[simpits-tech] cost of SSC base

[Marv De Beque]

You are right, but a job shop will charge you a set fee to code the CNC
machine, make a first part, and check it for integrity.

This needs to be done for every part that is made via CNC before they go
into production mode.

You should see a price break as you near the 10 piece point and the price
will further drop as you hit the 50 to 100 piece mark.

My guess is that the market will be saturated long before the 50 unit mark.

Once you get the base up and running, there is another issue with the Cougar
grip.  While you effectively eliminate the joystick pots, you still need to
contend with the switches in the grip.   Those can not be replaced with
quality switches since the bosses in the grip's casting get in the way of
using real switches.  I have done some hot rodding of my grip, but the
success has been limited and it takes a lot of my time.

That leads to one of my next projects, producing a quality metal grip that
accepts the real switches.

Marv

On 1/31/04 1:41 PM, "Jim K." <JimK at sisna.com> wrote:

> Guys,
> 
> I've seen some numbers being tossed around for the cost of machining the
> SSC base.  Actually until the drawings are released its pretty tough to
> tell what the machining costs are going to be.   The guys working on it
> were trying and seemingly succeeded in making a very realistic looking and
> performing SSC base.  For that I say GREAT JOB!!!!
> 
> There will be several things right off the start which will reduce per unit
> costs.   First the larger the order the less the per piece price will
> be.  Also, The less time the parts take to make the cheaper they will
> be.  So perhaps talking to your machinist you can reduce some of the
> cutting time that the parts need which are there solely for appearance
> sake.   Just have your machinist do the precision cutting that you can't do
> at home.  We can probably do the screw hole cutting and tapping, as an
> example.   There are probably other things we can do ourselves as
> well.  I'm just thinking of general ideas at them moment.
> 
> Also, take the files to your machinist on floppy disks, not paper.   That
> way they can put them directly into something like SolidCAM and generate
> their CNC info.
> 
> Lets wait for the drws, get some quotes and go from there.  Bottom line is,
> once we get the drws we will have something that a year ago was nothing
> more than a dream.  :-)  There are always ways to make things at lower
> costs.  Hopefully those costs can be reduced to the point where the parts
> become affordable for more people.
> 
> Jim
> 
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