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Originally Posted by unregistered
probably because Cathar has to pay the full commercial rate for the machine time
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Too true. Not being a company that is a "front" for a much larger company's machine workshop that is "gifting" machining costs, nor getting the blocks made off-shore, and the price I ask for the blocks is actually quite reasonable given the machining time that goes into them, being ~1hr in total machine time for a Storm block at standard commercial rates.
Impossible to compete with the "gifters" or offshore if one wanted to actually make money. Getting blocks made up has opened my eyes to the huge disparities in machining costs that exist in the industry which many take for granted. Remove the "gifting" and "offshore" elements and the price I ask for is a total bargain.
The machinists I use like me though because of the nature of the job at hand. Doing waterblocks is something that can be easily slotted in and around more commercially oriented jobs for the workshop, and I do understand why the "gifters" do it - purely because the machines would otherwise be idle and they'd have nothing to do - so the "gifters" may as well pay oneself a bargain rate as long as they're making something more than zero from the effort.
I'm probably just too stubborn to give up a totally lost cause. If I expected profit and a sustainable living under the present manufacturing model I use, I'd have gone broke and closed up shop ages ago.