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  #11  
Old 03-04-2019, 05:23 PM
Sandy H. Sandy H. is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 50
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Bruce,

That is very interesting as far as your printer setup. Mine is significantly slower than that - maybe 2 hours for a 4" long BT-50 cone. Plus the hand finishing is tedious. The main purpose for that printer wasn't rocket related, though, so that's not a big deal.

The link to the Shapeways stuff is interesting as well. The pricing seems pretty fair, much less than I could do it for. I'm not sure what the quality of the shipped product is, but if it is acceptable to most rocketeers, then that seems like a good resource.

Having said that, I'm sure another resource for 3D printed components wouldn't be frowned upon by the community.

Thanks for the input!

Sandy.
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  #12  
Old 04-13-2019, 10:35 PM
rraeford rraeford is offline
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If you can print that inexpensively, I think you can compete. His prices are rather high.
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  #13  
Old 04-14-2019, 12:48 AM
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LeeR LeeR is offline
Retired with Way Too Many Kits
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Colorado
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Sandy,

Selling laser cut fins would seem like a good way to get started. Selling them in various sizes for upscales and downscales would be nice. Another product to offer might be centering rings (CRs). Other vendors sell them, but if I come to you for fins, I’d just as soon also get CRs from you to save on shipping costs by eliminating the requirement to go to several vendors. A number of users would want fin tabs on fins for larger models. By offering CRs, you could provide fins with tabs matched to the size of motor tube in your CRs.

Best of luck to you.
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  #14  
Old 04-14-2019, 10:20 AM
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ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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If you decide to do kits, I'm in the camp that likes Futuristic/Sci-Fi/ Fantasy and scale kits.
NOT 3FNC stuff.

I'm also of the opinion No Decals=NO KIT. I won't buy a $30 kit then have to spend another $25 on decals just to have a decent looking BT-60 sized rocket.
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  #15  
Old 04-14-2019, 02:51 PM
Sandy H. Sandy H. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeR
Sandy,

Selling laser cut fins would seem like a good way to get started. Selling them in various sizes for upscales and downscales would be nice. Another product to offer might be centering rings (CRs). Other vendors sell them, but if I come to you for fins, I’d just as soon also get CRs from you to save on shipping costs by eliminating the requirement to go to several vendors. A number of users would want fin tabs on fins for larger models. By offering CRs, you could provide fins with tabs matched to the size of motor tube in your CRs.

Best of luck to you.


Lee,

You bring up good points. I think CR's are trivial, as there are a finite number of options and handling the cut files wouldn't be an issue. As you say, there are already some good sources for this.

A challenge for custom fins is that the cost of creating the pattern and running just a few would make the cost unattractive, I imagine. I could do spec fins, like a clipped delta with parameters the customer could specify, but then again, a clipped delta fin is pretty easy to cut with conventional tools.

One of the places the laser really shines (wow, bad pun. . . ) is doing precise/complex curves that would be difficult to do repeatably by hand with simple tools. These types would be hard to make parametric, I'm afraid.

I will definitely take your suggestion into account and try to figure out a way that I could provide low volume runs without a ton of design overhead.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Sandy.
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  #16  
Old 04-14-2019, 02:58 PM
Sandy H. Sandy H. is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
If you decide to do kits, I'm in the camp that likes Futuristic/Sci-Fi/ Fantasy and scale kits.
NOT 3FNC stuff.

I'm also of the opinion No Decals=NO KIT. I won't buy a $30 kit then have to spend another $25 on decals just to have a decent looking BT-60 sized rocket.


I imagine most members here and those on the flying field agree with your preferences above. I think there might be a few interesting designs in my head that are not plain 3FNC's, but I look at some of the really creative things big companies are putting out, along with the small vendors and I'm not sure my creativity adds much.

Decals are also a key element, especially for fantasy/sci-fi rockets. An Interceptor would be completely boring if it was just a plain white rocket.

Personally, for HPR rockets, I don't mind vinyl or 'stickers', but for small rockets, I think water-slide is the only real option. As of now, I have not thoroughly researched what it takes to procure high quality water-slides, but with the demise of the guys running Alps printers due to equipment support, I assume I would need to contract with a large company and do a large run of decals to get something that wouldn't cost a ton.

I will try to research the options on good quality water-slides, as I think that it would be a key selling point for a lot of potential customers.

Thanks for your input.

Sandy.
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