In speaking with many teams over the last year, I have discovered that Ozzyboards is in the practice of taking orders but not shipping them. That is, if someone places an order, there is only a small chance it ever gets shipped at all. If you have ordered from Ozzyboards in the last year, email them to remind them to ship the order or ask for a refund. I love their endmills and I’ve worked with them in the past (developing the TubeMagic V1 and original Super Servo) but things have gotten very spotty in the last couple of years.
Ozzyboards endmills are still my go-to for routers, and if I could just buy 1,000 of them and redistribute them I would, but for now Ozzyboards is the sole source and the best choice if you don’t want to spend several times more for similar quality.
So, PSA: If you have ordered from Ozzyboards and have not received your order, email them and get a refund or ask them to send the products. I think many teams are placing orders and simply forgetting that they did so - put a reminder on your calendar to contact them if your order isn’t shipped promptly.
As many of you will know I started Ozzyboards with the intention of providing teams lower-priced alternatives for common parts. I started the business with very limited capital and had lots of ideas but had to be very selective of what I manufactured. In the recent few years there has been growth in other suppliers with a similar mission helping to provide teams the ability to do more with less.
I am very proud to have been able to offer the first connector for the 775pro/Redline motors which spurred on innovation and development from existing marketplace players and even led to change in game manual phrasing. Anand and Chris played a big part in this, with Chris doing fulfillment of orders from the Bay Area the first two seasons when demand for this product was high. It was a very simple product but one that I think helped a lot of teams improve the reliability of their robots.
While it was my initial intention to grow this business, logistical issues associated with being in Australia, half a world away from 95% of the customers isn’t easy and I long found myself covering/subsidizing postage costs in order to make them more palatable for teams - especially in the last two years when the low-cost shipping method that I used to use from Australia was scrapped due to lack of flights. Changing personal circumstances also played a big part.
I know that many schools are currently on summer break, I have a fair amount of inventory that I would like to use to complete the small number of orders that are currently unfulfilled over the coming weeks. I have made all products unable to be purchased and will make the website read only or similar in the near future. I think I have already issued refunds for those who have requested but you are welcome to send me a message if that is what you would prefer.
Once I have some time I will ‘open source’ the Gerber files for the 775 connector and make some other files available for those who want to make use of them.
I run CNC routers most days so I have quite a bit of applicable knowledge, and plenty more that I have learnt from trial and tribulation since the last CNC router post that provided quite popular so will also create a new CNC router tips and tricks thread in due course to try and share as much of this information that I can. I have enjoyed the long email chains and calls with customers trying to get them cutting efficiently on their Omios!
I appreciate the support that my customers have provided over the past 4 or so years, I know I haven’t provided a good experience to everyone but I think overall teams have benefited from the products and advise that I have provided and that it has spurred on development from other suppliers.
It is awesome seeing all that you provided for FRC, and maybe will again if the global shipping and goods markets stabilize enough to allow you to reach all your international customers reasonably. It is amazing to have far reaching suppliers that work so hard to make a great experience for all the people participating. Thanks!
