dunc1n1101 Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Hey folks just had an idea how all of us modders can work together to save a bit of cash, see what you think.... What it is, is that I am a design draughtsman in the oil industry. What this entails is companies come to me with an idea or basic sketch for a specific component or assembly of components. I then take their conceptial idea and model it in 3D, make sure everything works, then do final drawings and hand them to a machining workshop/fabricators to get them made up. Now point of all this large speel is that surely this could benefit a lot of us modders on here! For example, how much is a set ot wheel spacers roughly? I reckon I could model and draw a wheel spacer and have it ready for fabrication in less than an hour. Now the cost of getting a fabricator to make up a few of these wheel spacers would be MUCH less than buying them from a stockist!!! OR the other option would be that the suppliers on here would send me hand sketches (or something similar) of the wheel spacer and I could do the drawing, send it to the supplier and they could take it to a fabricator and have 100 or so made up, then sell them as their own budget brand to anybody on the forum that requires wheel spacers. Maybe brand them as "350Z-UK.COM" It obviously doesnt have to just be wheel spacers, it could be for any custom parts or absolutely ANYTHING for the car!!!!! I would charge a small fee (or cut a deal with the suppliers) for the labour of the model and drawing BUT bear in mind, the suppliers only have to pay this fee ONCE as they have their own copy of the drawing to send to fabricators whenever they need more made!!!! Whats your thoughts then guys??? Cheers Dunc1n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 A set of spacers will set us back about £200. It would be interesting to see how much you could get them made up for and delivered. I for one would be interested if the price is right. I just can't justify spending £200 on spacers at the moment when i'm getting some cash together for discs and pads all round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 So your are basically offering to put together a CAD file containing something a machinist can plug into his CNC Milling machine and make stuff? Sounds like a winner to me, £50 wheel spacers ahoy - once you have a basic pattern you can alter it for bespoke fitment. 380RS accelerator pedals, valve caps and engine dressing would all be of interest too I reckon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmac@TarmacSportz Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 No disrespect as it is a good idea, but I imagine companies that manufacture parts spend a lot on r&d and know all the material specs etc, I imagine wheel spacers are NDT'd and the suppliers have public liability insurance and all that Jazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexx Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunc1n1101 Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 No disrespect as it is a good idea, but I imagine companies that manufacture parts spend a lot on r&d and know all the material specs etc, I imagine wheel spacers are NDT'd and the suppliers have public liability insurance and all that Jazz. Yeah I did wonder about that. It was just an idea I had to see what people think. I have no idea if there would be any copyright issues or no. As for the NDT, I think the fabricators do that as part of the fabrication anyway. Bearing in mind, this sort of thing doesnt have to be a copy of a design, it could be absolutely anything, i.e. custon pipework to move things around in an engine bay. I dont fancy getting taken to court over copyright issues haha! Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Yeah of course. Like I said I was just posting the idea up to see what everyone thought about ita and to see if it was feesible. I wouldnt actually take any orders or anythin from anyone before talking to the mods first to see how it would all work. Im not trying to make a business or anything out of this, its just an idea for helping out fellow modders. The idea came from me being a total noob to modding but Im LOVING it, the only thing that slows us all down is how expensive things are for parts that are if broken down and had a look at by an engineer are actully really quite basic components. I'll see how this thread comes along. Hopefully It will get a load of responses and if there is enough people that would put in orders and most importantly it clears everything that tarac said, then I will talk to the mods and we can get something set up. Lets see what happens Cheers Dunc1n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 No disrespect as it is a good idea, but I imagine companies that manufacture parts spend a lot on r&d and know all the material specs etc, I imagine wheel spacers are NDT'd and the suppliers have public liability insurance and all that Jazz. Ill see if I can dig it up, but we had a similar thread appear on another board a few years back - looked into it and unless the parts are OE replacements or need a German TuV approval then they can be made out of cheddar cheese by blind men. As long as the studs are good quality spacers shouldnt be a problem, I know a few lads who run their own with no problems. Lighter pulley wheels are another good one to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Just to stir things up a bit, when does a massive benefit to members cross over and become trading? As Dunc has said, he would charge a small, one off fee to design a spacer, for instance, but if the members can then buy the spacers for 35% of what you would pay another trader then surely the benefit far outweighs the £30 Dunc will charge for the CAD file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Just to stir things up a bit, when does a massive benefit to members cross over and become trading? As Dunc has said, he would charge a small, one off fee to design a spacer, for instance, but if the members can then buy the spacers for 35% of what you would pay another trader then surely the benefit far outweighs the £30 Dunc will charge for the CAD file? its business he's gaining from the forum, Its though traders that help cover the running costs of this forum otherwise we would have to charge a membership fee. I'm sure you like it free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Just to stir things up a bit, when does a massive benefit to members cross over and become trading? As Dunc has said, he would charge a small, one off fee to design a spacer, for instance, but if the members can then buy the spacers for 35% of what you would pay another trader then surely the benefit far outweighs the £30 Dunc will charge for the CAD file? its business he's gaining from the forum, Its though traders that help cover the running costs of this forum otherwise we would have to charge a membership fee. I'm sure you like it free. I dont think thats what hes saying, if he does the CAD design ONCE, then the club take it to a production company and administer the sales themselves, hes only making back money for his time on the CAD file. The club can make £10 profit per unit for instance and the members still make huge savings. Everyone is a winner, no? Another