At first word: nobody told me, that my engines are expensive. But I see this... Oberursel UIII costs almost as much as the whole model! I understand, that for some of modelers it can be too much to buy it. In this topic I'd like to clarify to you, how I estimate my prices.
My policy is: the highest quality for as little price as it can be. But sometimes it cannot be as low, as I want.
I'm calculating products prices in really simple way: the costs of materials + the costs of work is divided by amounts of the products. The materials included into this calculations are only silicon and resin. Firstly I'm checking the forms resistance. It depends on the products. For some of them it can be 10 pours (that casts are acceptable), but sometimes (cylinders, cylinders heads) it can be 2-3 pours). Next I need to take into account the efficiency of casting. Sometimes 100% of casts are correct, but sometimes it can be only 20-30% (cylinders, cylinders heads again). All of this is easy to calculate: first run of forms pouring gives me all, what I need. After forms preparing I'm weighting it, to have amount of used silicon. Next I'm pouring test forms once a day (in order not to damage it to early) until casts are acceptable. If casts are unacceptable (the form is dead
), I'm completing sets, to have exact amount of sets. Next I'm weighting whole sets (with no boxes or blisters
) to have amount of resin, that have been used. I'm noting also the time, I work on casting. Now I have everything: amount of materials used for casting given amount of correct sets, the time that I spent on it. I do not include the time spent on master's preparing - it's my pleasure, not work! The time spent on casting has no rigid price - it depends on the final price of product (this rule is used only for me - I'm the chef and the worker
). If the price is high in my opinion I'm decreasing work costs and correct the price, to have it acceptable. Unfortunately sometimes the price is ludicrous in spite of really low work costs (in the case of UIII the cost of the work hour is about 2$).
As You can see, all depends on a complexity of the set. In the case of Oberursel UIII the cylinders generates costs. Only 25% of casts are correct - it's the price of "any simplification"... the ribs in cylinder are really thin, and usually are damaged during demoulding. After 3 pouring the efficiency of such a form decreases to 5%. It generates huge costs.
In the case of simple sets, I'm trying to maintain low prices, because it is possible in this case. I'm checking the prices of the cheapest sets (usually it is QuickBoost) and trying to be below this level.
Now I'm calculating the costs of Bentley Br2... and I'm really scared!!!! The model in MORE SIMPLE version (with support for mounting in Snipe) has 293 parts. Almost a half is problematic. I'm currently in business trip, but some parts of tests has been carried out. I hope that the engine will be even little cheaper than Snipe!!! I know, that it is ludicrous, but in this case I didn't take into account of costs any payment for work - only materials. It's my the most accurate model, I didn't simplify anything. But the cost is, that the forms set can be used only twice, so I can have only 4.5 sets from one forms set.
I'm not assuming large number of sold sets of Br2 from the reason of the price, but I want You to know, what is the reason of this price. I'm not going to increase prices of any sets, that I'm working on. The price of Br2 is caused only huge costs of casting. Really sorry for this.
Hope, You understand this.
All the best, Lukasz
