Kit Improvement Suggestion

[timm]

I am most of the way through framing up my Wee Duster kit. It is my first kit from WN, but I have been building for quite a few years.

With the interlocking parts, I would mostly agree that full-size plans or detailed instructions are not strictly needed. However, I think one of the following would make building much easier and would require minimal effort:

a) Add some engraving to the parts themselves. The function of some parts is not obvious. I know this slightly increases the "laser on" time for each kit. I would not think it would be significant.

or

b) Create PDF versions of the part sheets with the parts labeled on them. I understand this might make it easier for unscrupulous ner-do-wells to rip off the designs, and that's a valid concern.

Tim

[KevinC]

Your "b" suggestion is slowly happening across all kits. Unfortunately, not all kits have them yet but Doug is definitely moving in that direction. He had a hard drive crash on the laser cutter a while back and had to re-draw many of the kits from scratch. That, coupled with his very important "day job" and all the weekend events/shows he and Becky attend to sell their wares makes the documentation process even slower but they WILL get there.

Full disclosure: I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee or any other type of representative of WillyNillies.com. I am merely an enthusiastic customer who, as a retired IT guy, volunteered my time to help manage this forum/repository.

[timm]

I completely understand the "day job" issues. During my working career, I ran two different part-time businesses in addition to my day job. One in custom electronics, one in R/C kits and parts.

I would be happy to help with backup strategies but I imagine that's been fixed after living through the first disaster.

[KevinC]

in theory, yes. I'm a retired IT guy myself and made some suggestions regarding backup strategies. Nothing makes one a more true believer in backups than having to reconstruct a lot of data or worse, losing irreplaceable data.