Chube Compact Update 11/14/2025
Hello! We have some progress we’d like to share with you! We realize that it is past our original projected ship-date, and this is partially because we at Luke’s Laboratory tend towards optimism, and despite our best efforts to plan for problems and our extreme work schedule, we've fallen behind.
We are working hard here at the lab, and all of you have been waiting so patiently. We appreciate that trust, quite frankly, I (Audrina) am tearing up thinking about it. This is an amazing community, and we are happy to be part of it.
Chalice Heatbreaks: These are ready to go! We have plenty on-hand for all out-going Compacts.
Heatblocks: Now that Luke has perfected the “recipe” for machining this type of copper with Pika, we think that machining the heatblocks will go smoothly.
There was a lot of trial and error with this copper, as the manuals and tooling suppliers do not have an amazing grasp of our fairly uncommon copper. This resulted in a lot of broken tooling (which we now know wasn't our fault), and then needing to wait for new tooling to come in. This unfortunately really increases the amount of time “making” takes, both in physical time Luke spends in front of the machine, and calendar time, as broken tooling means nothing gets made while the tools are in the shipping truck!
Here's a rant Luke made talking about it.
Once the blocks are made, we will ship them to the plater! Including shipping there and back, the plater usually takes under 2 weeks.
Heatsinks: Luke has already successfully made the Compact heatsinks before, and once the aluminum is loaded, these will be made very quickly. This part is already programmed on our machine, and is made quite efficiently. The plan is to machine these while the heatblocks are at the platers.
Shrouds: These are not yet made. They will be machined here, and then be tumbled here at the Laboratory/Faboratory.
6x16 80w heaters: These are currently in production by the manufacturer. They will be air-shipped, and I am guessing they will be here soon after Thanksgiving.
PT1000: These are on-order with the manufacturer as well! We have some on-hand for “normal” orders, but bought plenty specifically for Compact. These are on-track to arrive around the same time as the heaters.
Silicone Socks: We did expect that these would be in by now, but they are not yet. We ordered a large amount of these as well, they are not in risk of going out of stock quickly once they are in 😊
We just received notice, as of 11/14/2025 that the silicone socks will be finished early next week, and I predict we should receive them by American Thanksgiving (11/27).
A little surprise, is that the Chube Compact socks will be coming in both black and Luke’s Lab blue! We thought they would all be black, but there was a slight miscommunication, and it is a happy accident. Look close, they say "Chube" on them!
Label: The label design is done, and we are swapping over to a machine that will apply the roll labels for us! This will make it a much faster and more even label application than before. (If your label in the past was especially crooked, it was probably me (Audrina) who placed it, we have a staff member who does it WAY better than I do)
Hardware: We have already been pre-bagging the spare hardware and L-Keys!
Assembly: assembling the hotends will definitely take some time, but we have taken some steps to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.
· We will be hiring a new staff member, who will be trained on both Pika and Chube assembly! We have already interviewed candidates, and will be making a decision soon. In the past, the only full-time staff member on hotend assembly was me (Audrina) with help from other staff as-needed. Having another full set of hands putting these together will be immensely helpful.
· We are planning tooling to torque heatbreaks en masse. In the past, I (Audrina) torqued all heatbreaks by hand with a torque wrench.
Frequently asked questions:
1) So, Audrina! When will the hotends ship?
It is so hard for me to give an accurate estimate, especially because there are so many factors to consider. I think we are looking at a December or early January ship-date, as we need to get the Pika Hotends out first. This estimate also assumes staff members may get sick at times, etc.
Note from Luke: I think it will be faster, as the tricky spots that murdered Pika's timeline are 1:1 applicable to compact production, literally copy-pasta the recipe. I continue to get faster at setup & programming (plus I've been yelling at Solidcam's reps to make better postprocessing).
We've also made massive improvements in our production capabilities. Luke created an overall update video on Pika and some things of the lab, where you'll see our new mill, our inspection machine, and the production of !NOZZLES! We are ramping up, just our curve has been offset by things that were more out of our control than estimated.
Crosslinking Pika Update too with even more pictures!
2) Will all the hotends ship at once? Or in batches?
We are making enough components to cover all of the already bought Compacts, both for direct customers and other vendors. They will not be able to all ship on the very same day, but within the same production batch? Absolutely.
Luke: Yea - there will be plenty available, as we think you guys will regret not ordering them at the preorder price later :)
3) If I ordered JUST the silicone sock and 6x16mm heater, when will I get it?
These will ship as soon as we get them in, if they were ordered without a hotend! Quantity will not be a concern. 😊
4) What comes with Compact?
The entire hotend, with an installed PT1000, installed 80w 24v heater, spare hardware, L Keys, stock stainless shield, and a silicone sock.
5) Will integration CAD be available?
Absolutely! We have been working hard on an updated website, so that all of Compact’s information will be available. We thought it would be up already, but we have unfortunately been sick for 3 out of the last 6 weeks (And Luke has been sitting in front of the machine trying to physically produce parts), thanks to our adorable little germ vectors (our children). It is basically done now, and is just waiting on some final touches. We'll probably update this post with it later, and have it linked on our site too.
