Build your model rocket kickstarter

Krusty linked this in the watering hole sub forum: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ld-your-model-rocket-customizable-rocket-kits

They look really cool, I'm definitely going to back it and maybe post a few questions about design.

Arg - not a way to get even more kits!?!?

They do look cool though

Took a closer look Neat concept
5 main pieces - fins, motor mount/fin holder, nozzle, body tube, and nose cone

Looks like you can mix and match parts. The motor mount/fin holder has slots. The fins have tabs. From what it looks like you slide the fin into the slot and the nozzle and body tube lock the tabs on the fins. Add your nose cone and you have a rocket. They say the pieces bolt together so you can replace parts, so you can have a few different body types, fins, and nose cones and reconfigure on the field.

Hopefully I interpreted their approach correctly - someone correct me if I am wrong

Think I will back them.

$10,000 is what they need? I'd personally need to see where all the money is going to that they need $10,000....

Tooling and an initial run I'd imagine would be the big things that costs $10k. Price out a few things on Shapeways and see how fast it adds up. Considering the variety of shapes and colors, and the quantity needed to make an initial run that covers all the offerings shown done to a professional level, $10k actually sounds pretty reasonable.

FC

I'm not into that style of Rocket, but this Hobby needs all the Players/Help it can get, so best of luck to them.

FastCargo said:

Tooling and an initial run I'd imagine would be the big things that costs $10k. Price out a few things on Shapeways and see how fast it adds up. Considering the variety of shapes and colors, and the quantity needed to make an initial run that covers all the offerings shown done to a professional level, $10k actually sounds pretty reasonable.

FC

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Yeah I'll see if I can find contact info to "interrogate" them to see where the money is going... If they are buying the machines and doing everything themselves I can see where 10K would come into play..

It looks kind of interesting, but if they can't even proofread their Kickstarter page when they're asking for money, I have to question their attention to detail.

I don't mind backing things on Kickstarter, but come on.

We appreciate the shout out here. Now would be a good time to address all the concerns presented here. And yes we do know the Kickstarter campaign has some grammar errors. It is being corrected we started two months early as we anticipated errors. We did not anticipate one of our young team members to submit it without allowing us to proof read

When we started Build Your Rocket, our goal was to get more kids involved with the hobby. Build Your Rocket kits allow young and old hobbyist's the option to customize their kits with accessories and parts the way they want. No need to mix and match two or more kits to get what you want.

Our goal was set at $10000 as we plan to produce our kits in house. We already have a few 3D Printers big and small at our facility, enough to fulfill orders of our funding campaign. However, popular parts will need to have injection molds made to fulfill further demand.

Feel free to contact us:
twitter: https://twitter.com/Build_A_Rocket
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuildYourRocket?ref=hl
ustream: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/buildyourrocket

Interesting concept...

At what point is injection molding cheaper than 3d printing? Are we talking dozens, hundreds or thousands of pieces?

Well if you think about it, you answered it in your question. Quantity and demand is what manipulates individual cost.

Injection molding becomes more feasible, when having to meet time constraints. 3d printing is slow in comparison to what can be achieved with injection molding. In small batches 3d printing is more effective. In large batches injection molding is more effective in cost and time. There is also machine upkeep involved. If the operation depended only on 3d printing in a high volume demand we would fail miserably due to print time.

les said:

Took a closer look Neat concept
5 main pieces - fins, motor mount/fin holder, nozzle, body tube, and nose cone

Looks like you can mix and match parts. The motor mount/fin holder has slots. The fins have tabs. From what it looks like you slide the fin into the slot and the nozzle and body tube lock the tabs on the fins. Add your nose cone and you have a rocket. They say the pieces bolt together so you can replace parts, so you can have a few different body types, fins, and nose cones and reconfigure on the field.

Hopefully I interpreted their approach correctly - someone correct me if I am wrong

Think I will back them.

Click to expand...

You are correct the whole point is to allow the hobbyist the ability to mix and match as they like. What if you break a fin? With our approach, you can easily replace any part on the rocket including parachute.

BuildYourRocket said:

Well if you think about it, you answered it in your question. Quantity and demand is what manipulates individual cost.

Injection molding becomes more feasible, when having to meet time constraints. 3d printing is slow in comparison to what can be achieved with injection molding. In small batches 3d printing is more effective. In large batches injection molding is more effective in cost and time. There is also machine upkeep involved. If the operation depended only on 3d printing in a high volume demand we would fail miserably due to print time.

Click to expand...

