How much do you pay for copper and perspex?
 

Rang a few places I know of.

Basically costs are:
(Thick x width x length)
Copper:
12.7mm x 50.8mm x 1m = $107 AUD (approx $55 USD)
12.7mm x 101mm x 1m = $181 AUD (approx $90 USD)

Perspex:
4.5mm x 1m x 1m = $100 AUD (Approx $50 USD)

Barbs:
Approx $3 each ($1.50 USD) (from a truck place down the road, have not looked at a proper supplier, just this small place)

This means that each CPU block (8cm x 5cm) costs about $20 AUD ($10 USD) in materials, this has some wastage and tooling cost factored in.

I havent looked at mounting.

How much is perspex and copper costing you guys? Do my costs look reasonable or high or nice and cheap?

I buy most my stuff off of Ebay... I've gotten 100 bucks wirth of copper for 25... and that goes for mills too

Go to a tooling shop and look in their offcuts bin for copper busbar (99.9+% pure copper). You'll get it VERY cheap.

Brass barbs should be costing you around $1.50 each (Aussie) if you look hard enough.

Perspex is to be avoided for tops - cracks too easy - you want Lexan.

Under what situation would perspex crack?

My design features the mounting interfacing with the copper base, not the perspex top.

And the top would be held on with 8 small screws.

May I ask how much the copper har used in your block is costing you? (I can understand if you do not want to say)

Perspex can crack from dilling holes into it, which introduces micro-fractures, when when you apply pressure with screws to screw it on or attach it to something, those cracks will grow.

To be honest, I don't know how much the copper costs me per block, as it's all wrapped up in the single per-block price that I buy them for from the machinists.

Depends how you look at it.

I certainly wish i could manufacture for $20 , I would be able to own the market :)

material costs are very low compared to the other hidden charges.

I love all this speculation, jees you would thinkw e make a fortune from our companies :)

In the UK material costs are possibly the highest out of any I have seen.

Stopped by EMCO on the way to my dads (Among other places) and picked up about a metre of copper for approx $11 a kilo. Thats pretty good, when I was going to have to pay 30% or so more if I went to a proper supplier.