launching Http://Burning-Lasers.com

BrewCityMusic said:

HAS anyone noticed a serious influx of "newbies" all asking questions regarding Blu-Ray pointers?

I seem to remember, somewhere in the not-so-recent past "If you doubt me, visit laserpointerforums.com and search the username Mohrenburg to see the excellent reputation I have there" somewhere in an Ebay auction, oh hell, allow me to quote a more recent auction that has been "cleaned up" considerably from the first round (no longer available, unfortunately, for review on Fleabay):

"on the other hand with an acrylic lens you run the risk of MELTING the lens over time"

"The module is set into a custom machined aluminum heatsink made by DarkHorse"

"message me on LaserPointerForums under the name Mohrenberg."


Here's my take - someone needs to buy one of this guys pointers and completely tear into it and verify his ability to refer to this forum when selling. Solid, pretty or not soldering (irrelevant if secure, functional and reliable) is first, overall build integrity (scratching, excess wiring, actual components outsourced as represented) should count too - BEFORE we hang him for presenting his (obviously) first laser website.

I was there on the frontlines razzing this guy too, I'm just rethinking my initial reaction and thinking of the Forum first, so I'm asking for all of us to seriously stop bitching and start doing.

As a community, if we think his use of LPF links and associations is innapropriate in conjunction with words like "Douchebag" and cum-stained sheets then we need to collectively speak up. If his builds truly reflect the level of dedication to the hobby that we all obviously hold close, and we are willing to stand behind his tenets and abilities, then as a "community" we need to do that also.

Nobody is perfect, none of us has grown so far that we can be critical of those who have emotionally and mentally taken another path. We CAN, however, stand together to defend and/or promote this forum - which needs to be done, either way.

PM me if you have a username on ebay that has no similarity to your forum name, I'm in for half to buy one of his lasers, we will settle this one way or another and flip for the laser when it's said and done.

Just an idea  

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Mohrenberg said:

my soldering technigue is pretty nice i think, below is a driver which i assembled (and i didn't even know how to correctly solder when i first got into this hobby) all done with a $10 iron, a coil of silver bearing solder and some flux.
and my build uses only one wire - the positive, as the build is case negative.

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pseudolobster said:

[quote author=Mohrenberg link=1234933863/32#34 date=1235116340]
my soldering technigue is pretty nice i think, below is a driver which i assembled (and i didn't even know how to correctly solder when i first got into this hobby) all done with a $10 iron, a coil of silver bearing solder and some flux.
and my build uses only one wire - the positive, as the build is case negative.

Click to expand...

pseudolobster said:

[quote author=Mohrenberg link=1234933863/32#34 date=1235116340]
my soldering technigue is pretty nice i think, below is a driver which i assembled (and i didn't even know how to correctly solder when i first got into this hobby) all done with a $10 iron, a coil of silver bearing solder and some flux.
and my build uses only one wire - the positive, as the build is case negative.

Click to expand...

Mohrenberg said:

um........from rkcstr? lol.
yeah it's a rkcstr driver, i use them in all the builds.

just got 3 more today along with my sleds modules and heatisnks.

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pseudolobster said:

[quote author=Mohrenberg link=1234933863/32#38 date=1235171915]

um........from rkcstr? lol.
yeah it's a rkcstr driver, i use them in all the builds.

just got 3 more today along with my sleds modules and heatisnks.

Click to expand...

pseudolobster said:

[quote author=Mohrenberg link=1234933863/32#34 date=1235116340]
my soldering technigue is pretty nice i think, below is a driver which i assembled (and i didn't even know how to correctly solder when i first got into this hobby) all done with a $10 iron, a coil of silver bearing solder and some flux.
and my build uses only one wire - the positive, as the build is case negative.

Click to expand...

FrothyChimp said:

Greg over at Stonetek actually uses ZenCart which is a cleaner derivative of OSCommerce.

Pricing is both a science and an art. As you can see most do not know how to price products. You never price based on complaints because people will always complain about the price. You always price based on 1) what the market will bear, and 2) what you need to stay in business based on your business model. Many wannabe companies have come and gone selling laser systems because they thought they could just undercut everyone but found out later there are costs not recognized on the front end when they were purchasing from others as customers. Costing is the most important aspect of business. Even the big boys get it wrong sometimes. All we have to do is look at GM. They lose on average $2000.00 per car sold. Douglas Aircraft went out of business because they sold every airliner cheaper than it cost to make. It was a situation of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.

Most small businesses severely underestimate the cost of their time and labor. What does it really cost you when you sit 12 hours per day at a desk soldering and building. There's the actual time, of course. What is that worth in $? There's the time you could be spending with family (economic utility) that cannot be done because of orders needing to be done. There's the time associated with servicing broken or damaged lasers under warranty which means you are not building for new, paying customers. There's the costs associated with all the little components required to build the system such as solder, finishing equipment, emory cloth, sandpaper, micro screwdrivers that get replaced on a regular basis, etc. Yeah, these get expensed but they represent a real cost in each laser sold.

Build a quality product with pricing based on real costs and you will be in business far longer. You have the world in which to market your products. If your mousetrap is better, people will beat a path to your door and pay a premium for that. Don't just set your sites on LPF members. No offense but everyone want's it for free here. That's the nature of a hobby. Think of new ways to use or market the products. Think about new hosts that meet a need outside of the hobby market. Always be thinking about the BBD (bigger better deal). You can always do that and still provide good service to your customers. The goal of businesses is not to run stagnant. The goal is to grow.

Oh, burn down your site. Put up a proper site. Once again, the world will be watching and if you want business beyond hobbyists it has to be professional; You know, first impressions and all.

EDIT: One other thought. Get a .com name. If you use .org, people will tend to enter .com out of habit and end up somewhere you don't want them to be. They end up at burninglaser.com which is for sale meaning if you are doing well someone can spend the money to purchase that name and a portion of your potential customers will end up on a site selling lasers that are not yours. Just something to keep in mind.

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