OT:Fleecing, grasping companies

[Jethro_uk]

Have been looking at replacing SWMBOs 22 year old wheelchair. Have homed in on a (very) lightweight model, with the help of a local firm.

You can get a plain vanilla model, but it is very customisable ... for a price.

Looking at our selection of changes, we have some cleverly engineered fold down handles, at £40. And a set of mudguards for £112.

SERIOUSLY ? Two pieces of injection moulded plastic are equivalent to almost 4 pairs of precision engineered metal components ??????

Fuck off.

I am weeping with frustration that I no longer have access to a decent machine shop, as with my limited skills, I'm pretty certain I could make them up with couple of hours work.

To be honest, I would have complained if they wanted to charge £20.

Even worse, is the fact they are one-size-fits all, so there's not even an excuse of having to manufacture a spread.

I would say rant over, but this is going to run and run ....

[tony sayer]

In article , Jethro_uk scribeth thus

In fact Bill B was on here the other day re a rip off cost of a couple of batteries for a mobility chair ;(...

Look under

"How best to rip off and con an OAP"...

[fred]

In article , Jethro_uk writes

24" wheels? Any chance you could use mudguards for 26" mountain bike wheels as a basis?

[Clive George]

Decent bike mudguards are a little more than that, so 20 quid is probably somewhat optimistic, but 112 quid could well be taking the piss. Got a link?

[ARW]

It's a wheelchair. How fast does it need to go in order that it needs mudguards?

And that is a serious question and not a piss take.

I count myself lucky as I have had very little to do with wheelchairs. One day things may change, so I would like to learn now.

[Jethro_uk]

They're to protect the clothes of the person wheeling ... you can get a standard side-protector for free, however if the wheels get wet, then your sleeves would get wet.

[Jethro_uk]

No, they're a flat sheet of plastic which fixes to the vertical side of the chair, with a slight 2cm curve which goes over the wheel.

[GB]

Do these need a large and eye-wateringly expensive injection mould to be made? Or can they be fashioned from flat sheet?

[Adam Funk]

Unfortunately I can't help you, but FWIW I agree with your point.

[polygonum]

I don't suppose this would help:

to sleeve protectors for wheelchair users.)

[Nightjar]

What sort of shot weight is required for the moulding. What sort of machine can handle that size of shot? How much is a mould tool for that machine? How many items do they expect to sell to cover the cost of the tooling? TBH I do not find that sort of price surprising for an injection moulded item with a fairly limited market. What I do find surprising is that they chose to make them as injection mouldings, when there must be cheaper ways to do it.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

...

Which still comes down to how fast will you be pushing it? I never found that a problem when I had wheelchairs to push.

Colin Bignell

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Don't forget the dogshit.

[Jethro_uk]

tbh I am not a materials expert, and was just hypothesising that the process was injection moulding. However, I feel my point still stands. A

*metal* precision engineered accessory is £40 and a plastic accessory £112 ??????????

[The Natural Philosopher]

well yes.

Plastic needs a mould if its injection moulded. Anything from £500

-£50,000 whereas making something out of cutting and folding or machining metal just needs either a skilled operator or a CNC machine which doesn't take THAT long to program.

When you get to 10,000 off up the plastic is cheaper, but at 200 off, its bloody well not!

[Nightjar]

Plastic is not a cheap material, unless you are making in very large volumes, which seems unlikely for an optional wheelchair mudguard. The biggest single cost is in the tooling and that has to be recovered from the sales. I used to sell a million units a year of one product and ten thousand pounds or so for a mould tool (it was a fairly small item, so the tooling was relatively cheap) that, with refurbishment, would last six years did not add a lot to the price spread over that many. I suspect the mudguards will be lucky to sell in the hundreds each year and the tooling will be more expensive.

OTOH, a sheet metal fabricator I use charges me a once only fee of £80 to set up the computers on his machines for a new product, after which the price per product is the same whether I want 10 or 100 or 1000.

Colin Bignell

[Jules Richardson]

Do they charge for that, too?

[Gib Bogle]

Could you make them out of sheet ally? Perhaps you could do it with tin snips and a drill.

[PeterC]

A friend who ran a bike shop did a lot of work for OAPs' devices, including fitting 'guards. A bike shop could do it - or buy some and bodge 'em on.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Ejection moulding fee.