Here's a piece of the standard. This is a pdf copy of the diagram used to make the beam; the license is CC-SA.

There's more coming. Anyone who wants to help us with some IGES or STEP files, drop us a line!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33392753/Mini-T-Cross-Section

At long last, we have all contracted out pieces of the puzzle! These brackets and their brass cousins were the holdup, more or less entirely by themselves. If I had known going into it that they would take this long and cost this much money and effort, you would have had plastic everything, along with your beam, about two months ago.

Looking at the result, though, I'm glad that didn't happen, because these are everything we hoped they'd be. We're hoping you'll like them.

Current status: all domestic $8 pledges have shipped, of the people who have sent their address. If we don't have your address, we can't send you your stuff, so please get that to us! The $32s will be shipping this week. Once we've printed labels for the 32s and otherwise put that data into play, we'll be asking the Betas for their shipping information; we're doing it this way because the Kickstarter database back end leaves features to be desired.

We'll assemble as much as possible of the Betas over the coming week, and stage shipments starting as soon as this Friday. Alphas upgrade kits and institutional packages will go out once there's some space to work with the larger beams that go into the institutional kits.

Then there's the standard to polish up and publish. Whew!

This has been a game of new discoveries, hard lessons, waiting, and surviving as the weeks stretch into months. But with the arrival of the last piece of the puzzle it's become fun again. There will be updates in the days to come; more importantly, we're shipping boxes!

This could never have happened without you, and you have our profound thanks. Hang tight just a bit longer; the finish line is in sight.

We're getting there!

Our manufacturer for metal brackets has let us know that the brass brackets, which we need for everyone's order, basically, will be arriving this week. The stainless brackets may get here at the end of the week also, or it may take a little longer.

We'll be collecting names for the 8 and 32 level pledges this weekend. Betas and institutional sponsors, we'll get your information as soon as we have the rest of your kits in the queue.

The lasering of the remaining plastic brackets is coming along nicely, we've been getting great help in that respect. Several people have asked about the standard. What I have right now is a bunch of files with no real organization or guide to use. I have to prioritize my effort on this project, and fulfilling our obligations to our by now very patient backers is right at the top. When I clear that hurdle, getting the documents presentable will look a lot more manageable.

I also look forward to some longer and hopefully more thoughtful posts, about crowdfunding, open hardware and manufacturing, and where MakerBeam might be going in the future. But staring down a deadline of six weeks past and counting, all I want to do is get you your beam, so you can start having fun with it!

Hello MakerBeamers! Thank you so much for your patience as late becomes later. We're doing everything in our power to make sure we can ship as soon as possible once all of our components are in place.

We have good news, however, as the stamped brackets are just rolling off the line.

While we can't yet set a shipping date, we're getting closer to actually shipping with every day that passes, and we're happy with the results we're getting. We hope you will be as well!

Everyone who has contacted us has been polite, encouraging, and excited to see their Beta kits actually ship. It won't be long now!

Hello from Betaland!

So February has come and gone, and Betas are yet to launch. We've had some delays in manufacturing our brackets, but the die is back from the engravers and we're pretty much set to go on stamping, so everything is coming together in the next couple of weeks. Look for an email soon to collect your address and other information.

The serial number trial run just came back, and Brett Halle at Comet has done a great job here. Enjoy and look for your very own LaserBeam in the mail Real Soon Now!

Hello MakerBeam Friends!

It's been awhile since we've done an update, either here or at our website. MakerBeam is in a pupal stage, if you will, no longer a leaf-munching crowdfunded caterpillar and not yet sporting the iridescent wings of full production.

We've been staying busy. It's now February, and with a stiff wind at our backs we'll be able to ship our remaining pledge rewards by the end of the month, starting with the third week. We have a second round of components in production, which will improve the quality of our plastic pieces and add metal brackets to the lineup.

We're in active negotiation with a couple parties to bring MakerBeam forward, and are still aiming to go public with our product by Maker Faire, in the third week of May. We are currently focused on getting our Betas and other pledges built. Recently we've been offered some CAD and layout help for the standard, which will help move that overdue project forward.

We're still having a ton of fun here and can't wait to show you what we've got at Maker Faire! Look for a website update soon. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of MakerBeam in the wild! Thanks to jtokash, lenore of EMSL, and Andrew Plumb (clothbot) for these images. We encourage all members of Team Alpha to build, photo, and Flickr their creations for all to see!

Oh yeah. We got ourselves some serious beam up in MakerBeam HQ. Boxes and boxes.

It looks beautiful. But you don't have to take our word for it.

There will be more photos to come. For now, enjoy. And thank you, all of you, for your support in making this possible. We think you'll be pleased.

Greetings friends and backers! We've had a vigorous few weeks of moving money from place to place and ordering parts for the Alpha kits. Our beam ships today from the factory, and we should have some pictures up by the end of the week. We are geeked beyond measure.

Speaking of geekiness beyond measure, the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto is having an exhibit called Meccano Mania!

http://www.moah.org/exhibits/future_exhibit.html

What better place for the first Bay Area MakerBeam Meetup? Let's posse up!

In order to sliver this in between Thanksgiving and serious holiday action, we're thinking Saturday, December 5th. MOAH has limited hours (11am-4pm); I intend to get there by noon. After our tour of all things Metallbaukasten, we'll find somewhere for dinner and drinks. The Museum is right by Caltrain, so this should be an easy place for us to get together.

All planning for this event will be on the newly hatched MakerBeam List so hie ye forth:

http://3.ly/10mmL

Look forward to meeting some of you, and showing off the system a little bit. We won't have all the pieces in place by then but there should be enough for a demo!