As of 1/11/2023 The Pre Order Sale has launched! *As of 2/20/2024 the pre order sale has ended and retail sales are open We have a working prototype and we will start producing machines that we can bring to market. *2024 update we have a final design and machines ordered via the tester sale are on track to be shipped by April 20th 2024 I will be adding a retail listing to the shop soon... 2/2024 after the tester sale is complete. The price of the Gem Bots will be $4190 + shipping and handling based on purchasers location. Machines will be made to order. Please allow at most 3-4 months for construction and delivery of your ordered machine. As I get more orders and build an inventory of machines this delivery time will be cut down dramatically. Visit the shop today to place an order for your Gem Bot Automated Faceting Machine!(https://www.merlinsgembot.com/category/all-products)

Hey Frank thanks for your interest in the project : ) I have lots of videos up on my personal Instagram page following the progress on the Gem Bot. @ryabarjewelry is where you can find these videos. Also feel free to send me a direct message there with any questions, I tend answer them quicker than from the site. I have working machines ready and tested, I have a few pre orders already that will be shipped by 4/20/2024 I will have how to videos up on YouTube coming November and am currently making the final upgrade to a touch screen user interface rather than the number pad controller that I’m currently using. My initial deadline was to have pre orders shipped out by end of year 2023 and was saving the touch screen user interface for a later model but I and the testers both agreed that this initial production model should come with the touch screen user interface. We have all agreed to push the deadline back a few months as it is going to take me a little extra time to program/implement this upgrade. I am keeping the pre order group limited to 10 individuals so that I can keep everything more personal and provide any unforeseen changes/updates that need be to the small group. The testers onboard have already helped so much and have input their experience and knowledge in places that I wouldn’t of been able to without years of experience. I hope you continue to keep in touch and I’m excited to add more testers to the team! Everyone’s input helps. OK, thanks for your response. Do you have a manual that I could see, that explains the machines capabilities, and the setup and operation? Can I expect that the pre-order price would include the touch screen interface. I do like to produce beautiful gems, but have found the process very tedious. Eliminating most of that would be a very enticing prospect. i do have computer experience. Just need more details, since you want the whole price upfront, when would you expect the time frame for receiving a working machine would be? Thanks. I do not yet have a manual written up. https://www.merlinsgembot.com/resources (https://www.merlinsgembot.com/resources)I am planning on using the how to videos along with some text added to the how to section of the website under the resources tab. The pre order will include the touch screen user interface as it will be part of the machine along with everything else one may need to cut a gemstone from rough to polish. I agree with you about the process being very tedious, that’s kinda the whole reason I started this project. With the gem bot I often find myself working on other things as the machine runs it’s automated processes. I do keep an eye on it to make sure everything is running smoothly as it should. But I have left the machine running and left the room plenty of times to come back and it’s still working it’s magic. I’ve only had one stone fall off the dop while testing. Luckily it didn’t cause any damage to the stone or machine and landed perfectly on a soft cloth I was using. It fell off the dop because I let the piece sit for a few weeks before going back and cutting it which I guess caused the glue to lose its hold. Cutting by hand I would always find myself missing an index or applying too much pressure and messing up the meet lines. That’s definitely not the case with the gem bot. It hits every index as the design calls for and moves to the exact same position for every cut facet. Another thing I wanted to do was to keep the entry price to the craft low. I know a quality faceting machine can be found used for around $5k after the pre order sale the price point I’m looking to achieve is somewhere around $4000. Lower than the competition for a machine with better features. A cool thing I often find myself using is the manual control functions. I can control angle, x and y movement and a few other variables so essentially the user isn’t stuck to just the automated cut feature of the machine. There’s some good videos on Austin Moores YouTube channel when the machine was in the prototype phase of things. I have made many design and function upgrades since then. I will have machines shipped out by 4/20/2024. If for some reason I cannot reach this deadline then I will provide a full refund if desired. I have all that outlined in the terms and conditions at the bottom of the pre order tester sale page via the website. : ) thanks again for the interest and looking forward to chatting more. Cheers I guess I'm wondering now when you expect to have your machine fully tested and ready for customers who want everything ready to go? Also, I guess I'm wondering what your testers are providing to you. Are you looking for bugs or what? So I’m doing this whole tester sale to help promote the machines and the artists that will be using the machines. Kind of a way to spread the word about the gem bot. To get users honest reviews and ultimately have different sets of data and feedback from users that I myself might not be able to achieve without lots and lots of cut time. I am not specifically looking for bugs. I like to think I’ve worked all those out with my testing and upgrades. But if a tester finds an issue that I have not thought of or ran into yet then I will be able to work with them and provide a solution for the small group of testers. I will send code updates and or modified parts and instructions for the fix if need be. I feel comfortable right now to release machines to the public that can produce quality cut stones. I just want to keep the initial group small and focused so that I don’t end up becoming a customer service representative, stuck dealing with emails rather than a creator and builder. so, just to confirm what I believe you have already indicated, if I ordered a machine today, I would not receive it until next April, is that correct? That is the deadline I have set, correct. But I have been ahead of my deadlines. That is why I’m implementing the touch screen user interface. I gave myself a few months extra room just incase. As of now the design of the machine is final and code is complete. Merging the touchscreen into the design, modifying the code to make them work together and creating some how to video tutorials (even though I have made the machine to be very simple to use) are the final steps that I will be completing before shipping machines out. Once that is done and tested I will start shipping machines out ASAP. I’m still shooting for my initial deadline of before the end of the year. OK, I think i'm onboard. Look forward to receiving the machine.

The machine takes most of the tedious and time consuming labor out of faceting a gemstone. There will still need to be user interaction. As of now the machine cannot put a rough stone on a dop stick or insert that dop stick into the chuck. The machine can cut a whole pavilion or crown without some user intervention. There are multiple ways to cut a gemstone with the Gem Bot. There is a manual control function where the machine movements can be controlled via the touch screen controller. For each step in the process, the user must set the angle, and index and move to each individual facet. Kind of like using a manual faceting machine but with much better precision. The Gem Bot displays gemstone location on the x and y axis, the angle that the gemstone is being cut at and which index the gem is being cut at. 2023 update* There is now a way to select from a list of designs and have Merlin's Gem Bot work its magic and automatically facet gemstones. 2024 update* we have added a way for users to not only select their desired shape and design via the touch screen controller but we have also implemented a way for a user to input their own custom designs. Video examples of this can be found on @ryabarJewelry Instagram page. We are still working on the programming of the machine to try and limit the user interaction as much as possible. We strive to eliminate as many inputs from the user as we can.

As of now... No. There will still need to be some user interactions. Securing the stone on the dop and the transfer of the stone from one dop to another will still need to be done. We hope to utilize a notched dop so that the stone and dop keep its orientation to limit the ability to have user error. We do plan on including a dop transfer jig that is secure to the machine in our near future design updates.

We wanted to create a quality product constructed entirely in house. Using 3D printers we can easily design and create all in one step without having to send our designs out to a manufacturer. This should save time and money and ultimately give us the assurance that we are the ones creating the quality that we desire.