Wouter Strietman is going to be releasing a countertop model soon. His site has a few intentionally blurry photos but you can get a good idea what it is going to look like. I like the minimalist approach to the design and it will be cool to see how this new version works out.

More info is available on his site.

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=652 ... 0670f4a89b

I generally like his designs but they are a bit too modernistic/minimalistic for my taste, but good to see the evolution in his work.

Thanks Tom for sharing.
I also like his work. What I personally don't understand is the price range of these machines, except if you consider that it is art.

I basically consider these machines fully functional art pieces because of their price.

If it's art, I'm out. I can't afford art, but I can afford goods and services.

pootoogoo wrote:Thanks Tom for sharing.
I also like his work. What I personally don't understand is the price range of these machines, except if you consider that it is art.

The price is easier to understand if you know about the cost of labour in the Netherlands, and how much taxes are being paid.

Years ago I have produced some high end interlinks (the audio stuff made by elves working only during moonlight hours to push 5N Silver to wire rather than pull wire) and always found it staggering to see that in order to make any profit at all some 150$ in material and numerous hours of work translated into a price range of over a thousand $ quite rapidly. But that is high end Audio, this imo is high end Espresso...
As Wouter can hardly be expected to sell in large numbers much work will be done manually by skilled people in the Netherlands (or as Inexpect, by himself).

It's not without reason much stuff is coming from China, India or thereabouts these days....

If what you're saying is true then there would be no industry left here. Whats you'll find is that a lot of stuff is still made here. Bosch makes huge hydraulic pistons, the Tata Steel blast furnaces are working well, Fokker makes landing gears. Dutch offshore engineering is alive and kicking, as is the automobile industry with Nedcar, but also VDL Also cheap consumer products are made here, take for example the ubiquitous tacx bidons.
The netherlands is the second largest agricultural exporter worldwide and dutch employees have one of the highest hourly productivity numbers.
A lot is being produced here and you would know that if you ventured outside the inner city.
Your cables were expensive because your process was inefficient. Nothing to do with where you are living. Same goes for the Strietman (or his margins are really high). It is possible that your product precludes an efficient process, in that case it's better made by an inefficient workforce as well.

For someone who doesn't want steam, the ES3 offers quite a lot in a small package <AUD2k... I find the idea of a counter model quite appealing but I still haven't seen a picture of the ES models producing a decent looking shot...

Bob_McBob wrote:I basically consider these machines fully functional art pieces because of their price.

Sadly, my wife cannot appreciate the art aspect but I sure would like one since I like the minimalist approach.

@bluecold: yeah well, as if Strietman has a machine that will sell in enough numbers to make more industrialized machining cost efficient to begin with. Just consider all the hours of research. Not sure where you come to the conclusion that his margins are high. Fact is that there is quite a difference between Taxatioj of large companies companies like Tata VDL et al. perhaps you are also aware why many large international firms have a PO box tax evasion construction based in the Netherlands?

The thread was about Strietman, and even though his machines are not up my alley I have no issue with his pricing.