De-ginger head lights HELP
- Thread starter ranski
- Start date
TBH, for me, the "worth it" value is £150 + P&P TOPS. I remember the thread at £170 and thinking maybe it's a bit much for me.
There may be one or two fanatical people who will just throw money at it, but when you step back and realise you're paying £170 for two bits of plastic with the manufacturing costs of about £50 it's a bit excessive.
There may be one or two fanatical people who will just throw money at it, but when you step back and realise you're paying £170 for two bits of plastic with the manufacturing costs of about £50 it's a bit excessive.
RJS-Z4 said:
The cost of the mold alone for a single hockey stick is circa £1000 and its only good for 25 to 30 impressions and each hockey stick has to be hand finished, very small scale production of such items is very expensive on a per unit basis. When Hella made they they probably made some thousands in one run with a very expensive mold and injection machinery then the per unit cost tumbles way down
I can vouch for how expensive small batch work can be. Most of the stuff i make and sell on hear would make me a LOSS if i had to run my own machine shop. The 2 machines i use to make the gear knobs would be 75k without any tooling vices or chucks add all that in + electric oils coolant. The gear knobs would be £100 each and the strut braces probably £500 each!! Luckily my employer has brought it all and i can use it out of hours and lunch breaks. All i have to worry about is material and my time. I still don't make a lot on the stuff i sell.
nfarmer i might be able to help out with molds and so on like i say i can be a bit cheaper. Possibly pass on a saving to the forum. And a free set for me obviously
nfarmer i might be able to help out with molds and so on like i say i can be a bit cheaper. Possibly pass on a saving to the forum. And a free set for me obviously
Machine monkey said:nfarmer i might be able to help out with molds and so on like i say i can be a bit cheaper. Possibly pass on a saving to the forum. And a free set for me obviously
Thanks for the comments. The molds of course are complex, three dimensional and fairly long. The process my supplier uses is to take a silicone impression of the original part to be copied, then cut the silicone by hand using surgical scalpels to release the original (which isnt damaged in the process) then each new item is made by injecting liquid plastic in a vacuum cabinet and then the mold is released by hand and the final stage is removing any flashing and spurs, again by hand.
If you were to make a pair (because they are 'handed') of molds how would you be doing this? Dont forget my supplier would spread the cost of the molds over their life, say between 25 and 30 pairs
Norman
ranski said:
Ive also had both fitted, the LED ones in the link are the same as mine and are fantastic, as stated don't waste any money on ccfl ones, I've had many sets of several BMW's over the years and they die fairly quickly. You don't want to be taking the lights on the Z apart too often.
I was thinking and i don't have a lot of experience working with plastics in this way. But machining up a solid mold out of aluminum but would need a cad file so that i could make a 3D model on our cam soft where and then machine it out of a solid billit. I am not sure if that would be any good? But willing to talk and find out a little more and to try and help. I am sure i work with someone that has ideas about this and some experience in this type of work.