Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Interest?

Loving this link guys. Keep it up! Larry

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest?

When you clean the surface you might try a solvent called "Prepsol". You can get it at any auto painting place in a quart can. GREAT for getting grease and silicon off and won't attack paint. I use it all the time on the cars to get road tar and nasty bugs off the plane. Never attacked any of the paints yet (of course I test it first on an inconspicuous spot).
Hank

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Interest?

Sorry, I don"t know enough about the rubber based inks to give you an opinion, but I can tell you to avoid litho inks like poison. If you can find a little proof press ( I still have a couple with about a 4" X 6" platten ) you can make a rubber ink pad for the press which will give you a perfect print.
RonC

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest?

__________________
No matter how much you push the envelope, It'll still be stationery.
Reply With Quote

Larry, that's the best tag line I've seen in awhile!!

Josh

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest?

Sorry, I don"t know enough about the rubber based inks to give you an opinion, but I can tell you to avoid litho inks like poison. If you can find a little proof press ( I still have a couple with about a 4" X 6" platten ) you can make a rubber ink pad for the press which will give you a perfect print.
RonC

Fair enough. I ordered a one pound can of Van Son "Warm Red" letterpress oil-based ink. Should be adequate for at least one set of placards! (and a several-thousand page run of whatever fishwrap I might decide to publish in bright red)

The next question is going to be pricing. Apparently there IS a little interest in these products. I've gotten quite a few personal messages re: the stuff. My Wife suggests that I need to figure cost of materials, time, and equipment needed to produce the items, divided by the number I anticipate selling. She's so practical! That IS practical and logical, but I don't think anybody wants to spend that kind of money on a throttle knob and some relatively tiny placards.

There's got to be a balance between the fact that you simply can't find these things in the general marketplace and the fact that they're really pretty simple items. I sort of wish Joel Severinghaus was still in the Taylorcraft business so I could have had him help me set the price point!!

Is $25 per knob (including shipping in the CONUS) too much? I'm thinking about $12 a placard for the embossed brass ones or $30 a set if you buy a set of three (two fuel transfer & one speed limit for your ship or "solo from the front seat only" or whatever combo you need) Please bear in mind I don't have all of those done yet as I don't know what all of the later models need in terms of placarding. I can make whatever you think you need. I only need text and dimensions.

Thoughts?

Josh Brehm
Winterville, NC
TF #910
BL65 #1705

[M Towsley]

Re: Interest?

Josh,

If Joel was still involved he would be knocking on your door right now to buy the entire lot. He definitely loved restoring his Taylorcraft to original.

Your wife is correct, much like my mother when I had a Kool-Aid stand in thr front yard. Product cost plus time and a reasonable profit.

I don't think you are far off and I would pay that, especially for items that are no longer available. I am not sure if you will become rich over it but I for one truly appreciate your efforts and the product you have created. Once you take care of those here don't forget to offer them on Barnstormers, etc., to get those who are not involved here and to hopefully increase your profit potential.

Now, if you made Piper Cub stuff you could ask twice the price and they would fly off the shelves. (Kinda like the Cub itself), hahaha.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest?

Josh,
That sounds like good starting points, BUT, you need to make sure everyone knows that is the estimated STARTING point. Several of the ones I had engraved ended up being MUCH more expensive when the engraver drastically increased his price because it turned out to be a lot harder to get right than he thought.
By the way, I DO have the compass logos now and they are actually ready to mail. Got to figure out how much they finally ended up costing. They will NOT be over $20 (they were the first parts he did and ended up being the most expensive because of all the bad ones we had to trash).
The guys who I show that had an interest were Larry Lyons, Ron Coleman, Carl Carson, Bill Fife, Michel Koen, and Gai Silvano.
If you guys (or anyone else I missed) still want them drop me a message with your mailing address at hjarrett2 at cox dot net. Lots of people dropped off when the price shot up so I have extras.
Anyway, Josh, don't freeze your price till you have the REAL cost. You shouldn't have to loose money on this. A fair price is at least what they actually cost you. Don't loose money, we will want more!
Hank

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest?

I also had Glen Brodeur, Carlton R. Worster, Mike Laz, David Johnson, Robert Lees, Charles Flee and Buell Powell say they might be interested in the compass logo, so if any of you guys are still interested send your mailing address. It's looking like future engravings of other placards will run about $8 each and I am still doing the pre war windshield drawings. I want to fit mine back to the plane to make sure it is right before I send out drawings.
As for all the pressings I was trying to do, I am stopping and passing any info I have to Josh. He does a REALLY nice job! I will be in touch for MY parts soon!


Hank

[Robert Lees]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs & wing tank placards

Josh, I've renamed the thread title a bit to hopefully spread the word.

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

I forgot to mention, if you want to get a nice consistant ink job, it would help; to make a proof block. A little double face tape on the bed will keep work from moving around while you ink it. Shim the work as needed.

RonC

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

I forgot to mention, if you want to get a nice consistant ink job, it would help; to make a proof block. A little double face tape on the bed will keep work from moving around while you ink it. Shim the work as needed.

RonC

Thanks, Ron. That will help with speed of production, too. Will heat help the letterpress ink dry faster?

Josh Brehm

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

hmmmm embossed for the older ships ; engraved plastic for the F-19s and up ; all these have been posted somewhere on the web site... ; I need a geek to show me what to do with all this stuff.... enjoy. I missed one and the Model l9 voltage regulator was a mistake....

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

I still have problems with this darn attachment stuff.... Here is the other embossed one . The others I just tossed in . I am shown working an Auction Block as an apprentice to Chuck Kreiner , he is in the green sweater and probably thinking "Won't this guy ever shut up!!!"

I got a five dollar bid and now 10

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

OH MAN! I forgot about the really late plastic engraved ones. At least those are EASY to copy.
What we REALLY need is a confirmed original of each type. Get them to Josh if they are embossed and to me if they are engraved. Making copies from an original is a lot easier than doing all the art work from photos, and the artwork can REALLY drive the cost up. Then we need to figure out which ones were used on which planes.
Next we need someone who can take all the silk screened ones.
Hank

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

WE at the Foundation ahve them all... I offered a long time ago to Moody and others. So I guess it is me and you Hank & Josh . e-mail me direct and I will set up a group e-mail for "placards & markings" There is a lot more too.... I have a lot of the 40 lb baggage ones NOS , will photo tommow