No longer a ponoko virgin – My first order experience and photos

I recall reading a forum thread on Ponoko about the lack of information on what to expect from an order… so I figured I’ll post about my first order experience with Ponoko.  Read on for some photos.

Designing and ordering was relatively easy.  But that’s a different topic for another post so lets not go into that.

Tracking your ponoko order…

There are several steps to your order on which you can easily track the progress of through a variety of methods.  The obvious is checking on the Ponoko webpage but that is cumbersome.  The next is that you’ll get notifications via E-mail on the 5 major steps of the order progress.  The one I like the best is a RSS feed which I piped to iGoogle, this is especially useful for those of us who can’t access our personal E-mails at work.

Example Progress status (my order!)

Making Progress:
started – completed 15 days ago.
checked design files – completed 15 days ago.
material paid for – completed 6 days ago.
material ordered – completed 6 days ago.
material received – completed 4 days ago.
run cut – completed 4 days ago.
dispatched – completed 4 days ago.

Tracking your ponoko order shipping via UPS…

Ponoko ships (at the time of writing anyway) via UPS and you can track the whereabouts of your package via UPS Tracking.  One thing that gave me a fright was that I totally forgot that Australia has strict quarantine restrictions on wood products and when I read on the UPS tracking page that a quarantine has been requested…argh… but it was all good.  The delivery was scheduled for 31 Dec but eventually arrived on 2 Jan, pretty good for a busy holiday season.

Opening your package

1. Avoid the ‘OMG ITS FUGLY!’ reaction, its most likely just the protective sheet’s the ponoko people apply to protect your product!  Peel it off and voila all clean.
2. The burnt edges of wood stain.  So careful of your hands and clothing when handling your parcel.
3. Check for broken pieces… One of my more critical pieces was broken on arrival, but I have a good expectation that the nice people at Ponoko will replace this once I contact them…

Some photos for your perusal…

Overall I was very happy with the Ponoko process… now to E-mail them about the broken piece…