Quote:
Originally Posted by v8fordman
My guy has made many complicated dies and is quiet accomplished as a retired old school tool and die maker who says it can't be made in a few hours. You might be surprised at some of the household items that you have that he made the dies for...back in the day. He has never shied away from anything I have asked him to do, so your assumption that he "simply didn't want to do it" is a false assumption. It's a function of cost versus return on investment. He made several dies for me to make the parts I made for the late Roy Nacewicz.
Now that you have stated you can do one in a "few hours", the cost factor just went down. I'll bet we can sell a few and I see someone else has already said he would take one. I bet there are more out there. How about it?
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I spent the better part of my life's work as a tool maker retiring in 2006. Within that trade are varying levels of skills and experiences.
I would not be surprised of anything your friend may have produced. Nor would he most likely not be surprised by the dies I had produced.
However, I doubt you or anyone else would have anything made from my dies in your household. Unless of course you own a tank, personal carrier or jet, etc.
Regardless, the comparison I believe you were attempting to make is apples to oranges.
I do recall fairly well making my spreader and three others just like it. This was in the year 2004 or so. The reason I know they took about three hours each to make is I had charged (at that time) $110 / hour plus actual material cost. I'd sold the three 'extra" spreaders back then for $400 each. So, three hours at $110 and $70 for material...
If I recall correctly I had used stress proof steel for the "guts" and plain ol' cold rolled tubing for the sleeve.
The sleeve is thick wall (.250"). The ends of the "guts" were milled to make the areas that push directly against the ends of the spring. I'd turned down the threaded portion and cut the threads (1" - 8) in the lathe.
My thinking was one piece was surely stronger than multiple pieces and well, easier to produce.
I did not (obviously) make the wrench.
I did make a number of sleeves so the overall length of the spreader could be changed to accommodate whatever was to be worked on.