With the soft opening of the Jinxbot 3D Printing Storefront, I thought I would take some time to talk about my journey so far.
How it all Began
My very first intro into 3D printing began all the way back in 2003 or so when I took an engineering class in high school. We learned a bit of CAD, with a program called IronCAD. It was a blast and I learned a lot about modeling, but the real treat was when we got to have one of our designs printed.
Will find part, take picture, and add it here.
It was a simple enough shape, but it was the genesis of a mentality that I still carry with me today. This technology can make just about anything. Fast forward to college at CalPoly SLO, and my Industrial Technology senior project. I wanted to create a product from concept to launch. It was a Vitamin Gummy Puzzle based off of M.C. Escher’s Tessellations called Puzzlers. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. But I had the most fun in the product creation phase. This was my second real exposure to Additive Manufacturing. I had to created the molds for the gummies, so I created the positives in CAD, and used my labs printers to created the master set.
After college, I bounced around from job to job until a kickstarter came out for a cheap inexpensive 3D Printer called the Micro3D. It was a blast working with it, but ultimately was more trouble then it was worth.
The Jinxbot
I decided I wanted my next printer to be a good one, so I saved up and bought a Makerbot 5th Gen. I found a great deal on Craigslist and started setting it up right away. In setting up the printer, it asked me to name it, I was born on Friday the 13th, and always liked the nickname Jinx, so I combined that with my new Makerbot, and the name Jinxbot was born.
Starting the Business
I was working in advertising at a solar company at the time and was supporting my wife as she was selling clothes on eBay. She just happened to land a steady job at Stanford University, and my company simultaneously decided to lay off half the company. If that didn’t happen, I don’t think I would have been able to say no to a paycheck and health insurance, so luckily, I didn’t have to. I had a long conversation with my wife and asked her if I could try out 3D Printing for a living, as it had always been a dream of mine to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. She agreed and gave me a year to make it happen. Jinxbot officially listed its only printer on 3D Hubs back in 2015. From there growth was slow. At first I would get a print job every two weeks or so, then every week, then every day… I eventually earned enough with that printer to buy another, then with the two, to buy four.. etc… I got good at buying used printers on craigslist and pretty soon had a small farm in my garage. I started my website Jinxbot.com and listed my printers on any Printing Hub type site I could find. Jinxbot was making money and I was able to continue printing for a living.
From Garage to Storefront
I had a pretty solid customer base at this point and had been printing professionally for a few years now. My garage was stacked with printers and I started running into capacity issues. I didnt have every printer running all the time, but I tried to keep my turnaround times as low as possible. This forced me to need enough printers to cover peak demand scenarios. Sometimes I would only have a few prints going, others I would have every printer going, and still have a queue. I am pretty good at organizing and order management so I had that as an advantage, but working in my garage was becoming problematic. Dust, moisture, and temperature fluctuations were my adversaries and they were relentless. Still I was able to put out quality prints with quick turnaround times. The other issue came from customers wanting to pick up there parts. I didnt want customers coming to my house, so I would meet them in the parking lot of the corner store a block from my house. It felt a bit shady, but hilarious at the same time. I was “dealing” prints in little plastic baggies. There had to be a better way.
My first attempt at legitimizing Jinxbot was to find a way for customers to pick up there parts without feeling like it was a drug deal. I came up with the idea to mimic an amazon locker type system using an old gym locker and some smart padlocks. But trying to find a place to put the darn thing was more trouble then creating the locker system itself… Seems like an easy enough problem to solve, but trust me, I looked into them all with no success. I had no other choice then to look for a storefront. Eventually a storefront opened up in the very parking lot that I would meet customers in originally, a block away from my house! I couldn’t believe it, so I jumped on it immediately. The size location, and rent were all perfect. But that’s when the real headaches began. A brick and mortar store is infinitely more complicated and tedious to open then a virtual store. Zoning issues, commercial tenant improvement permits and building inspections all had me at the edge of my seat, biting my nails. If anything had gone awry, my dream location for my dream business would be dashed on the rocks of reality. Thankfully with the emotional support of my wife, and a lot of perseverance and determination, I was able to open the doors to my business during a time when most business were closing down. I have now fully moved in, and my landlord even let me put my locker system out front so customers can pick up there parts at their leisure. I am continuing to grow, adding capacity and capabilities to Jinxbot. I even found a storage space that I can place even more capacity in.
This journey has had quite a few struggles, and they all felt so insurmountable at the time, but here I stand on the other side. With the storefront opening, I truly feel now that I have made my dream job a reality. And it makes me so genuinely happy that my dream job, is helping others make their dreams a reality.
