The Challenge of Infinite Possibilities
You know the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”? Well, the person who came up with that didn’t have CNC machines!
Masking over the hardboard… clean surface once removed!
The challenge I’ve had with CNCROi.com as we expand in capabilities and offerings is trying to keep things “tight”. There is truly an infinite amount of possibilities that my shop can build, from designing and constructing custom models and custom signage to custom coasters and trade show installations/displays. It’s absolutely incredible what we can do across a variety of materials from paper to stainless steel and anything in-between!
Once masking removed, this is the result from all the above pieces.
The above model, a Wooden Big Wheels I designed a while back is a prime example. This is made out of hardboard but we could just as easily make it out of acrylic, cardboard, metal etc… and it can be used for everything from rapid prototyping to a display at a trade show to a corporate award representing a companies product.
Taking it a step further, it can be made at any scale, you want keychains with this Big Wheels displayed on it? No problem! You want this image hot foil stamped on paper or hot branded onto wine cases? No problem… want a rubber stamp or delrin seal to use for promotional purposes to cement your products in the minds of your customers and leads? No problem!
Aluminium bonded black with our laser… 600 dpi+ resolution!
Whether you are focused on one product or a range of offerings, are a multi-national wanting some attention or a small local shop needing something in your window to get people in the door, we can make signage, awards, displays… anything really, using your corporate colors, logos etc.
It takes a while for customers to wrap their heads around what we are offering, it’s like having a tool case with every tool ever invented from which to make anything you want. That’s what CNCROi.com offers… but with the added benefit of custom designing with optimized processes in mind. What this means is that we can cost effectively handle custom projects at pretty much any volume and scale. Want a massive dinosaur for a theme park with matching custom mugs, puzzles, stamps etc.? We can do all that here!
When we have a customer wanting something from us, once we understand the application, the next question to ask is budget, not to be rude but we got to narrow down what processes make sense to fit within a specific target price range. For instance, maybe making aluminium dies is overkill where rubber stamps or Delrin seals are more than capable of doing this job, at a fraction of the price!
The same goes with custom tags and signage, sometimes it’s more cost effective to use “standard sizes”, especially when the volume is low. These options and more are all affected by price, there is some give and take, the more custom numerical control you want us to do for you, the higher the cost. There is no way around that.
One of our many custom metal forming toys.
I wrote earlier as to why budgets are important as we work on a per project basis, not hourly. The additional challenge is that we are sometimes asked to do things that I doubt anybody else has ever done, so we are charting unknown territory and that leads to version numbers. We recently did a custom sign that looked great but fell apart two weeks later, our solution? Take that as a lesson learned and make one dramatically better. How much did we charge the customer for re-doing a project even more complex and dramatically stronger? NOTHING.
We are a custom CNC shop, if things don’t work, I believe strongly that it’s squarely our fault and the customer shouldn’t be penalized. It’s like driving in the dark without headlights, it was up to us to put them on as we are the “experts” and not our client to suffer as a result of our lack of knowledge. This is what makes running CNCROi.com so much fun, each project, we learn a bit more, most of the time, things come out awesome and when they don’t, we make it awesome the next time around!
So, do you have a need for a specific application that you’d like somebody to design and build for you with a specific budget and volume in mind? Contact us today!