If you are indeed considering injection molding, you may want to consider the parts you currently 3d print utilize the principles of plastic injection molding. Being involved in the plastics industry for over 30 years, both injection mold tooling and molding, I am seeing a lot of people create parts with 3D printing and then want to have plastic injection mold tooling made. They are often surprised by not only the tool price but piece price as basic manufacturing principles aren't considered. Things such as wall section, draft to allow release, where gating can occur, where ejection can occur, undercuts needing slide actions- are all items that should be considered.

Rrwjr said:

If you are indeed considering injection molding, you may want to consider the parts you currently 3d print utilize the principles of plastic injection molding. Being involved in the plastics industry for over 30 years, both injection mold tooling and molding, I am seeing a lot of people create parts with 3D printing and then want to have plastic injection mold tooling made. They are often surprised by not only the tool price but piece price as basic manufacturing principles aren't considered. Things such as wall section, draft to allow release, where gating can occur, where ejection can occur, undercuts needing slide actions- are all items that should be considered.

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We appreciate the info. Any info that is shared allows us to only avauluate and take the proper steps. We have a company that is willing to create our molds at a discount for us in exchange for our 3d printing services.

BuildYourRocket said:

Well if you think about it, you answered it in your question. Quantity and demand is what manipulates individual cost.

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My question is, what is the quantity of parts where injection molding is cheaper? If you need 10, is 3D cheaper? what about 100? 1000?

CZ Brat said:

My question is, what is the quantity of parts where injection molding is cheaper? If you need 10, is 3D cheaper? what about 100? 1000?

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I will divulge some info to help you understand our perspective. We run a 3d printing service, and the equation we use is simple.

(W X P) / R = Price Per Print (Before time and upkeep cost is added)
W = Weight of 3d printed part in Grams
P = Price of Material Roll
R = Weight of 1 roll of material

Here is the price of a small part we printed for a customer 2 days ago.

(8 Grams X $38) / 1000 = 30 Cents

Now let's compare the cost to injection molding and blow molding.

If I was to blow mold a rocket body I would see the cost drop to a $15 cents a tube in quantities of 100 or more.

3D printing is great for small batch runs and prototyping. It is also great for creating customized parts without the additional cost of tooling.

BuildYourRocket said:

Now let's compare the cost to injection molding and blow molding.

If I was to blow mold a rocket body I would see the cost drop to a $15 cents a tube in quantities of 100 or more.
.

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Not a chance this cost is real. There is not a blow molder here or overseas that is going to pull a mold out of a blow mold machine, set up a blow mold for a rocket body ( we won't even go into the issues of blow molding body tubes for now), potentially change resin on machine, change or add color, run product, remove the moil and tail, and package parts for a quantity of 100 parts at 15 cents each.

Rrwjr said:

Not a chance this cost is real. There is not a blow molder here or overseas that is going to pull a mold out of a blow mold machine, set up a blow mold for a rocket body ( we won't even go into the issues of blow molding body tubes for now), potentially change resin on machine, change or add color, run product, remove the moil and tail, and package parts for a quantity of 100 parts at 15 cents each.

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There are no intentions of having this done overseas. But then I ask you why have I received quotes of orders at 15 cents a piece even less as we have looked at alternatives? Some of the companies that we have communicated with are even willing to perform mold changes on sample orders as a courtesy with larger orders.

I'm not shooting down your advice. I look at all concerns as a potential way to improve on something. I am just going off info that I am receiving back from companies on quotes and information that I have gathered from companies we already work with on other products.

Does not necessarily mean we will even blow mold or injection mold all of the parts. We have enough 3d printers to produce all orders that we would receive via Kickstarter. We have (8) 3D printers, 1 Gigabot, 1 Stratasys, 1 FormLabs, and 5 Makerbots. All we are trying to do is streamline the process. Anyone that uses a 3d printer knows that 3d printing is slow in comparison to other methods of manufacturing. As 3d printing technologies further develop print time will potentially get better. However for now we aim high and look at alternatives while still using our current methods to fulfill orders.

All I can say is good luck with the funding. Kickstarter has not been good to the rocket people. Now, if you were to find a way to mount a blender on a cooler.....

dave carver said:

All I can say is good luck with the funding. Kickstarter has not been good to the rocket people. Now, if you were to find a way to mount a blender on a cooler.....

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Agreed even if it does not reach its goal, it will still tell us which rocket kit options people like the most. None the less a learning experience and information that will help us further our product.

All you can do is try.