Just saw that the Evil Mad Scientists have a new Drawbot:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2016/axidraw/

Looks very promising, especially the drawspeed. They use Inkscape as their GUI, just like they did with the watercolor bot.

Misan is far from the only one who has made a DIY/self-source version available, and who knows how many more people have made their own and not shared it online. I know EMSL prices their kits as they feel they must, and they know much more about selling kits than I do, but I'm wondering if they were to accept a lower margin on each kit, they might, in the end, make more money. I suppose they have a number of kits they can afford to make and stock, at a certain rate, and that dictates the margin as much as the cost of materials/labor/support.

The number of AxiDraw clones that have appeared and received an enthusiastic response from the community shows there's a sizeable market for the kit that is unable or unwilling to pay $450 for it (and the same could be said of their Eggbot line, even at their lower price point). Perhaps, in the "maker" community, there's always a percentage of people who will want to make it themselves, out of materials they already have. There's no price point low enough for them, so there's no profit in chasing after them.

For whatever reasons, kits apparently have to be priced in a way that makes them out of reach for the average kid, and that sucks. Anyone with experience selling kits have any comments on figuring out the right price point for a product? I've gotten emails from O'Reilly/Maker Media regarding seminars on the subject of selling kits and the like, but attendance always costs hundreds of dollars, so yeah, I'm not going.

Axidraw V3 has been released. $475.
http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/846

I want to buy some of that custom extrusion they're using on the Y axis (if that's what the 'arm' is) for a project I'm designing. Looks lighter than the alternatives.