Sorry about that Chris. When I posted that it was a good deal, the thought of design theft hadn't crossed my mind.
I bid on it because I wanted a lathe to do finishing work on without messing up the Deluxe.
I can't speak for him, But I know Chris won't blame someone from going somewhere else if every dollar counts for them, and they can save money. I don't feel You had any ill intent here. In Your mind you were just trying to turn others on to what you saw as a good deal, and most could appreciate that intent.
Everybody loves to save money, especially guys like Me that have to stretch every dollar the best they can. The problem with these type items is that He is the original maker of these designs, and there is no doubt about them being copies. I'm sure there are many cue makers with the machining experience to build these, therefor they could have done this many years ago, but out of respect They have not done that. My feeling is this and I have said this to him personally, to build something for Yourself, and own personal use is one thing, I have done this with stuff I needed, and we all get ideas from things we have seen, Maybe that's not right either I don't know, But I have been straight with him in My intents in the past, but told Him straight that I had no intent to sell for profit, and he still helped me out, both with his time in giving advice, and with supplying me parts that I could not make to complete my project. I have also bought a complete lathe and tooling and parts from him over the years though. To be honest his willingness to help and be there when I had questions had as much to do with me buying from him as the product itself did. He even helped out at times when he had little or nothing to profit from. I can't even imagine the time he has wasted talking to people and helping them over the years. Whether someone likes his building ideology or not, really doesn't matter, because He has given much of himself to help others, and he was a open source of knowledge when It wasn't so easy to get info. There are many people doing this now days, that can thank him for making things easier to get started. There are others in this business that have also, I know this, but they each have there own exclusive products, and do not copy each other for the most part.
I am one that told Chris if this was a cue design theft that everyone, and their whole clan would be coming down on the copy. I think My words to Him were "a free for all slam fest" I was surprised that no one had said a ... thing, I just couldn't imagine that with all the other stuff I've seen go on here. I also told Him that I would have already spoke up, but since My dad passed, I don't have the time or will to get involved in the political debates on here. I just wanted him to know I was in his corner on this.
I have no ill will toward anyone involved though, so for me It's not political or personal, just a matter what I feel Is right from wrong. No matter how much money it saved me and as tempting as It could be, I would just have a hard time purchasing the product. To me It is beyond someone posting an idea or design to others, so they can make their own, then seeing a similar product selling to the masses a week or more later. The taig platform is a very useful one, and a lot of stuff can be considered universal, so I'm not coming down on anything that is taig related, with cnc applications, the field is still wide open, and by all means come up with some new stuff to use with the platform, heck maybe a large headstock that runs on a lead screw, and is geared for threading, I'm sure there are plenty of things like that, Heck personally I think a similar design with a wider profile, but with the same space saving possibilities, and portability may be a huge improvement, but that would require much fabrication to do pull off. The large headstock though is probably his most exclusive item, and is purely original to him IMHO. Needless to say I understand where he is coming from, and what he must feel.
I hope this doesn't offend anyone, It's not My intent, and not looking to make any enemies, or start a fight, cause I don't have the time or resolve for such foolishness. It's just a simple case of right and wrong to me, but there's a lot of things in this world these days that don't seem right or fair. A sign of the times we now live in I suppose.:frown:
