It's news today and a common tale. More to come I am sure....
The Future Of MakerGear - https://makergear.com/pages/the-future-of-makergear
0:00 - Oh No!!
1:59 - Things are tough all over
3:47 - The M3 is a solid design, but...
5:22 - Bring manufacturing back to the USA???
8:00 - All those printer companies...
9:32 - Thanks Patrons!
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By Fran

14 thoughts on “Oh no!! makergear in trouble”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Alex Tirrell says:

    Unrelated to the video's topic, I was resetting the YouTube resolution from 480P up and I noticed the video was shot in 1080p50 which I thought was a it odd, as that's the PAL standard. I haven't noticed that on Fran's videos before though I did notice she was doing some background removal for this one.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars hpux735 says:

    The bigger issue with Chinese manufacturing with large corporations is that the labor is starting to get expensive (relatively). A lot of manufacturing is now moving to Vietnam, Thailand, and other developing economies.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Marty Cooper says:

    The de-industrialization of America has a lot more to do with burdensome regulations, high taxes, collective bargaining, and the weird obsession of the education system on belittling trades and promoting useless degrees. Anyone who ever tries to fix these issues is ridiculed and derided and slandered so they have no influence to fix the broken system.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Laurie Seto says:

    .. Cheers to you. ..

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars BeyondMarked says:

    Couldnโ€™t one just print the parts they need? A network of users, one needs a part, the others print it.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SuperShecky says:

    You can't blame only corporate greed. Real costs for lots of goods have gone way, way down in my lifetime (we're the same age). Assuming industry could onshore back to N America/US, there's no way most consumers would be able to afford labor costs alone. If you could find the labor. Here in the US, we've spent decades training people to get out of manufacturing trades. Not to mention the environmental costs that American industry hate, and American public have grown to expect at the same time.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars may be says:

    Here today , gone tomorrow! Typical

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Siana Gearz says:

    I don't think China is interesting to large industry long term, it's getting more and more expensive. They'll move to Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia instead. Not back to the West.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dennis says:

    Yah the politicians in DC always say we'll bring back jobs here, Its not that simple. I watched 2 steel mills in the mid west try to make a comeback in the past decade. One was a large one and the second was a smaller one , they both lost investor money and there only ran on a peace mill basis. It'll never be what it once was no matter how hard the try. Things have changed on a global scale and the genie ain't going back in the bottle.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Martin Schultz says:

    Seems to be the way of 3D printer companies…..
    I started with Printrbot, back when they had the laser cut wood kits, and they self destructed due to a bunch of bad management decisions. Glad I never bought one of their cloud based printers because it would have become an expensive brick.
    Then for several years I built my own printers by buying individual parts and printing stuff for them on the last good Printrbot.
    Two years ago I got a Prusa MK3S and that thing is amazing, got me into using high temperature filaments I would have never tried before like polycarbonate. Print from SD card is the best way to go with a printer, I set up a Raspberry Pi with Octoprint but haven't found it any better than printing direct from SD, although I do still fire up Octoprint just for the live camera feed.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars graphosxp says:

    This does not bother me as much as built-in/planned obsolescence which has turned my home into a graveyard of sh*t that still work but can't work. I have a Toshiba 13" android tablet with perfectly working hardware and a LOCKED bootloader that prevents the device from being rooted and actually usable. Even very basic things like proprietary\non-standard connectors that prevent old computers from receiving an upgrade to the power supply. Or ECC RAM that won't work in a desktop computer. These are not "Made in China" problems but instead are sick decisions made by many American owned corporations rewarded every few years with more tax breaks while many of their workers need Medicaid/food stamps to get by. Let's also remember that many things made in China\outside USA rely completely on the fact that foreign nations do heavy damage to local habitat when extracting things like rare earth minerals, lithium for batteries etc. Tearing down a whole mountain in South America or Asia and those people there be damned so that the raw materials can come to Pennsylvania and be used for US factories is no solution. Global problems require global solutions.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Keith Marlow says:

    More manufacturing should be local AND distributed. Once the cost to make drops below a certain point, physical location is less of a worrying and convenience & security of supply takes over. The increasing automation and miniaturisation of what were once consider highly manual/expensive operations will result in more manufacturing coming home. All industries through time have gone through this cycle, be it Ag, weaving, etc

    MakerGear need to get people to scream at their government and really change the dynamics to favour local.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Heckman says:

    Tell me about it. I had a job that left the country too. It's all about the greedy big companies looking for CHEAP labor. Of course, the execs get their big salaries and bonuses! Sorry to see this happen to any company but now, you see, the birds have come home to roost. All this in the name of cheap overseas labor. Now this country is hurting.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MakerGear says:

    MakerGear has not shut down and we are not planning to shut down. I've listened to about 4 minutes of the video and need to comment. We are facing a severe challenges because we can't get parts to build printers. Our printers are our primary revenue stream so this is a serious problem. And, the problem is not with China. We do not buy a lot of parts from China. The problem is primarily with our domestic supply chain. To deal with this, we have scaled-back operations but continue to offer technical support and spare parts. We put up the message to warn our customers about the supply chain issues BEFORE they place any new orders so they can make an educated decision. Our goal now is to find an entity with deeper pockets to take over but we will consider other options if the end result is the ability to innovate and move the company forward.

    NOTHING on the M3 requires cloud access!! Simplify3D uses the cloud for verification but that is not a MakerGear product. Open source slicers work with the M3. MakerGear printers will continue to work whether or not we exist. Plus, the firmware and electronics are open source.

    Now, I'll watch the rest of the video…

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