> Let's be very generous and say that it would have taken only $50K to
design
> a custom case, get the mold made, get samples, approve them, design the
> custom graphics, have Xiaofan approve the look, etc.  If that eventually
> saved $8 per unit, then I'd have to sell over 6000 USBProg2 before that
> became cheaper than getting a modified off the shelf box.  This math works
> the same for a big company.

It doesn't invalidate your point, but if you were prepared to get something
not too too fancy you can probably get a custom molded case up and running
for not to much over $US10K. China can be very cheap. Knowing where very
cheap become too cheap is part of the trick ;-). Depending on how much of
your time you want to put into it at your end. You can also pay literally 3
x that for a fancier mold, better steel etc but  that does no more for you
in terms of end product. That's for and eg ABS product.

You can get aluminum products molded for a fraction of plastic (strangely)
but the downside is that the per product cost is substantially higher. ABS
is about $US12/kg at present and even after adding machine overhead etc the
actual per product cost in plastic is 'attractive'.

Ningbo (across the very very very large bay to the immediate South of
Shanghai) is one of the mold making centres of China. There is vast amounts
of almost cottage-industry production and mold making. You walk past small
industrial units and, even on a Sunday afternoon, in the usually dimly lit
interior there is one or two men and a large machines of some sort. Each may
have a CNC mill, or injection molder, or lathe etc. There are some somewhat
larger places, but overall they are The Borg - a hive of interelated
activities that turns out end products that can be extremely good. Or
shocking.

These shots were all taken from street doorways - which gives you some idea
of the size of the operations in each case.
They are in sequece so clicking each photo will take you to the next.
Contant over quality :-). (ie 800 or 17600 ISO - often from the hip
depending on context).

http://public.fotki.com/RussellMc/atw/china2010jan/atwc1001random/radical-ideal-inclu.html
http://public.fotki.com/RussellMc/atw/china2010jan/atwc1001random/cottage-industry.html
http://public.fotki.com/RussellMc/atw/china2010jan/atwc1001random/in-the-dark-interio.html#media
http://public.fotki.com/RussellMc/atw/china2010jan/atwc1001random/from-the-street.html#media

I'm still trying to get time to do a trip "writeup" just for fun and long
term memories. Will be available to anyone who enkoys wandering through such
stuff (some do, many don't).



   R




       Russell
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist