SpudFiles

Anyone thinking of launching, have experience launching or pledging a kickstarter project?

Our first is <a href=">

What? No Spudfiles link in that ad? Did a coconut fall and hit you in the head or something?

Seriously though, that's one badass bottle opener. I go through that site about once a month and it's looking like your off to a good start. Good luck with it.

Looks good but the overall design is nothing new, I have known these bottleopeners for years.



The quality of your product is in a much higher league though but 30€ seems a little overpriced IMO.

As suggested in private I concure with MRR, surely there are features you can add to a 4" length of CNC machined steel that will make it useful beyond just opening bottles

Seems like an awefully big build up for such a simple product imho.

I do see one appealing aspect coming from a soon to be enginerd however - if you could issue these in more 'exotic' metals and alloys of such, sort of like the naval brass version and the titanium version that would be appealing from a 'conversation starter' perspective... You could even do metal inlays possibly.

Instead of the 1018 steel version, you could (I don't know if this exists and how easily it is procured) use melted down steel from the WTC's as your stock for the steel versions. When opening a 'Merican beer brewed with a round house kick from Chuck Norris, I don't want to be using a beer opener made from Chinese flat stock.

The 303 stainless model would be a lot cooler if it was something like 316, Hastalloy, etc... For some reason a complex shape milled from butter is less cool than one milled from something more difficult to mill.

In the moar exotics realm something made from pure tungsten, or tungsten carbide (you'd have to think of a creative way to make them with this!), Cupronickel, zirconium... basically anything that would be worthy of a 2 minute conversation with someone interested. Explaining that you have a fancy beer opener made from run of the mill metals just isn't as satisfying lol.

From the seemingly high pricepoint range your dealing with - I don't see why you couldn't make this a niche product and use more exotic materials!

Always cool to see a cleanly cnc'd product none the less and good job on the comics! Lol

hmmm I wonder if kickstarter could be used for community based projects on SF

MRR wrote:The quality of your product is in a much higher league though but 30€ seems a little overpriced IMO.

This is not the retail price. This is capitol investment in a new product to see if there is any buzz or interest in the product. Upscale with a polished brass or other finish may have a market. Ones that look like the garden variety annodized aluminum ones are too generic to create any serious interest when there are so many cheap mass produced ones flooding the market now.

I get the 30$ "price tag" now but if you do a simple google search you will see that key chain bottle opener are not really a niche product. Don't get me wrong, I really value well made, high quality products but is there a market for that kind of product nowadays?
The system of bottle caps is also outdated (at least where I live), you only see them on beer bottles.

Gents,

A short rant. Yes, you can get next to free units from the corner market or Walmart. The idea is not to get involved in a race to the bottom. Really, do you guys have a feel for what it takes to machine a "nice" part? Not to mention paying the rent, buying materials, keeping sharp tools in the machines (expensive). Not to mention utilities, insurance etc.

Not flaming here. Just the hard cold fact that a CNC machine is more than a motorized Dremel. It takes a huge effort to make good parts, pay suppliers, make customers happy, keep the doors open. If you guys are doing better than us and you think you need to constructively criticize us, I will concede and do a hats off to you.

We don't have a huge factory staffed with robotic minions endlessly cranking out stamped crud. You can go to the big boxes for that. When spud parts sales are steady, you want to venture out. Try new things. We hate using cheap stuff. So the bottle opener project was born. We had to pay to get the comics made. We pay a percentage to kickstarter. Uncle Sam gets involved too. You can't do it for free.

If you cannot be supportive, cool. Better yet, can you guys go out and show us how to do it better? Are any of you guys doing anything? We are considering a Damascus version. Also a 6Al4V version. You guys try machining 6Al4V recently? It is still a pain.

I'm usually more composed but really, run out to your shop and see how far you can get with a 20 dollar or 40 dollar effort. How much does J B weld cost?

USGF

Well I think the main problem is whether or not there is a market for such expensive bottle openers, not that they're expensive to begin with. Like you said, they are difficult to make and machining takes time and skill, but that doesn't change the fact that they're expensive relative to typical bottle openers. Now you may have found a niche in the market, a bottle opener for a engineer/machinist/mechanic/petrol head/gun freak, and this could end up selling reasonably well but my first concern was that it's not enough by itself to sell well.

I think everyone has at least five bottle openers at home but have only ever used one of them... on one night... to open one beer.

Better yet, can you guys go out and show us how to do it better?

Well that's not really the point of constructive criticism.

Are any of you guys doing anything?

Not sure if this is referring to specifically machining, or life in general. If the latter; yes we're all doing something and a lot of people here are contributing/have contributed to science and engineering at university or at their jobs.

We get that the machining costs are there, and the price you'll need to charge for this product. What you really need to make this a viable product is to distinguish it from a $0 extruded aluminium opener.

The market wont be huge, but I'm guessing you'll have sales with army types, mechanics and engineers, knife and tactical nuts.. etc. To be succesful it's going to need to really stand out though.

Don't take this as negative criticism.. It will sell if done properly

In rebuttal, In terms of mass produced crud, effeciency counts to the bottom line. Instead of machining each piece individually, the cheap ones are often made from extruded stock and simply cut off, so the main machining is simply a cut off saw. Rounding sharp edges, annodizing, branding are all value added processes to finish the product. If the extrusion process is tightly controlled, the high volume manufactured part is a step above mass produced crud and cheap enough to be given away as a trade fair momento. This is the market you are dealing with.

I am in manufacturing. QC is very important to the bottom line. Crap that doesn't do the job, doesn't sell. Items percieved as overpriced compared to cheap cost items with good quality doesn't sell to mass market. This is like selling speaker wire. Taking care to get low dielectric loss wire is important to stereo fidelity, but most people do not buy Kimber Kable as the difference in performance from a $2 cable is negligable. Monster Cable is mid range.

A few people will buy speaker cable at $20/foot, but most won't.
http://www.kimber.com/products/loudspeakercables/pr/8/

8AG listed for $379.00

Bottom line we're having fun.

Kickstarter will tell all, right? That's the point. Pitch your idea, see how the world receives. If good you get paid if not so be it. Your not stuck with a pile of stuff that doesn't sell. Perfect opportunity to roll the dice.

I agree our philosophy is much different than the current world works. Our shop has never been price competitive and people depend on us for our critical reliability. The model continues to work, I have every reason to stay the course. Like with USG spudguns, some people just gotta have one and I'm happy to keep building them.

6AL4V slugs at the jetter... If you think the others are expensive better hang on to your shorts for these ones.

I appreciate the positive comments.

When opening a 'Merican beer brewed with a round house kick from Chuck Norris, I don't want to be using a beer opener made from Chinese flat stock.

Mobile good one, LMAO you mind if I use it on kickstarter?

POLAND_SPUD wrote:hmmm I wonder if kickstarter could be used for community based projects on SF

One of my reasons for the post. I think its a great idea.

I payed 70bucks for

but they are also great flip flops.