@Camerin_hahn I think the columns are two pieces bolted together in the middle. Which would make each of them about 6" long. (But also means more molds, of course.) On nationality… the team names: Paul Keung, Shin Lau, and Shuo Shu …Maybe one of them has a relative who owns an injection molding shop, you never know. (Or they could just be idiots or scammers.)
@Ryan_Carlyle I’ve got one of those steppers. I did the bipolar modification (cut one trace), and hooked it up to a step stick, 12v. If I remember correctly, I was getting 16 revs a minute before it just started buzzing. I would expect that the internal gear hooked up to the stepper axle itself would wear out pretty quick; they are pretty small.
@Ryan_Carlyle multiple parts means more fasteners or more interesting feature. These features could take a few revisions to get right. Assuming you error on the side of cutting too little material for the first tool so you can re-run
@Nathan_Walkner I am arguing that there just isn’t enough margin for them to make it. Assuming you choose the worst clones and cut all the corners… There isn’t enough margin.
@Ryan_Carlyle shipping of parts to the central location for packing is not covered by the customer
@Nathan_Walkner @Camerin_hahn we’re ALL saying they’re not going to succeed in any normal definition of the word “succeed”. We just have slight disagreements on exactly how badly they’re going to fail and/or lose money. I suspect this might be a loss-leader project by a Chinese company who is trying to launch a brand, in which case they may not care if the Kickstarter campaign is a net loss.