Ponoko Blog
blog.ponoko.com · Company blog · on HN since 2010
Ponoko, a custom manufacturing and design service, blogged about 3D printing, open source hardware, robotics, and maker businesses.
What HN saysHN links it for maker and open hardware news, including Chris Anderson's rules for maker businesses. A Ponoko staffer also answers questions about their 3D printer.
15HN people shared it
2linked it in comments
15stories submitted
92story points
11 years agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1“Ten Rules for Maker Businesses” by Wired’s Chris Anderson4 people · 15 points · first shared 2011 · 1 comments on HN
- 2RepRap printed circuits1 people · 51 points · first shared 2012 · 12 comments on HN
- 3Truss-crawling robot builds its own structure to climb on1 people · 5 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 4$250 Arduino-powered robotic hand1 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 5Open source resin 3D printers in development « Ponoko – Blog1 people · 4 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 6Chris Anderson's (Wired) Rules for "Maker" Businesses that sell physical goods1 people · 3 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 7Ponoko's Personal Factory 4 Released - Now with 3D Printing.1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 8Inflatable robotic arm for DARPA1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 9Ponoko now offers 3D printing through a partnership with CloudFab1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 10Hobo codes for digital nomads1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 113d printed M.C. Escher's impossible structures1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 12How digital fabrication is democratizing product design1 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 13Ten-year-old wins first place at a university-level robotics competition1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 14Pandabot 3d printer launches on kickstarter1 people · first shared 2012
What HN people wrote when they linked it
kellyjrose · 2012-10-04
Thanks.
The basic thought was to get it to a point that we could provide it to designers and university students with little to no engineering experience and they could start printing their 3d models right away. Hence, the heavy emphasis on self-calibration and ease-of-use.
The price range just works because we also designed it from the start to be a manufactured product, so we get an economy of scale very quickly as more people pick it up.
You can see print quality examples on ponoko, Derek swung by our office to see it close up in action yesterday: http://blog.ponoko.com/2012/10/04/pandabot-3d-printer-launches-on-kick…
retroafroman · 2011-01-05
I'm not sure if this applies to your situation, but some of the open source hardware vendors run small time operations selling actual, physical things, with only one or two employees, over the internet. Chris Anderson, previous editor of Wired, started such a business and wrote up some interesting lessons for these types of small business:
http://blog.ponoko.com/2010/11/16/ten-rules-for-maker-businesses-by-wi…
Adafruit, and OSHW vendor also did a few write ups recently about shipping with UPS. You can see those on their blog:
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/01/03/shipping-geeks-and-kit-biz-own…
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/04/07/thomasatups-for-shipping-geeks…
Hope that is helpful!