bhicks, were you the one that was printing those "80" decals for the rear hatch? i went to go pick one up finally and i can't find them anymore...
Sweet Cup Holders
- Thread starter akarilo
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Well dangit. I just installed a double-cup holder and there was no cell slot option available. That sure looks slick!
I have those, love em. I actually did powder coat clear right over the red and machined part, came out great!
For the folks who may not go back a page; here is the post I put up last night at the end of page 2. I just want to make sure folks know of the change on the 80 series cup holders. Want to make sure there are no surprises when you open up the box and you know exactly what you ordered. The pics have been updated on my website but some follks don't pay attention to that.
"Wasn't in the mood the start another cup holder thread so I figured I would just add to this one. The 80 series cup holders have gone through some changes over the last few weeks and are now up on my site. I didn't change much. I had a lot of folks ask for cell phone slots on their cup holders like I did for the 3rd Gen 4Runner crowd. I finally had some down time now that I have a guy doing all my plastic and metal work. I'm back into the world of designing. I don't know if I will keep this company going much longer but I figured I would keep expanding while I can and then pass it on to someone with more time. The front double and single cup holder now have a cell phone holder. The pics make the cell phone holder look huge but it's really just my wifes S4 mini which is a super small phone. I made sure that even the biggest phones on the market can fit in these. The last double of the old design sold yesterday, so they are gone but I am open to printing to old version on request. The new single cup holder is now out but I also have a few of the old style still available on my site until they all sell. jAlthough these are slightly longer prints with a bit more material; I did not change the prices. Sorry for my interior with missing parts. I'm trying to get it all wrapped up. Here's how the new versions look."
"Wasn't in the mood the start another cup holder thread so I figured I would just add to this one. The 80 series cup holders have gone through some changes over the last few weeks and are now up on my site. I didn't change much. I had a lot of folks ask for cell phone slots on their cup holders like I did for the 3rd Gen 4Runner crowd. I finally had some down time now that I have a guy doing all my plastic and metal work. I'm back into the world of designing. I don't know if I will keep this company going much longer but I figured I would keep expanding while I can and then pass it on to someone with more time. The front double and single cup holder now have a cell phone holder. The pics make the cell phone holder look huge but it's really just my wifes S4 mini which is a super small phone. I made sure that even the biggest phones on the market can fit in these. The last double of the old design sold yesterday, so they are gone but I am open to printing to old version on request. The new single cup holder is now out but I also have a few of the old style still available on my site until they all sell. jAlthough these are slightly longer prints with a bit more material; I did not change the prices. Sorry for my interior with missing parts. I'm trying to get it all wrapped up. Here's how the new versions look."
but no more "80" badges, correct?
Sorry. I didn't realize you said "80". Those have been discontinued. For every 50 or so TEQ badges I would sell one 80 badge. Wasn't worth the investment in converting them to aluminum. It would take years for me to just break even on that product. I may have an old plastic one in my old parts bin. If interested shoot me a pm and we can figure something out.
Sorry, I didn't even catch your post. I knew there would be folks bummed out that recently purchased my last design. In the end, I have to continue to improve and meet the needs of my buyers as they evolve. That is one of the great things about 3D printing is that I can continue to make changes and don't have to pay another 20k in making a new mold. I think of it more like a technology like cell phones. New models just keep coming out to better meet the consumer desires.
So it's time for another update. I decided to change the square insert cup holder to accept larger phones. Phones just keep getting bigger and bigger and I'm doing everything in my power to account for bigger phones with the very limited space I am working with. The new square insert cup holder no longer has the front or side wall for the cell phone slot. It's totally open for the cell slot. That gave me 1/8" more width and depth. It's not a lot but did open up a few more phone models. Basically if your phone will slide 1/2 way down into the square hole right now then it will slide down into the cell slot as well. The last old version sold yesterday and now my website is showing the new version in stock. Again, I'm sorry if you are part of the group that just recently purchased the old version. I have to continue to update as the market and technology evolve. Nothing I can do about that. I don't see any room for improvement; so this will probably be the final version.
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sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive -Touch of Grey LC200
You need a mini fire extinguisher built in for those Samsung phones!
