Pro/Forums - View Single Post - The "Cascade" - mini-cup directed jet-impingement block design (56K warn)

Cathar · 05-14-2003, 07:39 PM

BlackEagle sums it all up pretty well.

Due to the extra cutting, I absolutely had to move away from an all-copper block. The cut the block out of copper would require a tremendous amount of machine time. It could be done, but the block would cost around $150US straight off the mill.

So polycarb it had to be, also because it's fairly strong, and better yet, it offers what people seem to want, which is a shiny clear block. The machinists have been playing with different grades of polycarb and after talking to me this morning seem to have found one that machines "clearer" and more consistently than the material used in the pictures.

Injection moulding would be a way to cut costs, but also the machinists are just at the very first stages of machine tweaking, and it may be possible to whip through the blocks considerably faster than at present. Or it may not. Gotta suck it and see.

So it depends. It's only after 50-100 blocks will the machining process be refined and tweaked enough to give a good idea of the ongoing machining costs. Only then can the decision be made as to the cost effectiveness of going with a mould approach (which would still require drilling the holes) versus just machining the polycarb.

If the difference works out to $5 US/block but the clear polycarb appearance is lost, then that may actually turn out to be worse in terms of sales. Desirability is an important factor, and people will happily pay $5 more (out of say $50) for something that looks much nicer, but they won't pay $20 more.

All this supply/demand talk though is a bit premature. I'm still trying out stuff to see if I can get it to beat the White Water. Right now it's very close, but still just behind, but there's still a few tricks left up my sleeve. Just submitted a tweaked base-plate design to the machinists based upon what I've learned from the base-plates I have here presently.

I tell ya, the White Water is a very tough act to follow. I really believed that it was possible to get ahead of it by at least 1C somewhat easily, but even after all this time and quite a few behind the scenes attempts, I've only had limited cost-prohibitive success.

05-14-2003, 07:39 PM	#38
Cathar Thermophile Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,538	BlackEagle sums it all up pretty well. Due to the extra cutting, I absolutely had to move away from an all-copper block. The cut the block out of copper would require a tremendous amount of machine time. It could be done, but the block would cost around $150US straight off the mill. So polycarb it had to be, also because it's fairly strong, and better yet, it offers what people seem to want, which is a shiny clear block. The machinists have been playing with different grades of polycarb and after talking to me this morning seem to have found one that machines "clearer" and more consistently than the material used in the pictures. Injection moulding would be a way to cut costs, but also the machinists are just at the very first stages of machine tweaking, and it may be possible to whip through the blocks considerably faster than at present. Or it may not. Gotta suck it and see. So it depends. It's only after 50-100 blocks will the machining process be refined and tweaked enough to give a good idea of the ongoing machining costs. Only then can the decision be made as to the cost effectiveness of going with a mould approach (which would still require drilling the holes) versus just machining the polycarb. If the difference works out to $5 US/block but the clear polycarb appearance is lost, then that may actually turn out to be worse in terms of sales. Desirability is an important factor, and people will happily pay $5 more (out of say $50) for something that looks much nicer, but they won't pay $20 more. All this supply/demand talk though is a bit premature. I'm still trying out stuff to see if I can get it to beat the White Water. Right now it's very close, but still just behind, but there's still a few tricks left up my sleeve. Just submitted a tweaked base-plate design to the machinists based upon what I've learned from the base-plates I have here presently. I tell ya, the White Water is a very tough act to follow. I really believed that it was possible to get ahead of it by at least 1C somewhat easily, but even after all this time and quite a few behind the scenes attempts, I've only had limited cost-prohibitive success.