Originally Posted by PoppaBear10 You definanatly have a future in the "Mobile" home structure design biz!! |
Thank you kindly, Scott.
When I designed my patio roof structure I did calculations for shear and uplift for (if I remember right) "100-year" winds. When the building inspector came over for its final inspection he said that if there was ever a tornado here, he was going to come over and strap himself to it.
Originally Posted by justgary In fact, I don't see why you couldn't sell upper enclosure kits that fit over the Tormach stand. |
Somebody couldn't afford it--either the buyer or I.
There are $407 of materials (plus the cost of the toilet flange and coupler--I can't find the receipt right now) in the enclosure. Even assuming I could buy enough to get a 40% discount that would be about $250 before I touched a tool to anything. The Tormach drip pans are neither square nor even (on mine the front-to-back varies 1/2" between the left and right sides) nor is the top of the flange level. I hand-fit all the pieces.
I could see shrinking the length and width by an inch so that the enclosure bottom frame be pre-assembled and then set over the drip pans and mounting holes drilled--but that has to be done precisely because there is no room inside the rolled flange for even a socket--I machined an "anti-rotation" block out of a chunk of aluminum to restrain the nut while I screwed the bolt from above. I would reverse the top angles so that the flange was outwards, because I had to saw most of it away to clear the electronics cabinet (something I had not thought about up front...) I'd wrap the cost of a miter cold-saw into the project because it would not be cost-effective to machine all the angle ends on the Tormach like I did.
And then there's the cost of crating and shipping the kits.
If I was going to give myself minimum wage for the work I'd be doing, and given the setup times for the various operations to batch-produce the pieces (countersinking 112 holes per frame etc.) I wouldn't see selling the kit for less than $350 plus the cost of packaging and shipping.
I'd want about 50 orders up front with deposits. For now, I hope I've documented it well enough for people to use as a basis for their own enclosures.
Randy