UPDATE 6/04/2008 Drastic cost increases in materials, energy and health insurance dictate major price increases in winch kit and turnaround prices just to meet expenses. Machine work is my business and profession, not a hobby and I'll continue to produce professional quality products as long as they sell but the prospect hyper inflation seems very real and troubling.
Pricing
Winch and Turnaround Pricing
Winches and turnaround prices are based on time and materials. My hourly rate changes based on the cost of living just like civil servants and union workers. Just like a Chevrolet or a Ford product, a significant part of each winch and turnaround goes toward health insurance costs. Metal prices, especially aluminum and copper are highly volatile and change on a daily basis. To increase production, I have sought vendors to produce winch parts many times over the years and the results have been unreasonable prices and quantities so all winch and turnaround parts are made "in house". Winch and turnaround costs are kept reasonable by building specialized tooling including holding and drill fixtures. For example, the formed metal WN2 winch base with punched hole patterns increased production by reducing parts and fitting however it was necessary to build a special break to form the close bends which were not possible with a standard pressbrake.
Skid and Skeg Pricing
Injection molded parts require a significant investment in engineering and tooling. The final unit price is determined by engineering costs, time and material for mold tooling, production time, packaging costs, order processing costs, promotional and advertising costs divided by the projected unit sales. Skid and Skeg prices always include first class postage and handling. After 20 years of marketing competition R/C soaring products, I have a pretty good idea of the size of the American market, probably 2000ish and shrinking which makes it not just a niche market but a micro niche market. The first SD1 Sharkstooth Skid mold was pretty simple and built in a day and has produced thousands of parts over 20 years (a pretty good investment!) so the SD1 price mostly reflects the cost of material and processing. The recently completed SK5 mold is many times more complicated and necessarily more precise and took several months to design and build for a smaller projected unit sales. Add to the price the risk of bringing a product to market that may or may not be successful and in the case of skids and skegs the possibility of some Luddite sneaking through a rules change banning arresting devices turning my investment in tooling and engineering into paperweights.
This is a screen capture of an online injection molded plastic parts estimator using skeg like parameters. The minimum quanity that can be used is 5000 parts which would be huge for sailplane parts but it gives an idea of tooling costs. Quantity is the key to bringing down part costs.
Process
Injection Molding
Skids, Skegs and V Belt ends are INJECTION MOLDED which means plastic pelets are heated then the molten plastic is forced at great pressure into a steel mold. Injection pressure is 17,000 pounds per square inch which converts to many tons of internal mold pressure based on the area of the mold. For example, a mold with 4 square inches of area would require a clamping pressure of 34 tons which can snap the head off bolts. Because of the pressures involved, skid and skeg molds must be constructed of high strength materials capable of withstanding the internal forces and to tolerances of one thousandth of an inch and requires advanced toolmaking skills. It's not uncommon to invest a hundred hours or more in a mold of moderate complexity.
Machine Capacity
3 lathes capable of swinging up to 22", vertical mill, precision grinding, 2 cubic inches injection molding capacity, 100% duty cycle mig/tig welding capacity plus all support equipment and validation.
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