Combining orders at OpenHardware.io?

[TomG]

Is there some way to combine multiple orders from the same PCB vendor at OpenHardware.io to save on shipping costs?

(Background)
I recently ordered two different PCBs (10 each) from PCBWay (the cheapest vendor including shipping) at OpenHardware.io. The shipping for each set of boards was $11 USD to my location. I was surprised to have both orders arrive in the same box. It seems to me that one of the shipping fees wasn't necessary but it was impossible to avoid since each set of boards had to be processed as a separate order. If the shipping was just a few dollars this wouldn't be a big deal, but paying $22 to ship $30 of PCBs feels a little excessive when it should have really been $11. Perhaps I just missing something.

By the way, I'm very happy with the two PCBs that I ordered. They even included an extra board (11 total) for each of the PCBs. PCBWay did a nice job of packing the boards for shipment.

[hek]

Hi @TomG,

It's current not possible to combine orders (more than changing the 10x multiple of the same board). Adding combined orders would complicate the integration quite a bit with the manufacturers. Nothing I have in the todo-backlog at the moment.
But I agree with you that the shipping cost becomes a bit high when doing two separate orders (that later manually gets combined by the manufacturer). They all got their own way of calculating shipping cost. When testing, they seems to add $2-5 when increasing quantity by 10 on a single PCB order.

[TomG]

@hek,

Thanks for the info, that is what I suspected. It occurred to me that I could download the files for each PCB that I want to order, then upload the files to the PCB manufacturer and skip ordering from OpenHardware.io. However, I've never ordered PCBs by uploading files, so I'm concerned that I might make a mistake and end up with a bunch of unusable boards. Also, I have no desire to cut the owner of OpenHardware.io out of any well deserved revenue from that website.

[Yveaux]

@tomg said in Combining orders at OpenHardware.io?:

However, I've never ordered PCBs by uploading files, so I'm concerned that I might make a mistake and end up with a bunch of unusable boards.

Unless you upload the design files of a different board, it is unlikely that something goes wrong. Manufacturers also do a sanity check before processing the boards.

[Nca78]

@tomg said in Combining orders at OpenHardware.io?:

@hek,
Also, I have no desire to cut the owner of OpenHardware.io out of any well deserved revenue from that website.

Just make a paypal donation of the PCB price difference to MySensors for that. Maker of PCB will lose their share but it's pretty small and it ends up given as donation to MySensors most of the time.

[TomG]

@nca78 said in Combining orders at OpenHardware.io?:

Just make a paypal donation of the PCB price difference to MySensors for that. Maker of PCB will lose their share but it's pretty small and it ends up given as donation to MySensors most of the time.

Excellent idea!