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Thread: Wondering you are doing more with your laser right now as a hobby?

  1. #1

    Wondering you are doing more with your laser right now as a hobby?

    I am sure there are many of your who might be staying home more. Are you doing anything fun with your laser as you might have more time? I find being creative helps keep my mood up. I am also taking the time to come up with new products for my laser business. I am still getting customers, but it has slowed down for sure.
    Redsail x700, 50watt & Shenhui 350, 50 watt

  2. #2
    --as a hobby? I could only wish! I already have work piled up till August and beyond. But too much work beats the alternative...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    --as a hobby? I could only wish! I already have work piled up till August and beyond. But too much work beats the alternative...

    Glad to see you are still, busy. At the moment I am pretty busy and I wish my customers were patient to wait till august. Most of my jobs have to be done with 1-2 weeks. But right now I wonder if things will really hit our market or not? I wonder is chinese tubes will get more expensive, and harder to get also.
    Redsail x700, 50watt & Shenhui 350, 50 watt

  4. #4
    The majority of 'piled up work' I have is for 2 ski lift manufacturers. I get PO's issued about every 2 weeks for operator panels from Company "D" that I build from scratch. They've sold 21 new lifts so far, the parts are mfr'd in order, shipped to the site, then build the next set, ship, repeat- Then come late Sept they stop local work and head for the mountains to install everything. Company "S" is basically the same except they do rebuilds more than new lifts, and they make their own SS panels, I just Cermark them. The only part of their operations affected by the pandemic is office staff, which are all working from home, manufacturing is biz as usual. A 3rd good customer builds mining trucks that mix ammonium nitrate and fuel oil into ANFO and HANFO for blowing big holes in the ground. They build 2 to 4 trucks per month on average, each truck is about $1200 worth of work for me. They're not shutting down either.

    I consider myself very lucky, given the current state of the economy.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  5. #5
    I'd recommend anyone working through this period touch base with your customers to make sure they want you to continue.

    Often vendors like us are the last thing on people's minds and if a situation like this, it's very dangerous to assume what was good to proceed with 2 weeks ago is still good to go today.
    Equipment: IS400, IS6000, VLS 6.60, LS100, HP4550, Ricoh GX e3300n, Hotronix STX20
    Software: Adobe Suite & Gravostyle 5
    Business: Trophy, Awards and Engraving

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Ross Moshinsky View Post
    I'd recommend anyone working through this period touch base with your customers to make sure they want you to continue.

    Often vendors like us are the last thing on people's minds and if a situation like this, it's very dangerous to assume what was good to proceed with 2 weeks ago is still good to go today.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ross Moshinsky View Post
    I'd recommend anyone working through this period touch base with your customers to make sure they want you to continue.

    Often vendors like us are the last thing on people's minds and if a situation like this, it's very dangerous to assume what was good to proceed with 2 weeks ago is still good to go today.

    You are correct. I am cautiously optimistic. And know things could turn for the worse business wise any-day. I hope all of you are doing well, being safe. And I hope your business still thrive through this.
    Redsail x700, 50watt & Shenhui 350, 50 watt

  7. #7
    Glad I'm industrial.. so far today I've received around 20 biz-related emails, taken 14 phone calls from 11 different customers, 2 of which are new-today customers... The only pull-back I've had was a cowbell order headed for the Netherlands, the event these were slated for was cancelled. Otherwise, I don't know how I'm going to keep up--
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  8. #8
    I'm still recommending caution. I'll tell a quick story.

    A few weeks back I'm working on a project while Covid-19 is mostly in China and slowly moving across Europe. I'm talking to my customers and they're all wanting to proceed. Things continue to get worse, their stand stays the same. It's in the US, Europe is shutting down, their stand is the same. Now it's taking over the area, schools are talking about shutting down, they say they've talked it over and wanted to continue. About 5 days later I email them and tell them we can either continue or postpone but at this point I know first hand the event space they're holding their event has canceled events moving forward. They call off the event and reschedule from mid April to mid July. So it took 2-3 weeks for it all to sink in. Utah is roughly 1-2 weeks behind where we are today based on the graphs and projects I've seen.

    Now industrial/business customers think they need this stuff. Some may be proceeding under the business as usual mentality. Business is not as usual here. Not even close.

    So I still recommend you touch base with each of your customers before you proceed with work and get paid up front at least something. It's not only possible, but likely, some of these orders you're working on, that are part of bigger projects, have been or will be canceled. Demand is definitely going to change as a result of this world wide situation. It's just the reality.

    Sending a quick email before going into production saying "Hey, I just wanted to check to make sure you want to us to proceed with the order. Once we receive your approval, we'll have it ready for you in X days. Let me know." Is a quick and easy way to save yourself a lot of headaches in the future.
    Equipment: IS400, IS6000, VLS 6.60, LS100, HP4550, Ricoh GX e3300n, Hotronix STX20
    Software: Adobe Suite & Gravostyle 5
    Business: Trophy, Awards and Engraving

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