Group Buy for Bulk Prices?

[MinisterPhobia]

I'm looking into the feasibility of doing a group buy to get better prices for the varied components to build the Delta Throttle, along with a group order to get the 3D Parts printed.

For the components, I expect that the more we buy, the more we'll be able to save. With the 3D printed parts, the machine time and consumable costs won't change, but, the job setup cost will reduce significantly as we spread it across more and more people.

When everything is in, a friend and I will divide everything down into build kits and ship to the people who have paid into this. Our time would be donated to this because we feel like being nice guys, so, you'll only be paying for the parts plus whatever shipping costs will be incurred.

I've put a post regarding this up on the Star Citizen forums: https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.c ... a-throttle

If there's interest, I'll start looking into how to arrange things so there's as much transparency with the money as possible, and define some numbers that we'll need to hit the volume discount break points.

If you're interested, let me know!

@ZDayton: if you have the time, and this is something that you like the idea of, I would love to coordinate with you to ensure that we get the best possible files to the printers and whatnot.

[zdayton]

It is a good idea but I don't think now is the best time, because I am probably 2/3 of the way through a major overhaul of the design with mass production in mind. I have been redesigning the plastic parts, as well as designing circuit boards. I will have more details soon but for now I think it would be best to hang tight. I don't mean to shoot down your idea because I think its awesome to set something like that up, and I do want to thank you for your interest and for bringing it up, its just that I am already working on it and we don't need to be competing

[MinisterPhobia]

Fair enough.

Do you have a rough ETA on when this will be ready to go? The only thing that stopped me from buying a Saitek X55 setup is this throttle. I LOVE it. But, there's some modifications that I want to make to it myself in the form of switch and button alterations, so, I would still very much like to actually build one, rather than get a mass produced version.

Still, thank you for your efforts and if I can help in any way, I would love to do so.

[MinisterPhobia]

Since there's been no update and no responses for my request for some additional information, I think it's time I move forward with my plans to build a couple of these throttles. So, I'm resurrecting this thread in the hopes that some of you might be interested in joining me.

PM me if you're interested. If you have a 3D Printer and you'd like to supply the parts, that would be most helpful.

[zdayton]

I have been thinking more about it and I think it's a good idea. I started getting quotes for injection molded parts and the tooling costs are quite expensive, on the order of $5000 per part. I'm thinking of injection molding the critical parts like the pivot arm but printing some of the more complex pieces like the handle. I have been working on PCB designs and will share that stuff soon. There is a good thread going on with some other good design ideas and I want to see where that goes as well.