New fiberglass for Wildman's

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With kits going on sale for half or less retail.... It kind of shows the margin is more than "slim" And I think thats a good thing. I want vendors making money so they make more kits and we have a healthy amount of vendors. Just don't try to tell me these guys are squeezing out pennies. I know Apple and Harley have HUGE margins. I still happily buy them.

Keep in mind that with many of those sales, you're ordering in advance. It's always a lot easier to offer big discounts when it's a preorder and the customer is out the money, instead of the vendor. The cost of goods sitting on the shelf waiting for a customer is a significant portion of the overhead of a retail establishment.

In retail, those big sales are also often a case of both parties (vendor and manufacturer) letting go of some of their margin.

-Kevin
 
Because an item is offered briefly for sale at a discounted price does not mean a vendor is capable of sustainably selling the item at that price. Margins, especially in hobby rocketry, aren't exactly huge. Give the vendors some credit here-- they're doing a fantastic job keeping the supply chain functioning!

I agree. I am cost sensitive and I was just saying that tube costs seem reasonable to me. There seems to be a lot of choices currently, but more choices are good for fliers.
 
I also realize manufacturing costs in time and effort go down in bulk. I'm not saying anyone should be defending their margins. It's their business and the market will drive the pricing. Vendors work hard and should make money at it or there wouldn't be any. Slim may be a relative term, and margins in rocketry less than other industries, but I wouldn't call them slim. That's not saying they're too high. That's for the market to decide. I do think there's a wide differance in retail kit prices, and the sale prices all seem to land in the same place, especially looking at 3" kits.

I'm not saying any vendor has to justify their prices. They shouldn't. It's up to me or anyone else if they want to buy or not buy. My only arguement is that fiberglass isn't, in my eyes, a slim margin product that barely has room for competition.
 
I would just like to add to this very US centric discussion in colors and taste.... I wish from a new supplier enough nose cones forms and lenghts to fit the tubing. I believe this is much more the cost driver and the challenge. But this makes the difference if you want to create great scale projects or let your imagination build something different. A nose cone (or a transition or a tail cone) is like the face of the rocket. They are difficult and costy to build properly, at least FWFG.
In general competition is good. May help some US suppliers to understand they shall better listen to their international customers or answer their emails. I can easily diversify my budget now. cool.
Denis
 
I would just like to add to this very US centric discussion in colors and taste.... I wish from a new supplier enough nose cones forms and lenghts to fit the tubing. I believe this is much more the cost driver and the challenge. But this makes the difference if you want to create great scale projects or let your imagination build something different. A nose cone (or a transition or a tail cone) is like the face of the rocket. They are difficult and costy to build properly, at least FWFG.
In general competition is good. May help some US suppliers to understand they shall better listen to their international customers or answer their emails. I can easily diversify my budget now. cool.
Denis

I second this, as new thin-wall tubes enter the market I hope the available nose cones keep up. Otherwise there is little point. I also hope that we get some accurate up-scaled shapes with the new tooling for those nose cones. There are some classic shapes that are currently poorly replicated. Something as simple as an elliptical nose cone is poorly replicated in the larger sizes. I'd also like to see some true-scale airframes and nose cones for some of the iconic rockets out there. Let's make a precise 1/4 scale Nike booster tube and transitions or cone to go with them. Don't invest in tooling without a little forethought and planning.
 
Sale or no sale.....I buy rockets

Agreed! Although I prefer green, I do have black glass in my fleet. And I am getting the new Sport V-2... I like it enough I don't care what color it is.
 
Agreed! Although I prefer green, I do have black glass in my fleet. And I am getting the new Sport V-2... I like it enough and will just paint it orange anyway.

Fixed that for you.
 
I've just completed the Wildman Sport and it looks like it came in the new thinner tubing. I like the new tubing and can see advantages such as weight saving compared to the filament wound tubing, I've been using. I have a couple of 4 inch designs, I'm going to build a couple of designs I have on the drawing board using the new tubing from Wildman.
 
Forgive me if it was mentioned....Is the new tubing filament wound or convolute cloth? To me that is more important than what color gets added to the resin.
 
Wait, what?



Ummm yes.... this one:

DSCN3423.jpg


Build thread:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...n-V2-Sport-(BUild-Thread)-(Directions-Preview)
 
Will Wildman be offering custom thickness tubing? Say I wanted to make a composite motor case...

Alex
 
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