Found Dreaming

Hi all. We went and had our tax done last Thursday, the accountant that we go to we have known for 27 years and before we start we generally have a chat on what’s happened over the last 12 months. Gordon our accountant is a member of a vintage British car club and he has about 20 cars in his shed, we were talking about my castings when he asked if I can do car door handles, I said I haven’t tried them yet but if you bring one in I’ll give it a try, he also said anything like that that the members want they send down to Sydney which is 1200 Klm 745 mile south of here so I may pick up a bit of casting work from them J .

My youngest Brother is a member of a xs650 Yamaha motorbike club http://www.xs650.org.au/ and he has got me to try and make a few parts for that model bike, so with any luck I may start to turn over a few dollars

Mike

Good luck Mike, I hope it works into a nice traffic for you. BobS (Castaway here) has always told us about looking into this market as it can be lucrative.

My problem is trying to come up with a reasonable price so I cove labor plus material, I'm not a business man, I really need some one to say this or that needs to be done and someone else looks after moneys and what have you. I have spoken to my daughter in the past about this and I think if it come to regular work she'll take over the taking of any possible orders and such, and she can be a hard task master

At the moment I'm in the process of making a sump extension for the xs650 Yamaha plus I'm going to be working on a small sump that will bolt to the sump plate under the oil filter and will hold an extra 1/2 litre of oil and it will be in the air flow so hopefuly it will keep the oil cooler plus a small amout of exra oil . my brother's mate down Sydney way races a xs650 in historic races and I think it would suit racing more then a road bike, I would hate to hit a road hump and smash the extra sump it would make for an interesting coming to a stop

Mike

I know what you mean about the pricing. I have no problem if I can make a pattern and price a casting for the time I have into it but figuring a price for a one off or even short run where you have to recoup the pattern making over a very small number of parts is next to impossible for me at this point. When you get to the point where you know all the tricks and shortcuts it seems it would be no problem basing things on what you have done in the past but I am so new to this my experience is limited, heck I have never even tried a casting with a core.

Keep at it though, through ours years of making different things we will gain that treasured experience and honed skills that will make it all come together. Since I first began melting some ingots from scrap that I would not even cast with today I knew that learning this craft would pay nice rewards one day and I can almost see that day coming

Harry wrote: Keep at it though, through ours years of making different things we will gain that treasured experience and honed skills that will make it all come together. Since I first began melting some ingots from scrap that I would not even cast with today I knew that learning this craft would pay nice rewards one day and I can almost see that day coming

Thats the plan Harry, I'll just keep plugging away making what ever to get experience and hopefully gain some skills along the way

try finding what the market will already bear for a similar item, then try to find a way to reproduce it, but be able to get from concept to finished casting as quickly as possible while returning the best quality in the finished part. Match the prices already being paid, and create competitive advantage through efficiency. I know thats a fine business model on paper, but difficult in the real world. Its just kind of a path to look at.

4cylndrfury wrote:try finding what the market will already bear for a similar item, then try to find a way to reproduce it, but be able to get from concept to finished casting as quickly as possible while returning the best quality in the finished part. Match the prices already being paid, and create competitive advantage through efficiency. I know thats a fine business model on paper, but difficult in the real world. Its just kind of a path to look at.

Thats sorta kinda how I was going to do it

Mike