The initial feedback on the new Shapeoko 5 Pro has been overwhelmingly positive and we're excited to open up ordering so we can gather a little more information about what sizes are going to be most popular.
Here's what we can tell you about the timing of the initial batch of Shapeoko 5 Pros:
What we're waiting for
As we mentioned in the initial announcement, we have almost everything in-house to build complete machines. We're currently waiting on:
- Electronics
- Electronics Enclosure
- Packaging
These are all reliable vendors so we think the risk of a big delay is low. All of the machined parts are in production right now.
Shipping estimates
We ended up writing a mini inventory system to pull all of the orders for the Shapeoko 5 Pro from Shopify every 5 minutes and then project when a new order will ship. When you go to the product page, that's the date given in the little red box under the "Add to Cart" button. For as long as you're on the product page, that shipping date will update every 5 minutes.
Here's what could go wrong with that estimate:
- We get a big batch of orders in between the update period. That could push your order back a few days from the initial estimate.
- If we estimated the ratio 2x2, 4x2, and 4x4 machines wrong then you might get bumped into a later batch.
- There's a bug in the code since we cannot fully test it until we have a lot of orders.
As we do more testing before making the Shapeoko 5 Pro available for purchase, you might see the delivery dates bounce around as we fine tune the estimates.
Shipping updates
We're going to try and write a little code in that new inventory tracker to send out periodic emails with your estimated shipping date. I suspect we'd shoot for every two weeks or so, or if we have a big change up or down in the estimates.
If you're not happy with the shipping estimate, you can always cancel your order and we'll refund you in full. You'll be free to purchase when the delivery times are more predictable.
What if we're wrong?
Well, first, there's no nefarious plan involved, we just made bad projections. With every new product launch we do, we bounce back and forth between too optimistic and too pessimistic. We think we're being appropriately conservative this time, but we'll only know for sure in the next month.