01-13-2007, 11:47 PM
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BARCLONE Rocketry
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Posts: 5,357
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Carl@Semroc
We have checked into molds for nose cones. The best price I could find was $5K per nose cone! When I mentioned that to Bill Stine, he said I could get those in China for about $800. I mumbled that it did not look like we would be doing nose cones. I refuse to deal with China. I think I am too old to start trying to get along with them now...
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The other thing I thought about, concerning plastic items, is the time-to-market delay. In the time it takes for one plastic tooling to be created, tested, revised, tested again, put into production, shipped, and finally received in the warehouse / packaging room, that Krellvenator could have produced multiple batches of the same cone and the kits could have been on the dealer shelves. The quicker turn-around time is worth any premium a balsa cone might cost, if there actually is any.
I'm not personally in favor of an injection-molded cone at this time. We've seen some applications already on this forum -- the Tau Tau is a good example -- of where a hollow, blow-molded plastic cone might be usable; and if SEMROC did venture into plastic that is what I might suggest. But I think the balsa components give these kits a feel that plastic takes away. I'd just as soon not see plastic used right now. Estes and Quest are in that camp. Their QC is in dire need of attention, and off-shore tooling is just one issue. Let's just "not go there"... |