The laser cutter is officially up and operational!

It took some tweaking of; speed, laser power and build height, but it is cutting 3mm MDF superbly!

So what does this mean? That I will now begin cutting out the Kickstarter backer chassis's while I wait for the other parts to arrive. 

What else does this mean? That each PopPet can be unique. But I won't tell you all what this means just yet, I'll keep it a secret a little while longer. But for now, enjoy these pictures of my trials.

Finally the day has arrived, the laser cutter is here!

What an anxious wait that was! But finally my nerves are calmed, at least for now. The laser cutter arrived in perfect condition. As soon as I can I will fire it up and do a few test runs until the MDF sheets arrive, after which I will begin cutting out the PopPet chassis.

It only took a week to reach me (I missed the delivery and had to pick it up direct from the courier) which I was very happy about. The box obviously originally came from China, but it was posted from Sydney. But it was a quick delivery and it arrived in great condition so I can't complain.

In other news; Almost all of the PopPet parts have been ordered now with the exception of the battery holders. The parts will all arrive within a months time, but I will start to put together what I can with the parts I have at the time to get PopPet into your hands quicker.

Exciting times, big progress, on schedule. Couldn't be happier.

Regards,
Jaidyn

I've been quiet on here for a while, but for good reason.

Now, I believe in being completely transparent about where your backer money is going as it is your backer money which is making PopPet a reality. That said, for the past week I have been talking to a good friend of mine on the subject of laser cutters.

The original quote I got for laser cutting all of the PopPet chassis was $1.5k AUD, not including shipping. This seemed to be the best price I could get and so I used those figures in the costings. Something quite major has happened since then, I have ordered the brains, motors and screws/nuts all from the same manufacturer and have ended up saving roughly $1.3k AUD. So what does that mean? Well, if I add that amount to the laser cutting budget I get $2.8k AUD. After some heavy discussions and research, I have purchased a laser cutter with this money.

What difference will this make to you? None. PopPet's chassis will be exactly the same except I will be the one producing them, not a 3rd party facility.

What difference does this make to me? Two primary things; 1. More labour will be required to produce the chassis, but, 2. I can continue production of PopPet immediately after the initial rewards have been shipped out.

This particular machine will require some minor modifications to get it ready for heavy production work but it is more than capable of the task. 

In terms of our timeline, we are on schedule. We are five weeks from the end of the campaign and I have begun ordering parts. 

So far so good. No major delays, no monetary setbacks. All is good.

I can't wait for you all to get your PopPet's!

Regards,
Jaidyn