TINYenormous – Build it up to break it down again

I signed up for ponoko a few months ago when oomlout put up the plans for their robotic arm on thingaverse. It seemed like a cool service, but I didn't want to drop a few hundred on a robotic arm with no real need (who needs a need?) for it, so I moved on.

This weekend I thought up a cool project that would be perfect test for ponoko, so I sketched it out, drew it in illustrator, and uploaded it to ponoko. There were a few snags along the way, but all in all it was a good experience, I learned a bit about how one would create 3d flatpack objects, and a good time was had by all. At this point I had mentally written this very same post - except originally it was a glowing review.

I finished my design, uploaded it, selected materials, tweaked a few things, and then was so excited I pushed through and went ahead to purchase it. This is when the disappointment really set in. I had read some things about shipping in the forums as I was searching for my various hangups earlier on in the day. When I finally got to face this monster head on it was frightening. My part used 3 pieces of acrylic that were roughly 20cm to a side and 3mm thick. It has a modest amount of cutting in it as well. The subtotal came out to about $20, which I thought was a fair price considering it was a one-off. The ridiculous thing is that shipping is more than the part! Shipping and handling came out to $23. Suddenly my $20 part (that was expensive, but not too expensive) turned into a $43 part, and that simply means that it will never exist.

There is a LOT of discussion on their site about how expensive shipping is, why it is so expensive, and a fair number of suggestions on alternatives. I'm not certain if they make all of their money on the overpriced $10 handling fee that is attached to every order, but even so, it seems like their should be options for speed and level of service in regards to shipping methods. If you can order something cut out of roughly 20 different colors of acrylic - why not have standard and express shipping?

Maybe I would not have had such a violent reaction to the shipping price if I hadn't been so excited about the overall product. I was genuinely excited about cutting my own invention, and then equally disappointed by the sticker shock.

Ponoko has a post mentioning that they dropped their prices sometime this past march. I would have hated to see the old prices! Unless they drop their prices significantly more I will never be able to get excited about their (admittedly interesting) service again.