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FrozenGate by Avery

GB laser barrels

im fine with soldering...i was going to get one of his premade ones, but they are a little pricey for my budget
 





Have you considered getting quotes from other companies for the machining/anodising? I know most companies usualy charge a fee for quotes but I would try just sending out your specs with a simple 'Can you beat this price?'
Another thing to help get the cost per barrel down is to do more of them like you have been contemplating. ;)

Failing all this though I know I would not mind paying 5-10$ more per barrel. It wouldn't be ideal but hell I think its worth it.
 
It seams to me that a custom machined laser housing, (at least 3 seperate aluminum parts, each with tiny-threads and/or press-fits), a focusing lense, and a premade electronic driver, is a very good price at $45, if need be, (with a anodized-finish). If you ordered 10,000 to be made in China, you could get these way-down, but these kind of numbers are just to low to get a huge volume discount. If I were to make 1 in my shop, not design, just build to a customers drawing, I would quote in the $300 range, for just 1, and I would probably lose money!
There seams to be only 2 alternatives
(1) buy the empty housing from WL, which is $80!, does not include a driver, or focusing-lense?, and simply will not be as "cool".
(2) Apapt a host to work, which seams to work well, but is much more work for you, and you lose the heat-sinking, and for most of us, will not look "OEM".
So I think even if the price goes up, still the best deal.
Could the anodizing be offered as an "upgrade option" for those who are willing to pay more?
Keep up the great work! ;)
Dark Horse
 
that is a great idea dark_horse. Offering an upgrade to those that are willing. I'll give it some thought. There is no doubt that the cost per barrel will go up for future runs includding anodizing. I've gotten a few people that have indicated they can anodize the parts for fairly cheap I just have to mask the parts before anodizing. Masking parts takes a long time and considering each one of these barrels contains 3 parts each and all of them have a place that needs to be masked it's going to take a bit of time to do myself. on the head the threads and diode insertion point need to be masked. that's 3 places, on the barrel the entire inside of the barrel needs to be masked including threads. and on the tailcap the inside needs to be masked along with the threads. so there's a lot of masking that needs to be done.
 
Hey, on any of these 30 pages of dicussion have there been any pictures or drawings released of this thing? I'm thinking of buying in.
 
Hey Kenom,

What about a Powder Coating rather than anodized. (hope this wasn't suggested and shot down already, I looked thru the post again, but didn't run across this idea)

Should be just as tuff, (I use it on undercarriages/engine/other parts on muscle car builds, years later it is not even chipped, other than major rock pings, which are still small compaired to other finishes)

It can be done by anyone. You can do them in any color. A powder coating system is only around $100-$150 depending on the manufacture, and all you need is any oven that can run at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, and they are done. Bags of color are cheap, so any color options would be available.

Maybe this could be just an "Option" for a cheaper finish or for those
who prefer a color option.

Then there would be no need to send them out to anyone for the finish, do them in-house and make the $$$ yourself!  ;)

Just a thought.  ::)

Thanks, Joe
 
Seems to me the anodizing could be done before the threads are cut and the hole for the diode is drilled. The problem as I see it is finding a company that does both the anodizing, and machining.
 
Gazoo said:
Seems to me the anodizing could be done before the threads are cut and the hole for the diode is drilled. The problem as I see it is finding a company that does both the anodizing, and machining.
Click to expand...
The Aluminum-Oxide crystals that form the "anodizing" are almost as hard as diamonds, harder than the cutting tools. The anodizing can be "machined through", since the layer is so thin, but it is really hard on the cutting tools, if this has to be done, often the parts are scrapped out, rather than re-working them.
Dark Horse
 
I've no idea how these processes work out but is it not possible to cut the threads such that they fit properly after anodizing? Even at the diode insertion point if machined just slightly wider to accomodate for the anodizing thickness of say about ~10microns for type II. Or is the anodizing process rather uncontrolled as to the thickness produced?
 
it is controllable. Especially in the hands of someone skilled in doing so. It's not a matter of machining it afterwards cause that's just not the way they do things. They anodize it after it's been machined and mask the parts or places that need to not have anodizing on it. I've told the manufacturer that I'm willing to do the masking portion of it in order to cut down on cost. It still isn't going to make much difference. I've inquired at other places to see if we can still get these anodized at a relatively cheap cost. No word yet.
 
Oh I forgot that the diode insertion point shouldn't be anodized and not the threads either since the anodizing can be electrically insulating.
 
Dark_Horse,
Thanks for the info. I know nothing about machining or anodizing, and now I know why they don't want to anodize before the cutting.. :)
 
Ok so I commissioned a machine shop to build a prototype. The purpose of this was 2 fold. 1. allow me to get pictures and whatnot of the barrels before the run was complete. 2. allow me to see if the design was going to work without any problems without running the entire run and finding out afterwards.

So, here are pictures of hte lower section of the barrel and the tail. the head was being worked on.

photo010708001qg2.jpg


photo010708002fn7.jpg
 
Kenom -
Three rules --- Fit, form and function. Color be damned.
You are on track for the 3F's

Mike
 
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