Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida
I think you already have about 50 "sold" right here. If the blank price goes down with a 100, you might want to consider it.
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Due to the enthusiasm since this thread started, I have requested a price for 100 blanks. Unfortunately they were giving me a pretty good deal in the first place for 50, and the price for 100 was only .30 cents per piece cheaper. Big problem is, the manufacturer I am obtaining the blanks from does not like to give them up since they count on them for their runs, and selling me some in quantity screws up their production runs. The runs they make for normal sockets in this size range is in the thousands which is why none of the reputable manufacturers want to make this socket. They figure they can't sell a thousand plus, so they are not interested. When they make a run, there is a plus or minus 10 percent commitment, and selling me the blanks just brings them closer to their minus 10 percent which I can understand. Everything they do is in bulk like annealing, heat treating tempering, so on and so forth, and poundage for each of the processes really counts for their manufacturing cost as far as furnace and machine utilization.
If we look at the good side, at least I have the contact and can get blanks which makes this process even possible for all of the folks who would like one at a reasonable cost. There is only one size blank I know of that I can use to make this a perfect socket for this application.
I know this blank will be used probably for a long long time, so I am not worried about getting them for an extended period of time, but remember, this blank is being taken out of the middle of their production run. This all starts as a solid piece of steel in an automated process, and I am getting them to spit out perfectly good parts in the middle of the process prior to the end broaching and such. This requires an operator to basically instruct the cnc machine to only do part of the operation and spit out unfinished parts during the process for some period of time. This in turn causes an issue with predetermined tool wear and everything else in the process.
At this point due to the interest I think I am going to tool a bit differently, which will be more expensive right now, and obviously no immediate payback, but I, like you am thinking 100 is probably a real number over time as people find out about this socket. And the tooling I am considering will make it easier to do small batches down the road while keeping the cost to the end user at a consistent reasonable number.
I think alot of people would put a high price on these and sell to whoever, just to make some money. I however would like to make these so that everyone can afford to buy one from now to eternity, not just those with deep pockets.
As I stated previously in this thread, I only made this thing to help my father and give him something no one else had. I honestly did not believe it when he said people would be interested in this tool, since I figured there had to be something somewhere that people could get their hands on. Apparently I was wrong, and my goal now is basically to make this available to the masses who will appreciate them.
I honestly am not looking at this as a money making opportunity. As I told my father tonight, due to the interest, I am quite content doing this pretty much just for the bragging rights so to speak. Of course I would like to cover my cost at least, but the fact that I can provide people with something that no one else can or is willing to do, kinda makes me feel good.
Hopefully everyone understands this.
Just to add a bit about my background, I own a business that deals with large multinational corporations. Probably anything you have in your house that is on a roll (toilet paper, saran wrap, foil, and actually even your q-tip brand q-tips) has probably at some point been processed on the equipment I have designed manufactured and supplied. I also supply equipment and services to every tire manufacturer in the world with the exception of Bridgestone/Firestone.
So as far as the sockets, believe me, I can make money spending my time elsewhere, but I enjoyed this challenge presented by my father, and hopefully have found a way to provide everyone with this (apparently much sought after) unicorn so to speak.
Once the car club provides their review Tuesday or Wednesday on this socket (hopefully positive, lol), we will provide our pricing idea to everyone, and I am hoping everyone will be pleasantly surprised. Obviously not gonna be dirt cheap, but definitely in line with a top quality impact type socket in a comparable size range.
Not real sure why I wrote all this other than to assure you I am looking at every aspect of this venture to try and keep the cost of this tool as reasonable as possible.
I do appreciate the suggestion, and if you or anyone else has any other ideas, I really would love to hear them since I would love to make these as cheap as possible.
One other thing to mention here just so everyone knows. Every single thing with regard to these sockets is 100% USA. Blanks, tooling, and even equipment used to manufacture is all USA. It has already been mentioned subcontracting the production of these sockets to a company in China which would be really really cheap. I however will not even consider this option regardless of the savings. Just not gonna happen, and if someone suggests it again, they will not be purchasing one of these sockets from me.
Sorry for writing this rather lengthy dissertation, lol, but again I thank everyone for the interest in this project and look forward to moving forward in a positive manner.