Your job. Their machine. Matched by specs.

It’s about time I tell you about me and the project. Yes, I am a solo dev on the project. I’ve never developed an app before — god knows if I’ll do another one 😂 What are you getting yourselves into? I’ve got a 3D printer and I’ve had a few jobs, but it just seemed like there was something missing — like duh, right under our noses. It was there: fabrication. And putting my biases aside for 3D printing, all fabrication in one place. The idea that anyone can have a side hustle or main hustle makes sense. We create a network — local-first, but expanding outward — so many opportunities then begin to open up. As a unit we can build our supply here. Then after onboarding enough people… oh, and it’s free for all makers — 1 machine. See how it goes. Register, get your pin on the map, get database’d for jobs, and see what happens. There’s no harm — we build the network. It’s private. Your data sits nicely on my private server, away from anyone. I do not intend to sell it or partner with anyone. This is my baby. Not gonna lie, it was a 20lb’er. Launch site will go live with the app and will be making it Android friendly until I get round to a full Android build. I have a roadmap that’ll go live, and a plan as well. Without wanting to sound like a crypto chad or anyone remotely douchey or annoying — we are early. As far as the industry goes. Just look at the stats, look at what market gaps there are. I’m already there, ready to connect everyone up. Founders Edition — 100 slots only. The first 100 makers can grab a Legacy account in-app at launch: a one-time lifetime fee, no subscription, zero commission ever. Your founder spot in the network, locked in for life. I’ll share more as I get closer to launch — which will be this week. If you have any interest in signing up as a beta this week, please send your email to [email protected] and I’ll send you a link. Well, this is my creator thank-you and welcome message. I am real. This isn’t AI. — Merlin, Founder

Where do I begin… I started my 3D printing journey 2 years ago. Buying a Bambu Labs A1i I thought the world was my oyster. Print jobs came in, but not consistently. I found I was struggling to compete with Fiverr or Etsy job matching, trying to wade through all those drop shippers to not be seen was a struggle. Something seemed to be missing. So I then upgraded to an H2D (hey look I know there’s flak going around at the moment about best devices, Bambu Labs back end control etc) — this is not about any of that. This site/app is designed to bring you real leads and clients that know what they want. Which is why I’m making it, not wanting to be a slave to social media. But then it all made sense — there is no marketplace for fabrication which enhances all fabrication and the capabilities and products that can be made. The scope is huge. That said, eBay, Etsy and all of the marketplaces that are now daily household names didn’t start like that. There had to be an onboarding process to start the chicken and egg exercise. So my fellow fabricators, on creating this app and the infrastructure what became abundantly clear was that, if we as a market group together, we can dictate our terms, we can get the subsidies we need for printing. All I ask is that you believe in the direction that I want to take the app. Trust in the process, that my end goal is to make this app a common household name where we have a tailored marketplace as opposed to a general spam-your-face-off marketplace saturated with drop shippers, trying to edge each other over. If the app was presented to suppliers within the industry showing a user base of 100k fabricators from different markets, this gives a lot of weight in negotiations so I’d be able to get tools and supplies, contracts and partnerships, which would otherwise not be seen. I already have an 18 months plan — I will share with you over the roadmap as we roll out over the coming months. It’s exciting what we could do if we grouped as a community. If the 100k threshold gets bigger, who knows what we could do. So, you early birds, believers of what this app can do — how can you help? • Register for free (no harm — I keep your data locked up on my server) • Recruit other fabricators. Don’t forget this isn’t just 3D printing — the list of markets is huge, so please take a look and help me grow the Grid network, worldwide. • Some bugs might still be showing as we launch, so patience and feedback are key. • Promote your Forge items from your shop. You have 10 free slots to showcase your best items, rarest items, bespoke etc — as long as it steals the eye, great. Choice is yours. Then sharing via social media. • If you really feel the app and direction I want to take it appeal to you and you want a front row seat with me, become a lifetime member. These have been set for Pro and Prime tiers. There are 100 of each on a first come first serve basis. Because I am not raising VC and am a solo dev, my intention is to use the legacy payments for further marketing with influencers across the world in different market types. • Launch is across 175 countries for iOS. The web app will be available for all to use — Android and web users — at time of launch. At the moment, my focus is predominantly on getting makers onboard. The first 2–3 months after launch, marketing site and drive will be for makers. Drip feeding buyers in, slowly. When we cross a threshold of a certain amount of makers (TBC) we will then switch heavily to onboarding buyers — change site, full maximisation of buyer onboarding, marketing and influencer content, as well as incentives through the easter egg game. (All of which is mapped out — not yet visible.) So ladies and gentlemen, just a quick update as to where and what the plans are going forward. Hopefully you can read that I’m just a regular Joe that had an idea and wanted to build it… If you build it they will come (apparently 😂) — Merlin

Web portal at app.thespoollist.com now has every feature from the iOS app — gallery with likes, maker profiles, job management, deliverable uploads, dispute flow, favourites, earnings dashboard, equipment tag editor, real-time messaging, and full Stripe checkout. Sam AI chat deployed to Spool Dock with full project knowledge via Claude Haiku. All 14 site pages submitted to Google Search Console.

All 27 edge functions migrated to a single Express server on Hetzner behind api.thespoollist.com with nginx SSL. Tim’s matching algorithm upgraded to machine-first — SQL filter + scoring rebalanced so equipment capability is the primary signal. Spool Dock v11 with parallelized queries (12.4s→1.5s), Sam email sequences, Dan outreach pipeline with 40 real contacts seeded globally, and Guard infrastructure protection.

Scorched-earth Firebase→Supabase migration complete. Tony (tier_config) is now the single source of truth for all pricing, caps, and feature gates. Automated RSS catalog discovery pipeline scanning 12 industry feeds daily for new machine releases. Spool Dock v7 with Help Guide, live events, tunnel control, and catalog review panel. Tim’s dynamic radius matching live — sparse areas auto-expand to 200mi.

Expanded the verified machine database to 350+ models across all 17 fabrication categories. Added over-the-air catalog updates. Complete site redesign with expanded buyer and maker sections, Blade Runner roadmap, and macro photography throughout.

New Grid Log view for tracking all jobs at a glance. Improved shipping flow with real-time status updates. Push notifications for job milestones — accepted, shipped, delivered. Daily greeting and contextual dashboard on the Hub screen.

Fair job distribution across paid tiers with geographic radius matching — Free sees 50 miles, Pro sees 100, Premium sees 500. Email change flow for account management. Network map now shows real maker location data with animated pins. Affiliate attribution system live.

Push notifications via APNs. Stripe deep links for seamless payment flows. iOS privacy manifest for App Store compliance. Supabase Storage with RLS policies.

Image caching for faster gallery loading. Real geographic data for the global network map. Crashlytics integration for crash monitoring. Critical bug fixes across chat, payments, and profile editing.

Core marketplace built: job posting, maker bidding, escrow via Stripe, real-time chat, equipment-verified maker profiles, gallery system, subscription tiers via RevenueCat, and the global network map. iOS app and web PWA ready for launch.