I reached out to the family on my first build and haven’t heard back yet. I started printing anyway, because there are several requests in my area for this color. Worst case scenario, if the original requestor doesn’t respond, I’m sure some other family would be happy to have it. More just curious what everyone else does.
Do you wait to hear from the family before starting a build?
I’m in the same boat, and no, I’m not waiting. If they don’t respond by the time it’s done, the chair is going to another family.
Yeah that’s my thought. These things take so long that I don’t want to add any additional delays to the process, so diving right in feels like the right move.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll make every effort to get a hold of the requestor, including looping in the admins. But if they never respond, I’m confident some other family in need would be grateful to have the finished product.
I work with another nonprofit that also provides adaptive equipment and it always surprises me how many people end up ghosting us. I don’t get it, but it happens
Which non-profit are you working with?
I haven’t had one family get back to me without Admin help. The family I claimed, no email response from my or admins emails and admin informed me their phone doesn’t work. Poor kid - has to be a rough situation. I’ve enquired about the drop off location, I think it is their home. Admin hasn’t gotten back to me on this, but if it is I will send a priority letter (so it gets opened) with all my contact info and SASE if that is the only way they can communicate.
We do adaptive tricycles in the Richmond area and are a chapter of Ambucs
Running into the same issue… the first two builds, the response was great, but this one has been silent since saying that they are interested in receiving one. Reached out to admin and I still haven’t heard anything. I’m not slowing down. Shifted the printers to the TPU parts that take a long time. I’m also printing in purple, which is a popular request for those around me, so I can’t really go wrong. When I hit the two-week mark of no response, I’m un-claiming the build and moving on to the next but not wasting time or materials.
How neat! When I finished my first build, I had a thought that it would be neat to 3d print a tricycle.
That seems more than reasonable. I’m not slowing down either. I got seven different TPU colors so I printed one tread in each to give options. I love the colors. When I get the last one finished I’ll post somewhere. I’m also printing 40 x 40 mm swatches of the colors I have multiples of so I can show them and see what they like. (mostly for me so I can show my wife and 8 yo daughter - they have the eye for colors)
I’m still waiting for the admins to get back to me…lol - I know they are out at that show, so I know they are busy.
After 5 days the Admins sent me a phone number. I sent a text and as it turns out all of our email were going to junk mail folder.
@MakeGood_Noam It would be so helpful if vetted makers could contact a request before accepting it. Currently I have two requests close to me, but no other makers around them. I just started a TMT, but would love to be able to reach out to both of them and let them know if no one else accepts their request I will, but it will be a few weeks until I could start. Other Makers might not even think about accepting because they are close to me.
I have noticed that the newer request seem to be giving a lot more info so that is extremely helpful. But these older ones are always hard to get ahold of. And yes not being able to message them before claiming the build does leave you in a bind somewhat. Even more so if you have filament on hand you want to use, but don’t know what they want.
My printers went 5 days without printing TMT parts. I did some TPU tread and a bunch of maintenance, but looking at idol printers was hard. I tried a rainbow PETG for the handle which came out fun. I might make a solid color also for this build and give her the option. The rainbow doesn’t match perfect, my OCD kicks in.
We imported about 200-250 legacy requests when changing over to the new system. They are the problematic ones from a data perspective. The new requests require email verification to proceed and this usually eliminates communication issues. Soon we will add built in SMS and that will also require verification.
Out of curiosity, when was the new system introduced?
I think it was around February 10th
Remember the audience. More wheelchairs out there are better than symmetric and “perfect” wheelchairs.
I printed a solid color handle to go with the rainbow handle. It just looks out of place. I’m going to print all of the center pieces with the rainbow so it has some uniformity for a yet requested TMT…lol
Whatever helps maintain sanity 