Why are plastic cable carriers so darn expensive?

[Pplug]

The cheapest on Mcmaster in over $13 a foot! All they are is a molded plastic part that snaps together! There has got to be quite a mark up on them! But why?

[zeeway]

Try Ebay

[CNC Lurker]

One option is to build your own: DIY Cable Carrier LINK

[dgates80]

I got mine on ebay for 8.99 a foot. Worked great. BTW I bought too much, I have some extra......

[Al_The_Man]

A couple of cheaper variations is 2" non-metalic flexible conduit.
Or even cheaper cable carrier sump pump hose!.
Sump Pump Discharge Hose Kit, 1 1/4" x 24' # FP0012-6U by Pentair Water
The down side is it is not so easy to add conductors after the fact, but very flexible.
Al.

[underthetire]

You can also use thin, spring steel sheet and clamp your wires to it. Some builders even do it this way.

[MrWild]

Shop Ebay. i got mine for under $3 per foot delivered.

[Pplug]

$3 a foot sounds more reasonable for molded plastic pieces! But all the good suggestions everybody has given doesn't answer the main question- Why are cable carriers so expensive?

[Sinistersam]

Nobody really knows why. I think everybody has probably wondered about it, but none have ever been able to find the answer. It's kind of like the cost of printer ink mystery.

[DIYaholic]

There is no "printer ink mystery" and probably e-chain mystery. You need it, so they charge for it.
With printers it is really quite simple. You just bought this new printer (really great deal, yea right!), installed the driver, discovered it's great attributes and it only works if you buy that one paticular ink cartrige. Do you really want to go through all that headache every time you find a better deal on ink? I think (they know) not!
Misery Solved!

Randy,

edit: It was supposed to be "mistery solved", but misery is probably more accurate after all.

[yackback]

Originally Posted by MrWild Shop Ebay. i got mine for under $3 per foot delivered.

Any specifics you can give on that? I'm not seeing that sort of pricing on my ebay searches.

[RomanLini]

Pplug- Consider using flexible rubber hose, it has a number of advantages over e-chain and has been used to good effect in industry for over a hundred years.

Rubber hose is;
* cheap
* quiet
* no moving parts
* no pinch points
* no pivot points to wear out

If you use a aluminium channel that the hose sits in it even has the self-guiding property of echain. That's how my machine is set up. Personally I just think people buy e-chain because they want their machine to look all space age ie "Transformers" like.