Long time Adafruit customer here; I really liked your presentation at the Open Source Hardware Summit where you talked about why people should do open source hardware projects.
I’m reaching out to you for help in publicizing my project, OpenBeam. I feel that there is a genuine demand for an extrusion that is stiffer than MicroRax / MakerBeam but still smaller than an 80/20 extrusion, and I don’t think the 80/20 prices are reasonable for hobbyist use with the cost of their speciality fasteners. I’ve also been very frustrated at the technical flaws in Makerbeam’s fasteners (that to my knowledge, is still uncorrected after 2 years), the lack of project progress, and their availability.
I’ve worked very hard to engineer OpenBeam to have all the features of 80/20 (including the hole for edge tapping), being able to price-match against MicroRAX even though MicroRAX has 1/3 the material as OpenBeam, and still have enough margin to sustain this as a business. So far, everyone at the local hackerspace that’s played with the prototype extrusions likes what they see.
4 days into the 30 day funding campaign, we managed to raised 1/6 of the goal. As we approach “The Trench” in the funding cycle, it is crucial to try to keep the interest level up.
Will you be so kind to mention this project in your blog posts?
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Are you planning to stock this stuff after the Kickstarter is successful?