I’m trying to upgrade my 4.0 to 4.1, and the hardware bag is sold out.
Am I in for a rough ride?
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The hardware is pretty much the same between 4.0 and 4.1 other than using the torx head bolts instead of the allen bolts because they are less prone to stripping.
I’m hoping to get the hardware bags back in stock in the next couple weeks.
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hi Bar, when will the China shop be open?
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The China warehouse is up and running, the new hardware bags have I think arrived at the warehouse but they need to be processed and put into inventory which might take until Monday
Hi @bar, I’ve checked again and I can’t tell if the shop is set up in China but I see a strange thing - 2 international shipping charges.
I was going to order:
Quantity4 JST-XH Encoder Wire
Quantity8 Belt and Spool
Quantity1 Belt End Bag
Quantity1 Hardware Bag - Maslow 4.1
Quantity1 Encoder PCB (4 Pack)
Quantity1 Belt Guard Bag - Maslow 4.1
Quantity1 JST-XH 5 Axis Control Board
What seems to trigger the second delivery charge are the encoder wires: JST-XH Encoder Wire.
why is this?
I’m in Spain so will this automatically make it a China shop order?
I also recommend that you provide and upgrade kit option so that users don’t make the mistake of ordering only one of JST-XH Encoder Wire.
Thanks very much in advance.
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Unfortunately we don’t have every part in stock in both warehouses right now so what is happening is that part of your order is being fulfilled from China and part of it is coming from the US.
I’m working to get everything in stock in both locations but it might take a little time
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Thanks for that. Given the differences in import duties, is there some way to indicate where a given article will be sent from or some way to specify only the China store?
I can update the shipping cost names to be more clear so it will say something like “International shipping from the US”
I’ve been working on trying to find a way to do this, but Shopify doesn’t seem to support it 
Edit: They should be updated to be more clear
Hi Bar, I’ve been busy with summer but now I’m ready to spend more time with my Maslow. I looked at the shop and both the upgrade kit and the belts are coming from Seattle. Is there any way to get the delivery from China at the moment?
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Shipping from China hasn’t really been going very smoothly so I’m moving away from it. They are really really bad at shipping things on time and being transparent about when and why there are delays. Also the tracking numbers don’t work a lot of the time which leads to a lot of support emails.
I want to try to find a solution for shipping from outside the US, but I don’t have a clear plan for what that looks like yet.
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The other thing i’ve noticed is postage to the UK seems very high for small parcels - so one, two, a few (small, light) items are still £18 - £28 in postage. I don’t know if that’s just a minimum you have to pay in postage but it does make it difficult to tinker with the hardware.
But I see the other side too - if you had a local distributor the individual item costs would likely have to at least double to cover it (plus all the faff), even if it cut the postage costs down a lot.
You almost want a couple of different projects to band together to have local hubs, but then again it probably would still end up pushing up costs 
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Could you try another distributer in China. We’re getting crucified with import duties from the USA these days.
Alternatively an EU centre but I doubt that you have enough biz for that in the EU. @RandomDave is right about delivery costs but it’s really the import charges which more than double the postage costs.
When I bought the 4.0 the import costs were 150 euros! That cost is higher proportionally for smaller pieces such as belts.
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I could try another in China, but I’ve tried two and been unimpressed both times. I’m sure there are good ones out there, but I’m having a hard time finding them.
How would shipping from Canada be for you?
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Is it always International Priority you use for shipping from Seattle? I wonder if offering an economy option might make sense too - not everyone needs the fastest possible all the time. No idea the effect on pricing though.
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Unfortunately I think we’re only offering the most economy option right now from Seattle. International shipping is just expensive
If the shipment had a Canadian origin then yes, but I’m not sure that you’d qualify for that.
What’s insane about all of this is that the origin is China (you get the parts made there, right?) but we end up being hammered by duties as though it were from the USA. Maybe you should look at the customs declarations to see if there’s any way to change the origin to it’s real origin.
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I’ve just noticed that the belts are now sold out. Any idea when they will be available again?
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Yeah the tariffs situation is a mess. My experience is that in theory there are often ways to solve things like that, but in practice the amount of paperwork needed is immense and there aren’t any government agencies who are interested in helping to save anyone money.
For example if we import something into the US we pay tariffs on it when it comes into the country, but if we then export it from the country again we are entitled to a refund on those tariffs…in theory…in practice the paperwork takes 18 months to process!
Our goal would be to ship directly from China to Canada (no tariffs) and then Canada to everywhere else so I think it would either be labeled as a Chinese origin or Canadian origin (not the US for sure).
I’ve got more spools ordered, let me check in with the factory to see when those will be ready.
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@bar if you are thinking about moving away from China. US Tariffs and The World - Tariff Rates by Country (September 2025). Lists the current and proposed tariff rates between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Not sure on manufacturing and shipping cost difference and other variables. But many south/central American and Asian countries have 10%.
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