Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:45:50 -0800
Reply-To: Damon Campbell <damoncampbellvw@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Damon Campbell <damoncampbellvw@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Projektzwo Foglight Project - Bad News
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
The tooling costs are always the big deal, and vacuum forming tools can easily be a couple grand.
I have calipers and CAD modelling software that can likely bypass the costs of having the parts scanned and modelled in by "for profit" services. I have access to CNC machines that could potentially make the mold. I do NOT have vacuum forming equipment. If you can modify your machine to fit the grills, we might have all the pieces necessary to get things back into motion? I can't say for sure, and i can only offer my spare time which is in limited quantities these days (just had another kid a few months ago). However, it doesn't sound terribly difficult to model the grill and make a vacuum form tool, from what i know of vac-form tools (pretty simple, i think).
Can you give me the height, width, and length of the grill (basically the "shoe-box" envelope) and maybe send me a few pictures so i can see what i am foolishly getting myself into?
-Damon
----- Original Message ----
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 5:07:28 PM
Subject: Re: Projektzwo Foglight Project - Bad News
Damon,
Thanks for the offer to help.
The first challenge came when I realized the grille units sent as
sample
were too big fit into my own vacuum forming machine.
Challenge #2 - I went to a a local company who does big projects in
vacuum forming. Together we studied it to ascertain the possibilities.
Not cound the R&D costs which are always up front - they could make a
minimum run of 50 pair of grilles pieces - no hardware - for $50/pair
BUT, the Big Vacuum Forming company said they would need a mold made,
and it needed to conform to the needs of their vacuum forming
equipment.
They could use CNC milling machines to make the molds, but they needed
the numbers to drive the CNC stuff. This would require some of their
staff to generate drawing on their computer to reproduce the grilles.
Big Bucks. They suggested I go to an associate company who had laser
scanning equipment, have the grilles scanned, then bring the numbers
from the scanning back and they would have staff convert the scanner
numbers to CNC numbers for milling.
Challenge #3 - The associate company was Southern Comfort Conversions,
a very modern company who does sports package conversions for auto
vehicle dealers across the country. They had the scanner equipment. The
was however, a big problem. The new year has arrived, and in
anticipation of the declining economy they were doubling up on their
output to get as much done as possible before ordering began to be cut
back.They didn't have the availability of equipment, manpower or time
to
take on the project.
So, there it stopped. I don't know where else I can take this. I am not
that well connected to the kind of markets and manufacturing that are
needed to get this done. I really do hate to see this die off, but I've
gone as far as I can go.
Perhaps you or someone else can pick up the ball and run with it.
Thanks for our inquiry.
Regards,
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Damon Campbell wrote:
> What is the crux of the stalling point? Finding someone to tool up
the plastic parts?
>
> I am a product designer by trade, and have a several contacts of
people who can do injection mold, vacuum form, 3D scanning (although i
can't imagine that to be too necessary). I do not really understand all
your technical challenges, though, so i may be oversimplifying it.
>
> Maybe i could be of some assistance?
>
> -Damon
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 6:42:43 AM
> Subject: Projektzwo Foglight Project - Bad News
>
>
> The project is DEAD!
>
> I finally got to see the engineer at Southern Comfort Conversions.
Big
> outfit, their facility here is a city block in size, all under one
> roof.
>
> The engineer there took a look at what I wanted done - the laser
> scanning of the pieces and digitizing of the numbers,, and the
> conversion of the numbers into CNC code for milling of a mold.. He
said
> it could be done, but they couldn't do it because of current demands
on
> them by the market place. They had to much to do to tie up the
manpwoer
> and equipment on such a project. He elaborated, but the bottom line
was
> NO!
>
> With that said, I have exhausted all possibilities here. There might
be
> a place in Nashville, or Memphis, or Atlanta, but at this time I
can't
> devote the time or resources to trying to find someone in those
locales
> to take a look.
>
> So, there it is, I'm done.
>
> I want to thank Ryan Alfonso and Kim Brennan and Daniel Stern of
Daniel
> Stern Lighting for their generosity - and patience - in the loan of
> the
> parts that were to be used in this project. I will be returning the
> parts to them this week.
>
> And lastly, thanks to all you list members for your patience while I
> sought out the possibilities of making this project viable. I just
wish
> I had something better to report.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
>
>
>
>
>
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