Been avoiding the cup holder discussion completely for a while. Doing the "lay low" approach so I don't get overwhelmed with orders. The good news is that I brought in a couple new guys to help with holiday orders so now I can handle the crazy holiday wave(at least I hope). I know quite a few of you have contacted me in the last couple weeks about ordering cup holders for the holidays. Remember that I'm running a promo right now for the mud folks. It's 15% off the entire order and still allows for free shipping anywhere in the US. Use coupon code "TEQ15" on my site at checkout:
Products | BH3D Printing
You can also use the same code on my etsy page. For those of you outside the US you will need to order through my etsy page. I don't do international shipping through my BH3D website. Too much customs paperwork.
www.etsy.com/shop/bh3dprinting
For the folks that have purchased my cup holders; I would like to say thanks. I started off small 2 years ago with just one machine and my wife and I dealing with all orders. I'm now up to 22 machines and 6 employees. I have heavily stepped back from production and allowed the new guys to take over. I focus now on r&d and machine maintenance/repairs. I still have my full time teaching job I need to focus on. The plan was to start cutting back on products and orders. Then I had friends who needed jobs so instead of cutting back to open up my time I just past on some of my responsibilities to them. Then my jobless friends had jobless friends so we expanded again to find them a place to work. That seems to keep happening. I am going in the wrong direction. Last month we finally hit 1000 units sold for the 80 series double cup holder. I think we are now on to version 9.0 or something. We are also about to hit 2000 units on the 3rd gen double and close to 5000 TEQ badges. Still no where close to the scale needed for injection molding but our production abilities continue to climb as we continue to invest in newer, bigger, and faster machines. We are also always looking for improvements. The suggestions over the last couple years have been wonderful in helping me improve my product line and expand it. I also need this company to move on into someone else's hands soon. I just can't keep up with 4 kids(6 years and under), and two jobs. It's a weird thing when folks depend on you for an income. You can't just call it quits anymore. You have to find a way to make your life manageable and keep them employed if at all possible. Just a situation I didn't see coming and now I'm right in the middle of it. I'm a teacher, not a business man. Sorry for the rant. That went WAY off topic there. Just trying to make some big life decisions and have no experience in making them.
Products | BH3D Printing
You can also use the same code on my etsy page. For those of you outside the US you will need to order through my etsy page. I don't do international shipping through my BH3D website. Too much customs paperwork.
www.etsy.com/shop/bh3dprinting
For the folks that have purchased my cup holders; I would like to say thanks. I started off small 2 years ago with just one machine and my wife and I dealing with all orders. I'm now up to 22 machines and 6 employees. I have heavily stepped back from production and allowed the new guys to take over. I focus now on r&d and machine maintenance/repairs. I still have my full time teaching job I need to focus on. The plan was to start cutting back on products and orders. Then I had friends who needed jobs so instead of cutting back to open up my time I just past on some of my responsibilities to them. Then my jobless friends had jobless friends so we expanded again to find them a place to work. That seems to keep happening. I am going in the wrong direction. Last month we finally hit 1000 units sold for the 80 series double cup holder. I think we are now on to version 9.0 or something. We are also about to hit 2000 units on the 3rd gen double and close to 5000 TEQ badges. Still no where close to the scale needed for injection molding but our production abilities continue to climb as we continue to invest in newer, bigger, and faster machines. We are also always looking for improvements. The suggestions over the last couple years have been wonderful in helping me improve my product line and expand it. I also need this company to move on into someone else's hands soon. I just can't keep up with 4 kids(6 years and under), and two jobs. It's a weird thing when folks depend on you for an income. You can't just call it quits anymore. You have to find a way to make your life manageable and keep them employed if at all possible. Just a situation I didn't see coming and now I'm right in the middle of it. I'm a teacher, not a business man. Sorry for the rant. That went WAY off topic there. Just trying to make some big life decisions and have no experience in making them.
One of my first purchases for my 80 was your cup holder (maybe a month ago). Love it. Yes, I think it makes it faster.
Sounds like you are in the middle of a good problem. And here I was going to suggest a shifter knob to replace the worn out leather wrapped ones.
Sounds like you are in the middle of a good problem. And here I was going to suggest a shifter knob to replace the worn out leather wrapped ones.
