Site question, and maybe suggestion.

[C-Bag]

I've never exactly understood how to get to my builders page. Is there a link on my personal page and I don't see it? And wouldn't a builders page link be a good thing on the personal page where my visitors and others who happen by can go there.....or is there already one and I'm too dense?

I bring this up because I made a link for my desktop PC in its browser, but I browse a lot on my iPad. So I happened to look at my builders page on the PC and waaaaaaay down at the bottom out of direct sight was something I've never seen before.....a request plans button. Is there going to be a notice in the future that lets me know somebody wants plans? I never look at that page because it's not easy to find for me on the iPad and I have no idea how long those requests have been there.

Sorry if these are totally stupid questions.

[Jon]

-Currently, you can add the link to your builder page on our profile page. So you would click on "My Profile" in the upper-right , then click on "About Me", and then click on the pencil icon accompanying the "Homemade Tools Builder Page:" section. Maybe we can put this in a more prominent location, perhaps in your postbit, under your avatar?

-We just added that plans request button recently. We are getting very close to launching the plans market (we have 9 plans completed, and we want 10 to launch). Guys who are considering selling their plans have asked for a "Request plans" button, so we can log plan requests, to demonstrate demand for their plans. More details here: Plans Marketplace Coming Soon… .

These are good questions, and if you are asking them, other people are probably wondering about them too.

[C-Bag]

Thanks Jon. Probably I'm the only one who hasn't figured it yet

I have to say I was shocked that I don't have but four projects on my page and three of the four had 2 and three requests for plans. crazy. I'm not sure how I would do plans as like with the radii cutter it's mostly pieces of 80/20. Is there some way of communicating with the folks who are looking for plans to see what exactly would be the most helpful? Like parts list ,measurements and detailed photos? Never really made drawings for anything I've ever built and it's been decades since mechanical drawing classes......

[Jon]

You can send an email to plans@homemadetools.net. MetalDesigner is making plans and illustrations for peoples' tools, in exchange for a percentage of the revenue. So you could have him do the professional design work (you can see his work in this thread: Plans Marketplace Coming Soon…).

[C-Bag]

Thanks Jon.

So the person requesting the plans would email to plans@homemadetools.net tell them how they need them done or are all the plans completely rendered the same way?

Like with the radii cutter, because it's all 80/20 pieces wouldn't pictures with a parts list and dimensions be faster than rendering? Or is this something that I send an email to plans@homemadetools.net and we discuss how we are going to approach this?

I'll admit I'm a lazy slug when it comes to documenting my work and it would seem a lot of work. Is there some kind of threshold that folks are looking for in requests before they go making plans?

Sorry to ask so many questions.

[Jon]

You can go ahead and just send an email to plans@homemadetools.net, and Ken (kbalch) would respond to you and he would take it from there.

Each tool would have a different strategy for drafting the plans. Our designer is doing the cover pages in the same look, for uniformity and professionalism, but as it stands now, each set of plans is either a single PDF, or a bundle of files including a PDF plus photos and plans documents files. You would probably just send a few notes to Ken at plans@homemadetools.net, and then MetalDesigner would go from there.

The great part is that MetalDesigner has offered to do the drafting, for a cut of the profits of each plan. So you can get the plans professionally drafted at zero upfront cost. This is a good deal all around for the tool maker, the drafter, and us.

[C-Bag]

Maybe we can put this in a more prominent location, perhaps in your postbit, under your avatar?

Thanks for walking me through that. I guess the easiest way to to add that line like you have at the bottom of the any post like i see you have with the links? Where would I do that?

[Jon]

Sure, that's your "signature". Click on "Settings" at the upper-right. Then on the left side of your screen, about halfway down, you'll see a section called "My Settings". Under that, click on "Edit Signature". From there, you can enter a new signature, similar to how you enter a new post. You can preview it a bunch before it's saved, so it looks exactly how you want.