John Lunn C A wrote:
Like, Bacho, I hear you....however....
although I am an accountant, and spend most of my day doing financial statements and taxes, I once did the books and helped run a large metal fab shop. They did mostly Mag and Alum, which (as you may know) have unique properties, especially when 'working' the metal. T6066, when annealed and hardened is light and strong. Ask Matt Bounds, who is an engineer, and others more knowledgeable than I. CentralMichiganSailor, want to chip in?
To replicate SX18 wings would cost a bundle to set up, jigs, castings, goodness knows what else. Royalty Fees?
Magnums would be cheaper, as there are less parts, but more welding. Tube and MIG/TIG welding are specialty crafts. So if one had a workshop, complete with annealing ovens, yes, the fixed costs have already been incurred. However, the additional costs of setting up the jigs....and the price of Alum and labour today.....
My thinking is that if Hobie had a large inventory of the castings used in the wings, then it might a proposition for someone to 'build for the after-market'. Until then, there is only the 'used parts' market place. At $1,000 a set, I'm sure a fabricator would be able to sell 20, 30 or even 50 sets of wings.
I am gonna build a set in the next few weeks and test this theory myself. I will make them for my N20 however the Hobie 18 version would be very minimally different. I have all of the knowledge and tooling to do this, I have built several roll cages for my Jeeps over the years. I believe with little doubt that the DIY'er would have it easier with the SX style as the "seat" and Legs can be built individually with a simple jig to weld them together.