How Much Is It? ~ Most Common CNCKing.com Chat Questions

Continuing on the themes of yesterday’s online chat sessions – I generally get the same questions repeatedly and as a result, I generally know right away the kind of customer to segment them into. Here are a list of the most common questions I get from visitors. This isn’t in any particular order.

Question #1: Are you really there?

People are astonished that for a few hours everyday, I’m actually ON the site answering questions – they don’t believe it and ask me skill testing questions like “are you a robot?” or “how do I know you are real?”

My answer? I ask them if they are human in response to the robot question and “I think so” regarding the reality question.

Question #2: How much is (insert project name)?

Right away, if people ask me how much, I know they will not buy anything – seriously, if you see a picture and your first question is price meaning you can’t be bothered to READ the page you are on for location or link to the CNCKing.com product – you aren’t buying.

My answer? Do you have a (insert relevant CNC equipment). If the answer is relevant, then I just send them a link to the product but more often the answer is “no” or “just researching” then I tell them to buy a CNC then I’ll tell them. I don’t mean to be so blunt but you can’t research pricing and compare CNC project plans and if you are that price conscious, you will not be buying a physical kit and most likely, have no CNC experience under your belt so you lack a proper frame of reference to begin with.

I had a customer the other day tell me how much they loved my Eiffel Tower and that they wanted to get one for their kid. I ask them if they had a laser and the answer was “no”. So I told them that unless they have a few thousand dollars, it isn’t happening and they promptly lost interest. People think that because something is nice that it’s cheap – some things in life are like this but CNC laser project and table router projects (to a lesser extent) are generally NOT cheap. These CNC machines cost money, the material they cut or engrave is higher quality and need a skilled operator who knows what they are doing (they aren’t working a minimum wage job). A project that’s almost 2 meters tall and that requires a machine worth at least 50K to cut + a minimum of 10 hours of laser time + material isn’t going to be anywhere near a few hundred dollars.

Question #3: I ordered (product plan name) and haven’t received it yet

This kind of question can go into two directions – somebody who did buy a project but the correspondence with download instructions got into the SPAM box OR somebody who ordered a digital project file to “save money” instead of the physical one but though I’d send it to them anyhow to make them happy.

The first circumstance is generally resolved very quickly – I look-up their order and send the files through if they have trouble logging into their CNCKing.com account.

The second circumstance is just annoying. Generally, it’s a person who doesn’t even know what a CNC machine is, doesn’t know how the difference between a digital and a physical project and thinks they deserve special treatment as a result. I got so frustrated with this kind of customer that it played a critical role in me completely removing all physical kits from CNCKing.com earlier in the year. Let’s take the laser cut Eiffel Tower for example (they bought a bunch of other plans that I don’t remember specifically). There would be three options.

Physical Kit = ~2500$US
Digital CNC files = ~60$US
Digital Assembly Instructions = ~10$US

Customer would order the 10$US Eiffel Tower then a few weeks down the road, send me an e-mail that they didn’t receive the 2500$US physical kit. Yeah… I’m serious! Not only that – I had this happen once where the person ordered “Christmas presents” for their kids and was wondering why Santa didn’t bring it on time as the 25th was only a few days away. There is no way you will ever get a 2500$US laser cut Eiffel Tower for 10$ including material, time, cutting and shipping. I call this the “Walmart Effect” where people just look for the cheapest price and don’t bother reading the product details.

Question #4: I have (CNC machine type), can I make (different machine type) product?

This really depends, although you could “technically” cut a 3D printer project using a CNC laser or table router, it’s just a waste of time as you either need almost endless 1-2mm thin layers of material OR have to move the physical “cube” 6 times to be able to cut/engrave each side. Yeah… not something you want to be doing.

You can totally cut a CNC table router project using a laser – import the file into your software and cut away without any issues.

You cannot cut a laser project using a CNC table router without having to do some modifications to the design – which can be trivial or extensive depending on the design – check-out my Sydney Harbour Bridge laser —> table router to get an idea of the work involved and that’s an EASY project conversion!

The reason for this yes/no answer is simple, rounded inner corners can be cut with a laser but square inner corners can’t be cut with a router as you are dealing with a round bit and you need more tolerance due to a “thick” router bit vs a “thin” beam of (laser) energy.

Question #5: Awesome design… do you offer discounts?

Yeah I do, buy a commercial license (that’s what it’s for) and you get a discount on every purchase as long as you keep your license active, otherwise, most likely not unless you are a non-profit CNC machine shop in the middle of nowhere. You might think there is huge money in this stuff but take a look at a 10$ digital file. If it’s another designer’s work on CNCKing.com, 10$ / 2 = 5$ (we split 50/50) then minus the paypal that’s .50-.75 cents and you see, not much room for a discount!

Question #6: I want a (CNC machine type), which should I buy?

I generally get their details and forward them off to a local representative if I know one for the machine they are after or put them in touch with some of my industry contacts – the CNC world is rather small and close knit so I’m more than happy to grow it however I can so the manufacturer can sell more machines and I can sell more plans for said machine. It’s totally a win/win/win (customer has machine, factory has a customer and I sell plans)!

Interestingly enough, I also get the “how much is it” regarding CNC equipment as well – as a friend told me the other day, it’s between 5K and 400K… not much help but it is the truth. The question shouldn’t be “how much is it?” but “how fast can I pay if off (ROI)?” but that’s a topic for another blog post.

There are probably a bunch more questions that escape me at the moment but these are by far the most often asked.