Excellent quality and great customer service. I ordered the single front one by the shifter, and the insert for the console the same day, then a few weeks after I ordered the rear ones. I made the mistake of ordering the wrong color and Brad made the exchange process so easy. Pleasure doing business with BH3D. love the product and the fact I have now more cupholders than I would ever need ( according to my friends ). would definitely buy from Brad again
Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully the new guys will be able to continue our motto of customer service and quality. My wife is the end of the line before anything ships and she is more anal then me about quality control. She has no problem yelling at the guys if they got it wrong. She developed that skill by being married to me.
There is a vendor on here that makes shifter knobs. They are great quality. I have seen a couple in person. Low Range Offroad has a pretty good sized 80 series product line and they sell shifter knobs as well. I picked up one for my 4WD shifter from them.
Low Range Billet Aluminum FJ80, FZJ80, 100 Series Land Cruiser Transfer Case Shifter Knob (LR-AKFJ)
I'm getting the same question multiple times a day and realized I just need to post the answer here and hopefully answer it for everyone. The question is; am I running a black Friday special? The short answer is; no. I'm still running the free shipping promo and 15% off the entire order with coupon code "TEQ15" but nothing beyond that. The profit margin for 3D printing is just super narrow and any promo beyond that and I end up loosing money on each order. Hopefully I didn't ruin someones plans with holding out for an awesome deal on black Friday. The timing on telling folks I'm not doing a black Friday deal the 2 days before black Friday isn't probably the best marketing plan but I just didn't want a mountain of emails over the next two days about a possible promo.
Just a heads up to anyone planning on putting in an order before Christmas. We will be heading out of town from 12/18-12/29 visiting family in Colorado. Any orders that need to be shipped out and delivered by Christmas must be placed by this Thursday 12/15 in order to be shipped out before I leave and delivered before Christmas. No orders will ship out during the dates we will be gone. Orders we resume shipping out on 12/30.
www.bh3dprinting.com
www.bh3dprinting.com
It's time for a big question. I'm at the point in this 3D printing business that I need to pull myself out of the production side of things. I tried to do that almost 2 years ago when kid 3 came along, but the business had a death grip on me. Now with 4 kids and a full time job I just can't keep up anymore. Even with 6 of us doing this, I still find myself spending around 20-30 hours a week processing orders. I don't want to close up shop and have 5 other folks be out of a job. They are dependent on me and this job to provide for their families. I have been training these guys and a couple new ones to each have a line of printers and each specialize in 7-8 cup holder designs. They will basically become private contractors for me. Here is the BIG question; would you guys be interested in the 3D files for my cup holders? I'm thinking about offering my files up to the public for a small download fee. Each file would come with a "How-To" video and a couple 3D file versions of the cup holder for different types of printers. You can outsource the printing on your own or can use one of my guys to print your cup holder. That would mean there is no longer "in stock" items. I would be closing down my shop and each of my guys will have a mini shop running in their garage. All cup holders would be made to order by a specialist who knows how to make that exact file with good experience. It would all be through my website so you would not need to jump around sites to get through the process of getting your cup holder made. Not sure how the site will look but it will be set up so you can order the file OR have it made OR get the file AND have it made. So...... to sum it up; would you be interested in the 3D file of my products? They would be in the $3-$7 range. I understand that giving out my files sort of cuts my legs off when it comes to my business but I also know how difficult my products can be to print and my guys are very skilled in making those prints successful. I will also make sure my "printing fees" are extremely competitive so I wont be getting out bid by others. I need to make sure I keep my guys busy printing so I have to keep my printing fees low enough to do that. Right now my plan is to launch this change this summer. Before I do that, I want to know if there is even a demand for the files. My thought that would be if we close our doors down the road, you would still have the file for future 80s.
I'm in. Are there options for the material? I don't know the 3D world, but I wondered if there was a material that was a bit more flexible. My newest LC had the back cup holder on the console. Previous owner hit it with is knee and it broke in about 3 pieces.
There are definitely better plastics. Any 3D model download will come with a video on what plastic to use, the nozzle temp, bed temp, print speed, and all other relevant print settings. Those can be passed on to whoever prints it for you if you choose not to have my guys do it. It wont just be a random 3D file. In regards to my rear double, the early versions were a bit weak. Once I realized the weak areas I made some significant structural changes. My kids use the rear double as a step all the time (even though I repeatedly tell them not to) and it's still hanging on there just fine. My guess is that the previous owner got an early version. Normal use with the early versions is fine but when used as a step or an adult slams into it with their knee; there could be issues. All 3D files sold would be the latest versi