Uncle Phil
Site Supporter
The problem is when a 'company' like ours tries to produce a product in small runs, the cost ends up being prohibitive because of the overhead and thus the price seems high when compared to somebody working out of their home. We have the facilities to probably make anything needed (lasers, turrets, presses, machine mills), but the runs are just not large enough numbers to make the price 'reasonable'. I did the belly pans when we first got the laser and had a spare sheet of material to 'test' with. And we included free shipping, stainless steel fasteners, printed installation instructions, etc. with no significant markup, and it was 'more than I'm willing to pay' in many cases. Our newest laser can cut up to 1/2 steel, so cutting the wings out of aluminum would be simple but not cheap. ;-)The remark 'That's/they're overpriced!' almost always bugs me. Some many people can't tell the difference between 'overpriced' and 'that's more than I'm willing to pay'. They seldom know what's involved in manufacture or overhead and always think they could do it cheaper blahblahblah without regard to distribution R&D etc.
I'm impressed when someone undertakes a small production product especially here in the forum. I like Mellow's formula of take a poll and cut in half.