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It looks like it has countersunk screw holes, so that would usually be done on a CNC punch: http://www.vandf.co.uk/tooling/what-is-cnc-punching/ (amazing machines) It also looks powder-coated... when you consider their likely volumes $195 is not unreasonable once you take into account development costs, setup costs and overheads.



Not discounting the coolness of CNC punching whatsoever, but the reasonableness of $195 is way off, even if they are manufacturing in low volumes domestically.

Parts like this should ideally be manufactured via stamping, which would also produce any countersinks needed. Even better would be to have them cut and bent in a progressive die (also a super cool manufacturing process!) and would have all cuts and features done in one go. But if I were them, I'd probably aim for a buck or two for each sheet part, maybe up to five dollars if you wanted to keep it at a local shop with low volumes. But the big win of having just flat pieces is you can make a ton of components at once and they can take up very little space on a shelf. Get a few thousand produced and powdercoated, and then just keep an eye on when supply runs low.

Basically, if they aren't making 90% margin on these (all in, shipped to your door) I'd be disappointed.


Totally agree, they're getting these for a few bucks a part,maybe 10 bucks total for the kit. If they're paying any more they should not be.




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