Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why not just buy whistles?
Quick Answer: Its faster and cheaper to 3D print them!
Longer Answer:
Some Whistle Crew members started out buying whistles and shipping them where they needed to go, but this resulted in a poor and expensive experience for organizers and end-users. When buying wholesale whistles, shipping can be a major issue. Delays, fluctuating fees, and customs inspections complicate the “just buy and ship” process. Some members ended up paying more for 1000 wholesale whistles than they did for a printer that produces 1000 in 3 days. Traditional manufacturing methods need to pay workers, with this volunteer effort, the labor is graciously donated by our printer people.
After shipping and fees, a 3D printed whistle is still cheaper to produce, and you get the benefit of avoiding shipping delays or back-order issues.
Quality control is hard (or impossible) when buying from an unknown supplier. Some of the cheapest whistles won't carry a sound far enough or be loud enough to be effective as a safety tool. Our 3D printed models have been tested on a wide variety of printers by a wide variety of people. They are battle-tested. A random batch of whistles from a wholesale website hasn't been put through that level of scrutiny.
Additionally, cheap whistles are bulky, especially for the quality. Since we're shipping whistles all over the country, controlling shipping costs is important. 3D printed whistles are much smaller than the cheapest options on wholesale sites. Depending on the exact model, you can ship (roughly) 4x the amount of 3D printed whistles as wholesale-purchased whistles.
And lastly, 3D printing keeps our processes agile. If we need to pivot to a newer model to save filament and/or time, we can easily do that. Its just one plate-change away. If we were bulk-buying wholesale whistles, changing our minds mid-production just isn't possible.
As a bonus: People appreciate knowing their whistle was made by a human who printed, boxed, and shipped it out because they care. They are being supported by people, not a company.
Why are group-specific process not on the wiki?
A few reasons:
- We (and many other groups) are primarily Signal-based. Keeping multiple sources-of-truth synchronized is a futile effort. Best to keep processes centralized in one easy-to-change place that all members can see.
- This wiki is designed to be copied. If we add a lot of specific information for our group alone, it makes it harder for new groups to fork the wiki.
- Safety. This wiki is very public. For more-optimal security, some processes cannot be shared publicly.
Do we ship assembled kits, kit materials, or just whistles?
You are free to do whatever you think is appropriate and helpful. The majority of volunteers only ship whistles though. Adding lanyards, key rings, or other materials drives up shipping costs significantly.