Kindling Cracker hits the States

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Jags

Jags

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Aug 2, 2006
18,489
Northern IL
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I bought a fiskars X7 for 12.99 at Walmart......more power to her.
 
Cool gadget for $30. I wouldn't pay a penny more.

If it was made from a few steel rounds and fabricated, it could be made very cheaply and get the same thing done. Or designed to be made with waterjet cut parts that easily weld together.
 
sportbikerider78 said:
Cool gadget for $30. I wouldn't pay a penny more.

If it was made from a few steel rounds and fabricated, it could be made very cheaply and get the same thing done. Or designed to be made with waterjet cut parts that easily weld together.
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Nobody is forcing you to buy it. Obviously there is a market for it or it wouldn't be sold by Northern Tool. Good luck to her!
 
claydogg84 said:
Nobody is forcing you to buy it. Obviously there is a market for it or it wouldn't be sold by Northern Tool. Good luck to her!
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Not taking anything away from this product, but I wouldn't hold the marketing folks at Northern Tool in particularly high regard. They'll be recovering from some of their past chainsaw product blunders for several years to come.
 
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Ah I remember this one well.

unfortunately this thread is going the same direction as the original. Congratulations to her getting it done, more than the nay sayers have accomplished. The young lady designed, fabricated a prototype, then set up manufacturing, distribution and marketed it to a major distributor. She has a bright future.
 
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ironpony said:
unfortunately this thread is going the same direction as the original. Congratulations to her getting it done, more than the nay sayers have accomplished. The young lady designed, fabricated a prototype, then set up manufacturing, distribution and marketed it to a major distributor. She has a bright future.
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Yep. Somebody always pees in the Cheerios.
 
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BrotherBart said:
Somebody always pees in the Cheerios.
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Yeah, and anyone with any brains knows that the only thing that should go on Cheerios is whole milk and a third cup of refined white sugar. ==c
 
Better have some easy-splitting, straight-grained kindling material like Tulip, or it could be rough sleddin'. Pine knots might be a problem...
 
claydogg84 said:
Nobody is forcing you to buy it. Obviously there is a market for it or it wouldn't be sold by Northern Tool. Good luck to her!
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Certainly true.
ironpony said:
Ah I remember this one well.

unfortunately this thread is going the same direction as the original. Congratulations to her getting it done, more than the nay sayers have accomplished. The young lady designed, fabricated a prototype, then set up manufacturing, distribution and marketed it to a major distributor. She has a bright future.
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Who took anything way? I agree with everything you said. A different perspective is not a contradiction.

I live in the manufacturing world. I have lived in shops of many kinds my entire life. It is just too bad she didn't get hooked up with the right people and she could have made much much more money by designing it for manufacturing.

If you don't know anything about an airplane it is really easy to say..."oh look at that marvel of technology". If you are the technician who has been working on the airplane all day you're going to say "what a POS, I wish they would update to modern technology!".
It's kinda like that. :)
 
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so lets look at the numbers first. Northern Tool is retailing it for 100 bucks, which means they are paying no more than 50 bucks for it. The one designed by Ayla is a simple two piece steel casting made in her home of Finland. Hers is a high quality steel casting which will last a lifetime. you are going to go to multiple pieces, with cutting, welding, distribution etc and be able to do all this in the 30 dollar range so you can make a profit. And no we cant outsource it to China.

Actually airplanes are a bad example, I am retired from Grumman Aerospace, and they are marvelous machines. State of the art electronics, manufacturing processes and impeccable maintenance. you cant pull over to the side of the road when something fails.
 
Finland is a long way from New Zealand.
 
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ironpony said:
so lets look at the numbers first. Northern Tool is retailing it for 100 bucks, which means they are paying no more than 50 bucks for it. The one designed by Ayla is a simple two piece steel casting made in her home of Finland. Hers is a high quality steel casting which will last a lifetime. you are going to go to multiple pieces, with cutting, welding, distribution etc and be able to do all this in the 30 dollar range so you can make a profit. And no we cant outsource it to China.

Actually airplanes are a bad example, I am retired from Grumman Aerospace, and they are marvelous machines. State of the art electronics, manufacturing processes and impeccable maintenance. you cant pull over to the side of the road when something fails.
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I have extensive experience working with fabrications and suppliers. That can be made for <$20. Easily. I don't care to discuss the many fabrications I have designed, sourced and brought to production. I'll just bore you and myself. :)
I'm surprised it is not a forging. It would be much more resistant to cracking and failures (from missed hammer blows).

From an aerospace perspective, I will respectifully disagree. The FAA and many other regulatory agencies, are so resistant to change that much of the supplier base keeps making aerospace parts on very outdated equipment. Why? It is cost prohibitive to change and large companies don't want you to change and update your technologies because of liability. So, you keeping doing the same thing over and over. Also keep in mind the life cycle on aerospace designs is sometimes decades long. Then the spare parts business goes another decade at least.
New tooling, new coolant, new high speed mills, new grinding substrates???? Forget about it. Keep doing the same thing over and over.

The the $150M aerospace grinding/machine shop I managed, had some grinding machines that were 58 years old making parts for passenger aircraft. This happens in all highly regulated industries. And if you fly, I'm absolutely positive you have flown on some of the products I made in that shop..on those machines.

Want to know about my time spent running medical manufacturing facilities? :)
 
Again - best of luck with your invention Ayla.

Mods - feel free to shut this one down.
Oh, wait....
 
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;lol
 
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