What happened to CNCKing.com?
I got an e-mail from a person whose been following me since my WoodMarvels.com days back in 2008 wondering what happened to the site? Where are all the new projects? Where are all the new blog posts etc… quick answer, CNCROi.com.
I’ve always seen CNCKing.com as a journey and personal stepping stone – it has allowed me many incredible opportunities in life, from being able to move to Australia to live out one of my dreams to eventually getting my own Trotec Speedy 400 flexx laser… put together my 5th book to being able to design pretty much anything I put my mind to. Without that experience, I wouldn’t have had the stories and adventures I can tell friends about today.
After I left Australia, I decided to take a break from the busy schedule I put myself under releasing new products, it’s a tremendous amount of work and although I’m efficient at it now compared to when I first began teaching myself to make 3D out of 2D, this break while living in China for a bit before moving back to Canada gave me some time to reflect on things.
I invested my life’s savings and then some into CNCROi.com, I can’t begin to describe how much of a gamble this has been for me… although you’d think landing “home” with the best CNC laser ever designed (in my opinion) may bring visions of instant riches with people flooding to my new business, it has been a slow crawl that’s now transforming into a stride.
Truth be told, few of my clients even know what a Trotec Laser is much less what I’ve been doing here at CNCKing.com for the past few years… so the only way to “prove” to them that I know what I do and can do what I say I can is to work hard with the laser and SHOW THEM. If you visit the blog on CNCROi.com, I now have almost 150 posts on there thus far, full of images, videos etc. Yes, those could have been 150 posts of new products and experiences here on CNCKing.com.
I knew a bit about lasers before getting mine but nothing compared to what I do now. Nothing beats working with a machine day in and out to learn a new skill. I’m by no ways an expert with the laser, the material options alone are truly endless, each with their little quirks, but I’m getting pretty good at it and screwing-up far less than I did in August of 2014.
Again, I landed here with a CNC laser in my hometown that I’ve been away from for almost a decade with no business contacts, no associations etc… going from negative startup making no money to now starting to see some return takes a lot of time, energy and effort. Yet, there is still much to learn!
Another huge time sink for me has been my 5th volume… it’s by far the most informative book I’ve ever written and I think it will hit a very broad range of readers interested in the CNC field. It does keep on getting pushed back, taking time to edit, write and rewrite content over and over and over again to get things more concise is quite a task.
Back to CNCKing.com, I’ve designed hundreds of “toys” thus far and although I can keep going down that path, I want to get into larger scale furniture and bigger things… I also want to make a lot more videos showing how I go about designing, cutting and building projects which I don’t have time to do at the moment. As CNCROi.com acquires more equipment and capabilities, those projects will get more interesting overtime. For instance, I now have metal cutting, bending and rolling abilities, a lot more wood carving and production capabilities, can make custom stamps etc… it opens my eyes to an incredible amount of creativity.
Before I envisioned showcasing projects made with CNC laser, router and plasma and although that hasn’t changed, the diversity of material options and their uses has really been broadened tremendously.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to the newsletter and you’ll see neat stuff done with a CNC laser and increasingly, router and other tools of the trade… I really enjoy the design process and look forward to making lots of cool stuff in the future and sharing the ideas behind it with you guys and in future books and videos.