example is a club photographer - he goes to events at the clubs cost, and then provides pictures to the members for free - if they want hi-def or a number of pics they can pay a little extra for them. Once again, members, club and photographer all benefit and no-one loses out. Thanks for the lesson in car forum financials mind you, its something I dont have any experience in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jell36 Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 OP if you decide to do this I can offer support, I'm a mechanical design enigineer with experience in a large variety of materials and manufacturing methods along with contacts for machinists and fabricators and extensive experience and knowledge of Solidwors and ProE CAD and FEA packages. Docwra - I can't imagine any NDT being done on a wheel spacer, just some hand clacs, possibly some FEA but doubtful and if you keep the calcs and a copy of the material certificates you would be covered legally. There wouldn't be any copyright issues on wheel spacers but potentially could be on other parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Re-opened. Should anything come of this, you will be required to Pay a traders fee as you are charging for a service Just to stir things up a bit, when does a massive benefit to members cross over and become trading? As Dunc has said, he would charge a small, one off fee to design a spacer, for instance, but if the members can then buy the spacers for 35% of what you would pay another trader then surely the benefit far outweighs the £30 Dunc will charge for the CAD file? its business he's gaining from the forum, Its though traders that help cover the running costs of this forum otherwise we would have to charge a membership fee. I'm sure you like it free. I dont think thats what hes saying, if he does the CAD design ONCE, then the club take it to a production company and administer the sales themselves, hes only making back money for his time on the CAD file. The club can make £10 profit per unit for instance and the members still make huge savings. Everyone is a winner, no? Another example is a club photographer - he goes to events at the clubs cost, and then provides pictures to the members for free - if they want hi-def or a number of pics they can pay a little extra for them. Once again, members, club and photographer all benefit and no-one loses out. Thanks for the lesson in car forum financials mind you, its something I dont have any experience in. production of any items is done with a supplier and trader and nothing to do with club. The OP has made no contact with the team before making the post and there is no mention within the post that its to be done through the club interms of production, finance and sales. We dont take a percentage for each sale from any trader, we just make it easy with a one off flat fee for the year which is cheaper for the seller anyway. Afterall we are only talking of £25. Club doesn't profit or make any money from any photography, there isnt a photographer trading on the forum anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWTech Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 i used to work as a designer with an oil company so i know where your coming from. for the last 2-3 years since i changed paths due to family reasons, a part of my business has been along these lines of offering an alternative to the higher budget spacers and i have been able to offer made to order spacers at a competative prices starting from £65. manufactured by a CNC machine shop im very close in contact with and have been for years. i started out here on this forum as they do seem to be popular, but i am on various forums now offering the service. its not that easy a market to get into i must admit, a lot of people are attracted to brand names such as the eibach and H&R spacers, and also tend to stick to traders they are familiar with, certainly my 1st year or so wasnt all that exciting for this kind of thing theres a few different spacer suppliers on a range of budgets here so unsure how things would take off, i could see there being a market for things like air division plates, maybe some shiny engine bits, a unique strut brace would be cool, most of the Z braces look boring, and those that do look cool are a huge hike in price. gearbox and diff braces? i know there was a market for that on the rx7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 No disrespect as it is a good idea, but I imagine companies that manufacture parts spend a lot on r&d and know all the material specs etc, I imagine wheel spacers are NDT'd and the suppliers have public liability insurance and all that Jazz. BTW,if anyone wants anything NDT'd,then feel free to sent it to me,i have all the facilities to ultrasonically check carbon and metal,as well as full fluorescent dye pen and mag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Id also imagine that some,even if its a consultancy firm, would be involved with some FEA work when it comes to things like this. Same as designing wheels etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jell36 Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 FEA on wheels I would agree with as theres some complex geometry and loading paths but spacers are basic and can easily checked with hand calcs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunc1n1101 Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 wow, a lot of response here! ok so here is my thoughts about it... Instead of doing this on my own. I would probably go into partnership with one or more of the existing traders on here. the way it would work is, I would supply the trader with the drawing of the requested part, whether this be a 100 wheel spacers or just one "one off" custom part. it honestly could be absolutely anything on the car. the trader would then own this drawing and get the parts fabricated and sell them as their own brand at a much cheaper alternative. I would cut some sort of deal with the trader whether it be a one off payment or a small percentage of the profit for each one sold. I am open to negotiations when it comes to cutting a deal as like I said before, I'm not really looking to make this a business of mine, just wanting to help fellow modders out but I obviously won't sit and do work for free lol. this means that I would not be a trader myself on this forum, I would simply be working for an existing trader. does this all make sense? if the mods feel that I would still need to pay the annual fee, then fair enough, I would rather pay it than get banned. there has been a lot of good responce from engineers on this topic so if we included them, then we would be covered for cheap calcs AND cheap fabrication! so if any traders on here would be interested in this then send me a PM and we can discuss matters further. cheers folks Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 you have a pm Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunc1n1101 Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 Got the PM cheers mate. So any traders on here thinking about this set up then??? I think its a great idea for us all to save some cash. Cheers Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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