tested by a independant lab.

    I think that I will stay in house, "my design and prototyping tool" has been making me money just fine, sometimes its not the tool thats the problem, I really have a problem with everyone wanting to go overseas to compete. The people overseas deserve a decent wage that they are not receiving, its nothing to do with competing but wanting to make more money. The space between the have and have nots is ever increasing and the middle class is fastly disappearing. Sorry nothing personal but I hate this attitude.

    Thank goodness that people still want quality products made from local shops and everyone doesn't have a walmart mentality. Just my 2 cents

    This is in no way a personal attack. But it is time that we all take a look at how we do business and what and how we purchase effects our and other people's lives.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    RC CNC, Roberts Creek BC
    Posts
    271

    Default

    I agree with Andrew.This desire to chase the ever loving dollar is at the root of most of are problems(I'm thinking Wallmart).Remember the good old days when the mom & pop stores domonated are landscape and everyone made a decent living.
    I think someting is wrong when people would rather buy a inferior item and keep replacing it than to buy a quality item once.

    Brian

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    , Cheltenham
    Posts
    415

    Default

    I agree with Jeff.
    I have a friend carpenter in Zambia who earns 2 dollar a DAY. And, given that he has no electric help, he does a damn good job. I then read on this site of folk who earn 200 - 300 dollar an hour. Hopefully, one day it will all level out a bit.
    My 2p R.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Beckwith Decor Products, Derby/Wichita KS
    Posts
    612

    Default

    Idle hands while waiting on two machines to finish cutting so just got to have a shot at this one.

    So Andrew what your advertising here on Shopbot's forum is for everyone to sell their Shopbots (or don't buy one in the first place)then don't make any product and contact you to outsource it overseas whereby you can get a cut brokering an inferior product that we need yesterday but are going to wait 8 weeks for on the slow boat from China.

    Checked your site out and noticed the 4 products you sell are all electronic or radio contolled, yep thats talking Shopbot alright, where's the wood products you mentioned, got to hand it to you, you've got bal.s

    Sorry but guess I am taking a cheap shot at you
    because its people like you that hurts the small businesses which in turn effects the local economy.
    I appoligize to the forum and will understand if the administrator deletes this one.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    468

    Default

    I have a friend in the aluminum manufacturing business. He keeps trying to outsource some of his small sub assemblies to China. It's not been a smooth road for him and about every other month he swears he's going to go back to in house on everything. Always seems to be a quality control issue or a miscommunication or a late shipment fouling his production line. I think he's about to give up after 5 years of banging his head on a wall.

    I have a Shopbot because I can crank out lot's of custom parts FAST! China can't do that for me, thank you. If I wanted thousands of exactly the same product I wouldn't be a wood worker!!!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Wolcottville IN
    Posts
    135

    Default

    I remember meeting Andrew at Ed Conley’s Atlanta Camp ShopBot. He actually seemed to be a pleasant, and interesting individual. As I recall he has obviously traveled the world much more than myself, which may be a factor in him seeing some things from a different perspective than most of us.

    I have been involved in supplying steam bent components to US furniture manufacturers for years. As everyone knows, US wood furniture manufacturing continues to decline, due to the global market created by those in power.

    Competition in a free market economy is a good thing as long as there is a somewhat level playing field. Currently we go to Wal-Mart and buy things produced in factories that would not come close to passing requirements imposed on US producers by OSHA, EPA, etc. As long as this situation continues, coupled with the perception of entitlement held by much of our population, manufacturing here will continue to decline and we will continue on the path towards personal and national bankruptcy.

    Not so many years ago, the efforts and risk taking of an entrepreneur like Andrew would have had an impact on others much more local to him. When your neighbor may also be your employee or supplier there tends to be a more equitable distribution of income.

    I do not believe that the likes of Andrew are the cause of our new economic reality. It originates on Wall Street where some are making millions as fast as we make shavings. These nearly incomprehendable amounts of money do a thorough job of eliminating whatever little conscience remained.

    For those who are willing to produce whatever the customer cannot find in the mass market, and aim to deliver a little more than the customer expects, there will always be opportunities.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM
    Posts
    861

    Default

    Gotta stop worrying about China and India, you can't stop that momentum.
    Consider our what our neighbors and our political leaders are up to.
    Heard about the "North American Union"?
    The master plan for a common currency and open borders between US, Mexico, and Canada.
    Even though there was no vote to enter into this agreement, and few news reports about it, its happening and steadily moving forward.
    Scarry but check the web to see whats up with the "north american union". You may be surprised.

    Not sure what that will mean in terms of "leveling the field" but inclined to believe the good old usa folks may take the brunt of the change and fear it may not be that positive.
    No stopping the momentum as the globe gets smaller and smaller but glad the developments like shop bot are out there to help us compete on some level.
    Nobody said it would be easy.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    , South Daytona Florida
    Posts
    408

    Default

    It's going to take 50 years of business chasing cheap labor around the globe until there isn't any labor left that's cheap enough to bother with and things settle back down into something that seems familiar. Look how long it took for manufacturers to abandon Mexico for cheaper environs.

    The genie is out of the bottle. The oil century is going to be a memory soon. Our global economic hegemony is fading fast. Our complacency will be our undoing.

    The choices we make in the next few years are going to have a profound effect on our children's and grandchildren's lives.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    cnc routing, portland or
    Posts
    3,633

    Default

    the biggest problem is corporate attitude. In the us the big guys say how can we make more profit? in japan it is how can we make out customers happy. thats a huge attitude difference. in the us it's all about growth all the time. nothing can grow forever. even when a company is making a profit there can be layoffs because the profit is not high enough.

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